I’m getting ready to move to one of the spendiest areas in the nation next year (DC) and we will be living there for 4 years so my wife and I are planning on buying a house as soon as we get there. With the market in a nosedive we think we will be in a pretty good position to get a decent house at a hopefully reasonable price. I’m hoping that we can take advantage of the (reportedly) large number of forclosures out there and or firesales to make this happen. I’ve never owned a home before (but my wife has) so I’m trying to plan ahead by starting a year early on the lernin’.
Are foreclosures listed on the web? Newpaper?
Is the purchasing process different than a regular situation?
Is this a way to save money or am I grossly misinformed??
Is this a buyers market right now?
Is the market predicted to continue to tumble? ie If I buy a house next year is it likely to depreciate at current rates?
Any other tips you may have would be great too.
Thanks!
I don’t know if my information is at all useful being from a different country 
But in Australia if a bank has forclosed on a property and is then selling to recover their loan, advertising for the sale/auction will generally be clearly marked as being a “mortgage in possession” sale. I presume it is under the idea that you will get more bidders interested if they think they can get a bargain because of it.
You can do a web search for foreclosures. I know that our large realty company lists foreclosures along with all the other listings but there is a phrase in the listing that reads “one year right of redemption applies” which indicates a foreclosure. A foreclosure isn’t always a steal because the bank wants to get its money. So let’s say a house worth 300,000 is in foreclosure - the owners may owe the full 300,000 or something close to it so the list price will most likely be close to 300,000. The other thing the remember is that the owner upon whom the bank is foreclosing technically has some time to come up with the money to get the house back (even after you’ve bought it) - at least, that’s how it works in my state. However, I think it’s pretty unlikely to happen.
You aren’t going to get a huge steal for yourself. Banks aren’t stupid or desperate and there is stiff competition for many of these houses causing the market price to be exactly what it should be based on the circumstances. People that do well on foreclosed homes are often investors that take the typical 5% - 20% discount over similar homes that are being sold in a more traditional manner and turn around and sell them themselves maybe after doing some fixing up.
If it is an auction, those provide some special complications and risks. My FIL buys houses at auction and has for years. You often only get a brief period on two to look the house over and then bid. If you win, you have to hand over a check for the full amount of the house right then. It isn’t a game for amateurs.
Dunno about DC, but in my state, foreclosure sales are posted on a bulletin board in the courthouse of the county where the land is located, and published in a local paper under “Legal Ads” in the classified section. The sale notice will contain the name of the attorney handling the sale, and you can probably get more info, or even arrange a walk through by calling him before the sale date.
Ours our listed in the paper. Most of these houses aren’t in the greatest shape. Lets face it, people aren’t thrilled when they lose their houses and some have a lot of damage. Some of these houses have been neglected for a very long time.
For a lot of these, you need to have cash in hand (well, a certified check), meaning that there’s no way in hell to go through a traditional mortgage closing process.