Foreclosures homes companies wha'ts the real deal?

Question

hi everyone,

since the market is down maybe a lot of things have changed. so i found out about 2 companies that have foreclosures home for sale. they are www.bargainnetwork. i found them on craiglist.com. when i called they told me that my mortgage will be based on what is owed on the house, even with bad credit, and there wont be any down payment. it seems too good to be true. and there's refundable fee in case you don't find a house that you like. so how do i find out if they legit or not? does any of you had any experience with any of these companies? i don't know how the foreclosure thing work. can you guys tell me more about it. i'm new to that web. unfortunately there's not an easy way to thank each you. so thanks in advance

Answer 1

Looking at your question, you state that these sites have forclosure homes for sale.  They really just list them, not own them.  In most cases, they are owned by the bank and these companies make money by identifying which houses are bank or government owned, and making you pay to find out the details of the listing.  You can take them out of the loop and help yourself out directly.  Use a listing such as the one from http://www.bargain.com/homes/ that you listed, or http://foreclosure.com that I listed and they will identify the forclosed homes.  To get the information that they won't show you for free, you need a free real estate search engine such as http://www.remax.com/.  At the free site, put in the price range that you found at the bargain or forclosure site and you will get the detailed information that you are looking for.  

If you see a house that you like, what you have to pay to get it is based upon what the lender will accept.  If you are a poor credit risk, they will not likely lend you money to purchase it because they probably ended up getting it back by lending to a poor credit risk.  They way that you can find out is to get yourself a buyers representative real estate agent and get pre-qualified from a lender for the amount of money that you are looking to borrow.  That way, when you find the house that you want, all you need to do is have your buyer representative approach your seller representative with a reasonable offer, backed up by a prequalification letter (known as a pre-qual) and you will at least know whether or not the seller will accept your terms.

Good luck, it really is as easy as it seems! (at least to me)