The opportunity for great value presented by foreclosed real estate is unmatched in the housing market.
Foreclosures allow potential homeowners to purchase beautiful houses, condos, and land for as much as half off their market value.
This article will provide you with the basic knowledge needed to quickly find foreclosure listings online, as well as the top 3 foreclosure listing websites.
Foreclosure Listings 101 A house enters the foreclosure process when then homeowner is unable to keep up with the payments on their home loan or mortgage.
When this occurs, the lending bank takes possession of the home and attempts to quickly sell it to recoup the remaining loan amount.
Because the bank wants to sell the home quickly and is not attempting to turn a profit, it is often sold at a price which is far below market value.
The secret to finding these deals before other real estate investors is to know where they are listed.
How to Find Foreclosures for Free By far, the best place to look for foreclosed properties is to search online foreclosure listing websites.
As foreclosure rates continue to increase, so do the number of websites offering foreclosure listings.
While the quality of these sites vary, the majority of high quality sites will charge a monthly membership fee to access their listings.
A great way to test these sites before paying for a membership, is to sign up for a free, full access, trial membership.
These memberships allow you to browse high quality databases of foreclosed homes for free.
The best websites to start with are the "big 3" foreclosure services: Foreclosure.
com, which offers the worlds largest database with over 2.
4 million properties, RealtyTrac.
com, which offers a respectable 1.
5 million properties, and RealtyStore.
com, offering fewer listings but more tools for those new to foreclosures.
Follow the link below for a full review of each site and a side-by-side comparison.