When you are looking at homes in the MLS (either from the MarketWatch books or your custom MLS search), there are several clues that can help you to identify that a property is a foreclosure.
- Anytime a property says AS-IS in the description – the odds are 95% or better that the home is a foreclosure.
- Ocwen.com is a foreclosure management site for VA foreclosures and other smaller banks. Anytime you see a comment mentioning Ocwen.com – you will know it is a foreclosure and most likely a VA foreclosure.
- HUD homes will often have verbiage in the description that say bid deadline is ______, or they will say “brokers may receive up to a 5% commission”, or sometimes they will say “HUD property 492-xxxxxxx”. SouthwestAlliance.com is their management site – so you might even see a reference sending you to the southwestalliance.com.
- The phrase, “Special Addendums Required” or something to that effect will either indicate a foreclosure or sometimes a relocation company.
- One other phrase to watch for is “Short Sale”. This is not a foreclosure…yet. What it means is the seller is going to ask the bank to take a loss on the sale of their home. The seller still owns the home, but at the price they need to sell it for – they will owe money at closing. Instead of them owing money – they ask the bank to take a short sale (a loss).
We have lots of experience in dealing with foreclosures and will consult with you on the best strategy for negotiating on each home.