Foreclosure Investing Is A Smart Investment Strategy

Foreclosure investing is a kind of real estate investment. It is one of the greatest investment options as far as returns on investments are concerned. Foreclosure investing opportunities are normally created when homeowners default on monthly installment payments and the bank confiscates their property. The property is then sold at a foreclosure auction. Foreclosure investing opportunities are also available when a homeowner tries to sell the property immediately to the ready buyers, before the foreclosure is announced. Information about such auctions is readily available on the Internet. You can use the information to invest in properties that have the potential to maximize your investment returns, in the next few years.

It is a Buyer's Market

The foreclosure investing market is often called a buyer's market because buyers are in a better position to negotiate the price of the property and other related terms and conditions in a deal. A homeowner, who has not made timely payment towards a mortgage loan, is usually aware of the fact that the property will be confiscated and he will not be able to profit from the sale proceeds. To avoid foreclosure, homeowners try to sell their property and use the proceeds for applying for new mortgage loans or buying new properties. Generally, owners who want to avoid the impending foreclosure have only 60 to 90 days to sell the property, before it is evaluated at a public trustee sale. According to certain state laws, homeowners are even given the option to reclaim their property within 360 days. Homeowners, who do not use this option, if available, will not be able to stop the lenders from foreclosing the properties and eventually selling them at a public auction.

Foreclosure investing is a cheap and low risk investment option

Foreclosure investing in properties is probably the least expensive way of maximizing your investment returns. If you conduct a thorough research, you can easily identify and buy properties at very reasonable prices. In the past, there have been foreclosure investing properties that were sold at discounts as high as sixty to eighty cents to a dollar. The foreclosure investing market is considered a low risk one, since land is a scarce resource. The value of the land will categorically rise, even if the real estate market witnesses a downtrend.

Other Foreclosure Investing Benefits

There is no collapse of foreclosure investing and properties in the real estate market. In order to buy a foreclosure investing property, you may not even have to apply for a bank loan. You just need to identify a suitable buyer, who is willing to pay the right price. Foreclosure investing properties are either sold at auctions or the buyer sells it directly.

As compared to the regular real estate market, the foreclosure investing properties market has a fewer investors. This makes it a lot easier to find and buy properties below the existent market rates. It is anticipated that the foreclosure investing properties market is set to grow at a steady pace in the next few years. Foreclosure investing thus made is worth all the initial effort and patience applied. The foreclosure investing market offers real value on the money spent and re-evaluation of the property always reveals that the price paid was well below the existent market value.

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Mortgage Rates Defy Expectations

The 30 year rate fell from 5.07 to 5.06 this week. This is the 3rd week in a row where interest rates have either fallen or stayed flat.

The 15 year rate stayed flat at 4.39. The 5 and 1 year arms were mixed with the 5 year arm falling slightly from 4.03 to 4.00 and the 1 year arm rose from 4.22 to 4.25. Below are rates from the weeks from Apr 01, 2010 to Apr 29, 2010 and rates from October 15th (6 months ago).

Apr 29, 2010
30-fixed 5.06 15-fixed 4.39 5 ARM 4.00 1 ARM 4.25

Apr 22, 2010
30-fixed 5.07 15-fixed 4.39 5 ARM 4.03 1 ARM 4.22

Apr 15, 2010
30-fixed 5.07 15-fixed 4.40 5 ARM 4.08 1 ARM 4.13

Apr 08, 2010
30-fixed 5.21 15-fixed 4.52 5 ARM 4.25 1 ARM 4.14

Apr 01, 2010
30-fixed 5.08 15-fixed 4.39 5 ARM 4.10 1 ARM 4.05

Oct 15, 2009
30-fixed 4.92 15-fixed 4.37 5 ARM 4.38 1 ARM 4.60

So the market has made me a liar. I thought we were going to see some volatility in interest rates over the month of April. Instead rates have stayed remarkably flat. Besides the week of April 8th mortgage rates stayed between 5.06 and 5.08. At 5.06 we are also near 4.93 which is the lowest mortgage rate seen thus far in 2010. This is kind of surprising since we have been expecting to see rates increase over the last month.

So rates are one thing but it's also informative to see actual mortgage payments. We took today's rates and using our mortgage calculator we determined the rate for a 200k mortgage. We also did the same thing with rates from April, 15 2010 and rates from October, 15 2009.

Apr 29
30-year $1080.98
15-year $1518.76
5-year ARM $954.83
1-year ARM $983.87

Apr 15
30-year $1082.21
15-year $1519.78
5-year ARM $964.07
1-year ARM $969.88

Oct 15
30-year $1063.88
15-year $1516.73
5-year ARM $999.16
1-year ARM $1025.28

So as we can a mortgage payment today is pretty similar to what we saw 2 weeks ago. In fact mortgage payments only decreased by 11/100 of one percent.

So what is going to happen moving forward? It's hard to tell. The predications that the government not putting resources into buying mortgage backed securities could steal lead to more up and down fluctuations in mortgage rates but we have certainly not seen that this month.

Overall I think that rates are either going to stay roughly flat or rise drastically. There is simply not that much room for them to fall. Rates are currently 5.06. The lowest they have even been is 4.71 (which we saw in 2009) and the highest was above 15 percent. So what is our advice? Basically if you are planning on getting a loan I would do it sooner rather than later. Also I would lean for a 30 year rate instead of an arm because we expect rates to be higher in 1 to 5 years than they are today.

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