FIND ME A DEAL ON A FORECLOSURE!
I usually only write one blog a month but after writing my most recent blog about the Sub-Prime Interest lock the government is proposing I decided to research more areas surrounding Atlanta to see the ratio of foreclosures by counties.
I always hear conversations about the person that just bought a 600K home for 400K. Sounds great doesn’t it? In reality it very rarely happens! In most cases the person is quoting you the asking price vs. what he paid for it. Or the best one I hear is someone saying they got a 600K home form 400K, it needs 200K but they can get it done for 100K. There’s more to these stories than you’re ever told.
I’m contacted every week by someone looking for a deal on a foreclosure. It’s understandable that everybody wants a deal on a home, but so far it’s been pretty hard for me to find plenty of foreclosure deals. I can find foreclosures but they are not deals!
However, I did find one this month. The buyer purchased this home for 225K which was about 25% less than the average home sold in the last 2 years in that subdivision. The home needs about 13K to 16K in cosmetic improvements and stripped appliances. This client has long term plans to live in the house. Thus making this a deal compared to the current market and county which was Cobb. The transaction took over 45 days from binding agreement to close!!
After doing some research I discovered why I’m not seeing all these foreclosures the media keeps talking about. I mainly work within Cobb and North Fulton County’s and these numbers tell my why I’m not seeing all those great foreclosure deals!
Below is the foreclosure rate per households in the following counties.
Cobb County - 1 in 597
Fulton County - 1 in 122 (Majority South Fulton)
Gwinnett County – 1 in 311
Paulding County - 1 in 164
Douglas County 1 in 260
Forsyth County 1 in 553
Cherokee County 1 in 396
DeKalb County 1 – 252
Rockdale County 1 in 207
Fayette County 1 in 368
So if you’re looking for a deal you might want to start in the counties with the most foreclosures. I want to make people aware that you have to do your homework when buying a foreclosed property. It’s very tricky and I recommend you hire a seasoned real estate agent to help you negotiate with the bank. It’s takes lots of patience and time to get foreclosure homes under contract and to the closing table! Banks are simply overwhelmed by foreclosure volume in general. They don’t pay any attention to the dates you want to close, etc. Be prepared to wait on all responses from the bank every step of the way. If you do your due diligence you may end up with some instant equity. If you don’t, your deal today will be a deal for someone else tomorrow. My dad used to say “figures don’t lie, liers figure”!
Call me I would love to discuss real estate opportunities!
