So how do I buy a foreclosure? I'm still interested

Here's the deal:

If you really want to buy a foreclosure, and have the guts and the money, vision and heart, you can.

Plan to look and look and look to find the stuff that is good. Most of it is pretty horrifying, or overpriced. Or both.

And have a very strong credit score and a good mortgage broker.


Oh, and you need a good real estate agent. One willing to bring you through stinky and perhaps dangerous places. And then maybe get paid 2.5% of $9,000 for all of this work. Remember --we're paid on commission and 2.5% is a pretty typical payout to a buyer's agent. On $9,000, that's $225... and that's before my boss takes her cut. At those commissions, it's a hard thing for a realtor to do. We spend hours working on purchase agreements, hours searching for property, and worst of all, every hour we spend working on a deal that will pay $225 is every hour we are NOT working on bigger and better things.