Real Estate Information Archive

When you begin hunting for a Charlotte area home, you will find all kinds of low cost bargains along the way. If price is a key factor for your real estate investment, then you might want to consider the value of HUD foreclosures. These distressed or bank owned properties are widely available under the current market conditions and as a Real Estate Agent, I have all the tools to help you find a Charlotte Foreclosed Home.

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Foreclosure No Longer Means its an Ugly Home!

Foreclosures are properties that have been taken over by the bank because the owners were unable to continue making payments on the property. In the past, foreclosed homes were often owned by those in financial distress and likely to have been empty for some time before being sold. In the current housing market, that trend is reversing and distressed homes are usually in as good of condition as any other home on the market!

As a buyer, you gain all the benefits of buying a distressed property, without the hassle of having to reinvest large amounts of money to move in!

Last week i mentioned that I wanted to help others in the Charlotte area Find Foreclosures in Charlotte. Today, I wanted to start from scratch and see if I can understand all the basics that surround the foreclosure process.

What is a Foreclosure?

Foreclosure is the legal process in which a lender or mortgage company takes legal ownership of the property that was used to secure a loan. Foreclosure is usually the result of the property owner, or person who secured the loan, failing to make the mortgage payments. The lender will ultimately earn a Decree of Foreclosure, which is a court order that then gives the lender the right to sell the property, to repay the outstanding debt.

What Is a Pre-Foreclosure?

After a Homeowner defaults, or fails to make the payments on a their mortgage loan, the lender must file a NOD, or Notice of Default in the county where the property is located. In Charlotte, that would be Mecklenburg County. This is also published in local newspapers, announcing the auction of the property.

The period of time between the NOD being published and the actual auction date of the property, is known as the Pre Foreclosure period. Many prospective buyers will contact the lender directly during the NOD, and try to secure the property before it goes to auction.

How is Foreclosed Property Sold?

If the property goes to full foreclosure, it will be sold at a public auction, usually at the same courthouse where the NOD was filed. Like all auctions, the foreclosure auctions usually draw large groups of investors, who will competitively bid on the foreclosure property.

As a Realtor in Charlotte, I stay up to date on all the news and happenings in the Charlotte housing market! One of the latest trends in the area surrounds Charlotte foreclosed homes, and the large number of people looking for foreclosure information. Realtors have tools to see all new foreclosures, but what about people like yourself? How do you get your information?

Today, I thought I would head out into the web and see what type of info is available for everyone not in the industry.

Finding Charlotte Foreclosure Lists

One of the first things that jumped at me today, is that almost all of the top search results were commercial businesses, selling foreclosure lists! What happened to the Charlotte Realtors like myself? Why are we not being referred from search engines? After all, we are the local experts when it comes to real estate!

Looking around some of the websites in my network of local Realtors, I saw that many have great information about foreclosures in Charlotte, but none were in the search results.

Starting this week, I am going to help you understand foreclosures, Short Sales, REO's and all the ins and outs of the Charlotte Home Foreclosure market, from a realtors perspective!

Charlotte Foreclosure Lists to Your inbox!

If you want to follow along with all of us, go ahead and sign on to get Charlotte Foreclosure Lists by email. Make sure you put "Foreclosures" in the comment box! I am not going to spam you with email, promise! :-) The lists will however, help you understand the market a bit better and maybe get your feet wet in the Charlotte Foreclosure Homes Market.

What Say You? Do You Follow Foreclosures in Charlotte? Comments are welcomed and encouraged.

Have a Great Day,

Buddy Frey