Foreclosures: Profiting from Your Pain
I’m generally not one for a sensationalist piece, but this one is a bit interesting. Apparently this guy is scouring the country for foreclosed homes, waiting until the bank buys the home (nullifying any liens on the property), and swooping in to take them off the bank’s hands, who are usually all to happy to get rid of their new problem.
No doubt there are countless investors who are doing the same thing all across America. What’s interesting is how easily he is able to do it. He signed up for a $49 a month plan to access the MLS, does his own research and using his own line of credit. By using comparison data, he finds houses that are grossly under-priced due to foreclosure and scoops them up. No emotion, no attachment to any individual home, just pure numbers.
Granted, you have to have (1) be able to get credit and (2) have a lot of time on your hands to find the deals and do the research, but nonetheless it appears that not everyone is hurt by the current market.
As a side note, AOL seems to pitch this guy as an unfeeling opportunist who is profiting from other people’s pain, which is of course nonsense. The guy didn’t cause the foreclosure, nor did he help it along in any way whatsoever. He is just putting himself in the right place at the right time.
