To follow up, a buyer wanted to write an offer on one of the few Grafton homes that had come up as bank owned and by the time we arranged to head out the next day, we were told there were 12 offers.

S,

I live and work and own investment property in the 23693 zip code and would be very surprised to find many foreclosures listed anywhere for this area. If there were, they would be scooped up. That is the Tabb - or lower part of York County. A foreclosure coming up in this area is pretty rare. There is still a good demand for reasonably priced homes here. Your best bed would be to focus on some neighborhoods that have a lot of inventory that has not moved (again..hard to find in Tabb) and try to negotiate there. Use the regular hud resources, newspapers and agents providing listings (contact me if you want to review prices here) but don't pay someone for a bogus list. Those ads that say '5 bedroom homes in York and Williamsburg for under $10,000 are baloney, you get the list and they are of the timeshares! You can keep your eye out for 23692 but may have better luck in 23690 or 23185.

S,

I would add a couple of other options, though they are really pre-foreclosures. Check the classified section of the major newspaper in your area to those properties that have a date set for sale at the County Court. If your local situation is similar to Alexandria's, most of these properties won't get sold on the courthouse steps as the loan amount due is greater than the current value of the property, so they will almost certainly get assigned to an agent and get into the MLS system in the coming weeks.

Or go to the land records department for your city/county and search for new proceedings being filed. Locally, I go to the Alexandria City courthouse, use the free computer system that is available to anyone and search for Substitute Trustee filings, which normally happens at the very beginning of the foreclosure process. Some of these filings will be resolved by the owner, but many will not and you will have a heads up about the homes that will be coming through the foreclosure pipeling, giving you more time to do your research and determine which one is of interest to you.

Hope this helps!

S,

Most any realtor could provide you with a list of foreclosures. Call a local company and ask to speak to someone who specializes in this area and see what you come up with. I hope that helps.

Cameron Piper

Hey "S"

I like to go through HUD's (the Department of Housing and Urban Development) website. Here is a link to their site. Also I heard about foreclosures.com but I think you have to sign up although I don't think it costs anything. I hope that helped.

Sincerely,

Miguel Ogas, REALTOR
Century 21 Gold Key REALTORS http://www.miguelogas.com
(540) 420-5670