We work with a lot of military home buyers - many who have been looking around Santee, Clairemont, Imperial Beach, Chula Vista, and some other areas with many foreclosures. The most important thing to know about foreclosures is that the bank has a property that no one has paid on for many months. The bank is losing money, and while the house is sitting vacant, the bank is running the risk of vandals or anyone else harming the house, thus further diminishing the value. Successful banks are foreclosing on properties and listing the homes at a price to get the maximum amount of offers within the first seven to fourteen days. They are often listing the homes so low that they are creating bidding wars. The best thing you can do is have an agent set you up on an automatic home search, and watch the inventory. Know what you are looking for, know what you can afford to spend, and when the right property comes onto the market - be prepared to make a good offer. A home purchase is one of the biggest investments you will ever make.If you have any questions, see our site http://www.mewbornteam.com. We are always happy to answer questions.

Real estate is local. I specialize in North County which may be a little different than Santee and definitely different than El Dorado Hills. All of our bank owned properties (foreclosures) have mutliple offers. My lowest was today with only 4 offers. The house came on the market Friday before the holiday weekend and had an offer accepted today. The most that I've been successful with my client on was 17 offers. That's closing tomorrow! The market below $400k is red hot with lots of competition. So, it's not laborious but it is competitive and requires quick action. Most banks will require the house to be on the market 3-7 days before considering offers and almost all sell for more than the asking price - sometimes significantly more. So, work with a buyer's agent who is looking out for your best interests and jump in there. If you stay away from foreclosures you'll have much less inventory to choose from too. Good luck to you!

Well that depends on which kind of foreclosure we area talking about... I would say that getting a bank repo normally only takes one week to get into contract. If it is a short sale, one that is still owned by the seller in the foreclosure process it can takes 90-120 days. Today most of the banks are moving properties and making deals on the properties that are fully owned by them. Most repo listing agents will tell the buyer agent whether or not there are offers on the table before we write them one. I actually had the experience of writing an offer on a repo that already had 6 offers on the table. I advised my buyer that he should probably give them a full price offer and would you know it we were the highest bidder and closed the deal 30 days later. I would say buy the house that best suits your needs and if it is already bank owned take a chance on it. If you love a short sale have a conversation with the listing agent and decide accordingly. Happy house hunting!