Foreclosures Information

One of the knock on effects caused by constricted credit in recent times, coupled with falling house prices and stricter lending criteria is an increase in distressed sales and Foreclosures.  A Foreclosure is where the lender asserts their legal right to take possession and liquidate the asset a loan is secured against.  In  the case of mortgages, this means selling the house used as security for the loan.  

Are Foreclosures Common? 

The Foreclosure process is not fast – usually a lender will work with the defaulting customer and try and arrange for the defaults to be remedied rather than foreclosing – however it is an increasing reality in many states, including Nevada.  A foreclosure is generally a last resort measure, where the lender is attempting to recover as much of the principal debt as possible.  In many cases however this is not possible as the market has often dropped to a point where sale prices are no longer sufficient to cover the outstanding debt.  For this reason Lenders will usually try and find alternatives such as Loan Modifications.  

In the event of a house being sold for less than the outstanding loan amount, the debt remains and must be satisfied through other means.  Foreclosure sales have become a lot more frequent since 2008.

Profiting from Foreclosures in Las Vegas Nevada

While foreclosures and distressed salesare difficult and unpleasant for many people, they do provide an excellent opportunity for investors to buy properties at highly discounted prices. Because these sales occur at times when the market has generally fallen, and the seller’s main motivation is to satisfy their debt rather than to profit greatly from the sale it is often possible to secure very reasonable prices on mortgagee sales.

As most foreclosure sales are by auction however a prospective purchaser needs to have their finance arranged in advance and have done any research they need to prior to making an auction bid – conditional offers are not possible in this environment.