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Foreclosures seem to be hitting record numbers each month. The conversion of low-payment introductory mortgages to higher fixed rate plans, plus a sluggish economy, result in higher mortgage payments that many people simply cannot afford.
While this is unfortunate for many homeowners, it can be a financial opportunity for others. TopConsumerReviews.com reviews the best Foreclosure Listings services available today.
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Foreclosed properties are at an all-time high. In the last few years, millions of people took advantage of mortgage programs with fantastic low introductory monthly payments. Unfortunately, many of those programs were set to automatically convert into higher payments within just a few years. As this has happened, many homeowners have found themselves unable to meet the new, higher payments. They find
themselves
facing foreclosure.
However this also presents a tremendous financial opportunity for those people looking to find a good deal on a property. Whether you're looking for a house for yourself, or an investment property that you can rent or sell, homes in foreclosure or pre-foreclosure can be purchased at a substantial discount - sometimes at savings of 50% or more off market value. Plus, by intervening you can help a family
out of a looming financial
crisis, and possible bankruptcy, by giving them an opportunity to find a good home with a more affordable house payment.
Where can you find properties that are in, or beginning the process of, foreclosure? There are a number of services available to help you do just that. Some are truly remarkable in the information they provide - and others will leave you wanting for more.
There are a variety of factors to consider when looking for a foreclosure listings service. Some of these include:
• Number of properties listed. You want to have a good selection of homes to review.
• Ease of use. You want a listing service to take advantage of the latest technology, to make your job easier.
• Cost. You want to get good value for your money.
TopConsumerReviews.com has reviewed and ranked the best Foreclosure listing services available today. We hope you find these reviews helpful in finding your next property!
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"Results show...that foreclosed properties average 22% less than typical properties."
- The Federal Reserve Bank, on the typical cost savings when buying a foreclosed property
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Cost:
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Free 7-day trial
$39.80 per month thereafter (price drops to $24.90/month with a 1-year subscription)
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The services offered by Foreclosure represent a tremendous value for your money. With over 1.5 million property listings available, state-of-the-art features that make finding and previewing those properties very easy, and a complete Training and Learning Center, Foreclosure earns our highest marks.
To start with, a property listings service should deliver a large and up-to-date inventory of properties. To its credit, Foreclosure offers over 1.5 million property listings, including foreclosures, pre-foreclosures,
sheriff sales, bankruptcies, FSBO's (For Sale By Owner), and Tax Liens. The database is updated twice a day, every day. This gives you a wide, up-to-date selection of properties
to choose from.
Next, Foreclosure makes it easy for you to find and locate the homes you're interested in. Foreclosure rises above their competition by offering easy-to-use search options. You can hunt for homes by zip code, city, price range, number of bedrooms, number of bathrooms, or specific listing id if you have one. The results are shown to you in a list accompanied with an aerial
map of the properties. The mapping function is impressive and graphically shows you where the houses are in a community. For more detailed information, you simply click on the house listing and you are shown the complete information for the home, including address, square footage, property description, and even a photo of the residence.
But that's just the tip of the iceberg. Want to know community information for the property you're looking at? School information - grade school, middle school, and high schools for the home? How about forecasted monthly payments? It's all just one click away, including contact information for each particular house.
In addition to the property listing information, Foreclosure gives you access to a host of training materials so you can be as successful as possible. They constantly schedule "webinars" where you can watch, listen, and participate in live training opportunities. If you can't make the scheduled time, Foreclosure offers "on-demand" webinars that
you can watch
and listen to whenever you want - on your schedule. They have a variety of articles, ebooks, calculators, and even offer one-on-one coaching to make sure you're making the most out of your opportunities.
Foreclosure offers a free 1-week trial period for you to use their services. There's no limitation on what you get during that free trial; everything that is available to paid members is yours too. If you decide to continue with the service after the seven days, you are billed $39.80/month (if you opt for a 12-month subscription, the price drops to $24.90/month). The
free trial is really a great way to try the service with no cost or obligation. If you take advantage of what Foreclosure has to offer, the price is very reasonable and you can easily cancel the service at any time.
Foreclosure delivers everything you could want in a property listing service. A large and constantly updated database, multiple search options with state-of-the-art property listings, plus in-depth training materials to help you succeed, all combine to earn Foreclosure our highest rating.
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Cost:
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First week free
$49.95 / month thereafter
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Alexis McGee is the co-founder of this site and brings 20 years of real estate industry experience to the table. Foreclosures is laid out in a professional and insightful manner that allows the user to really get a feel for the foreclosure market.
This site is not cheap, but the resources are incredible. The cost is $49.95 a month - easily the most expensive site in our review. There is a seven day free trial, the caveat being that you still have to put in your credit card information and cancel within seven days so the card is not charged the $49.95.
However, for that monthly fee you have access to over 5 million property listings - three times as many as its closest competitor. Foreclosures also offers a huge amount of helpful information, including how-to guides, training programs, webinars, hands-on tutoring, a newsletter, and more.
Customer Service can be reached via email, two phone numbers, fax, and a mailing address. When contacted, the staff was well-informed and helpful in answering our questions.
Foreclosures is truly a complete foreclosure listings service. If you can afford the higher monthly fee, you will definitely get your money out of this service.
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Cost:
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First week free
$49.95 / month thereafter
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Realty Trac is a trusted, comprehensive and convenient marketplace for homeowners, investors and real estate professionals. The site offers almost a million property listings to its members, and a variety of additional materials to members and visitors.
Realty Trac offers its members listings of homes that include pre-foreclosures, foreclosure auctions, bank owned foreclosure, for sale by owner, resales, and new home listings. The site offers a one week free trial with a submission of a valid credit card. After one week, if the subscription isn't canceled, the card will be charged $49.95 a month. Like the higher-rated Foreclosure
service, Realty Trac offers a mapping feature to members, showing available properties in an overhead presentation. The map displays locations of homes that are pre-foreclosures, auctions, bank owned, government owned, for sale by owner, resale or new homes in an easy to decipher manner.
Realty Trac also has a helpful learning page that is categorized into different sections. With this you can easily find quick answers to a variety of subjects. Also available for purchase are ebooks, coaching, seminars, audios, videos, manuals, and mortgage services. Customer support is knowledgeable and can be reached via email, live chat, mail and fax.
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Cost:
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$39.95 one-time fee
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Foreclosure Data is a no-frills service with a database of over a million properties and numerous helpful links. It is easy to navigate and all the services are displayed in a convenient layout.
On the homepage of the site there is a property search. A user name and an email address have to be submitted in order to view the properties.
All the services can be accessed through a one time membership fee of $39.95. If you're not pleased with the service, the entire fee is refundable within the first eight weeks of purchase. However, once you're a member, you have access to over 1.2 million property listings. The listings are nationwide and updated daily. The site displays both bank and government foreclosures.
The site offers a sample listing of foreclosed properties - but the pertinent information, such as loan amount, assessed value, address and the specifications on the home - is not available until a membership has been purchased.
Another feature of this site is that it includes a step by step process that describes how to go through the purchase of foreclosed properties. There is also a series of financial calculators to help you analyze the benefits of buying a particular home.
Unfortunately, the only way to contact Foreclosure Data is through email. There is no phone number for any questions.
A Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) page and more customer support options, would benefit Foreclosure Data greatly. Still, for a one-time fee, this site offers a good option for your dollar.
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Cost:
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$39.50 one-time fee
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Foreclosure Pass is an easy website to navigate. The home page does a good job previewing the services offered. The homepage does a great job of offering enough items to wet one's curiosity to surf the rest of the site. Our biggest gripe is the number of home listings - 300,000 - is less than 25% of those offered by the top services in our review.
The website cost is a one time fee of $39.50, which represents a lifetime membership. One attractive feature of the website is that it allows users to key in a zip code to see how many foreclosed homes are in the given area. The actual property addresses are not given, but the price and description of the home is presented.
Once you purchase a membership, you then have access to the member's only area. The member's area offers further information to help members understand the foreclosure market, with immediate access to information designed to help you succeed at buying and selling houses at auctions.
Foreclosure Pass backs their lifetime membership with a 100% satisfaction guarantee, good for the first 8 weeks of purchase. Unfortunately, like the other one-time fee site in our review, customer service is only offered by email- there are no phone numbers available.
Although we enjoyed the layout and navigation that this site offers, you can receive far more property listings for the same or less cost with our top-rated selections.
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Cost:
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First week free
$39.80 / month thereafter
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Realty Store has an efficient website that is pleasing to the eye. The site offers nearly 500,000 property listings that are in different stages of the foreclosure process. Unfortunately, this is less than one-third of the listings available in our top-rated selections.
Realty Store has listings of bank foreclosures, hud homes, pre-foreclosures, and land auctions. The site has a one week trial membership available for $1.00. This allows the user full access for 7 days. The full membership fee is $39.80 a month. If the trial membership is not canceled the full membership will be automatically charged.
Realty Store offers a couple of nice features to supplement its property listings. A ten chapter overview of the foreclosure process and a glossary of terms is a valuable tool for members and visitors of this site. Also, Realty Store provides convenient options for financing through their lending partners if that is a need.
Customer service prefers to be contacted by email, although a phone number is provided if the email is not responded to within twenty four hours. Realty Store is a member of the Better Business Bureau.
Although the website is clean and easy to use, the site doesn't compare to the top-rated services. For the money we'd expect a much larger selection of properties and better supplemental information.
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Foreclosures in the News
Foreclosures made up 20 pct. of home sales in 3Q
Foreclosures made up 20 pct. of home sales in 3Q Associated Press Copyright 2012 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Updated 01:39 a.m., Thursday, January 26, 2012 LOS ANGELES (AP) — Foreclosures made up a smaller slice of all U.S. homes sold in last year's third quarter, as banks delayed placing properties for sale ...
Publ.Date : Fri, 27 Jan 2012 17:21:44 -0800
Foreclosures on the rise
HERALDâSTAFFâWRITER While Real Estate has made a slight improvement, it is still not where it was several years ago before the market crashed.
Publ.Date : Thu, 02 Feb 2012 23:41:26 -0800
Foreclosures made up 20 percent of home sales in third quarter
LOS ANGELES -- Foreclosures made up a smaller slice of all U.S. homes sold in last year's third quarter, as banks delayed placing properties for sale and home sales slowed.
Publ.Date : Thu, 26 Jan 2012 20:14:48 -0800
Report: Mass. foreclosures fell 30 percent in 2011
Bay State foreclosures fell by more than 30 percent last year as lenders slowed the pace of home takings, a real...
Publ.Date : Tue, 31 Jan 2012 07:24:51 -0800
Foreclosures may be down, but NYC homeowners are still on shaky ground
If you think New York City has closed the door on its foreclosure problems, think again. While foreclosures are down, the rate of new mortgage defaults, a precursor to foreclosures, is “disturbingly high,” according to a new report from Neighborhood Economic Development Advocacy Project (NEDAP).
Publ.Date : Mon, 30 Jan 2012 15:01:46 -0800
Foreclosures in Monroe plummet
Monroe County saw a dramatic drop in new foreclosure filings last year — a hopeful glimmer of a slowdown. Meanwhile, a county-wide program launched in 2011 may have helped those in foreclosure save their homes.
Publ.Date : Thu, 02 Feb 2012 21:11:23 -0800
Miami Foreclosures Investing Right
When it comes to using a property for a lucrative investment, the first thing that comes to your mind is to purchase one at a low price and maximize the profit out of it.
Publ.Date : Fri, 03 Feb 2012 07:53:14 -0800
Foreclosures down 25 percent in Colorado in 2011
New foreclosure filings were down 25 percent in Colorado during 2011, dropping to the lowest annual total reported since 2006, according to the Colorado Division of Housing.
Publ.Date : Wed, 01 Feb 2012 06:01:40 -0800
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