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Foreclosed Homes: For Real Estate Investors

By
Real Estate Agent with Your Castle Real Estate

As investors we face a number of very real and very scary challenges. Making sense of this market is no mean feat and one has to be very careful with his or her investment. However, we usually think about danger as financial. Unfortunately, on rare occasion it can be even worse than that. The majority of the homes investors are buying these days are vacant and once in a while people break in and live in these properties illegally.  The last thing you want to do is walk in on someone camped out in a house, perhaps conducting illegal an activity.      This is no joke, you want to be HEARD when you walk into a property that is supposed to vacant. So make a lot of noise when you're at the front door. I always knock loudly before entering.  Stomp your feet a little. Yell "Hello!" a couple of times. When you start walking down into the basement repeat the process.  The goal is to have whoever is inside hear you and not panic and do something stupid.  I hope you never need this advice, but keep it in mind the next time you visit a foreclosed home.

 

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Tracy Miller
Canton, MS
S. S. Specialist

Randy, I enjoyed reading your blog.  You really provided some valuable information here.  As a matter of fact, reading your blog made me recall an incident when I was working with a novice investor on a short sale property.  When the investor went by the abandoned house, he discovered a homeless man had set up camp inside the home.  Unfortunately, the homeless man was very large in size (I believe around 6'3) and he refused to leave.  I can't remember exactly how my client got him to leave.  I think he had to get the police involved.  But, any way, you're so right.  Before entering a presumably vacant house, we should really make a lot of noise to help give warning that we're coming inside.

Nov 18, 2008 06:30 AM