HACKENSACK, N.J. — Joseph Licari and Danielle Block had a simple goal when they started house-hunting.“We were looking for a bargain,” said Licari, a 25-year-old civil engineer. “And the bargains were in bank-owned and foreclosed homes.”
They recently bought one of those properties, a small Cape Cod on a leafy street in New Milford, N.J., for $257,000, about 15 percent below its market value, based on its assessment and the prices of similar properties nearby.
Like Licari and Block, many buyers who hope to get a steal, or at least a deal, look at homes being sold by lenders who took possession after a foreclosure.
But bargain-hunters need to know that buying foreclosures — also called REOs, for “real estate owned” by a lender — can be different from buying other homes. The homes are frequently in bad shape, needing tens of thousands of dollars in renovations. They’re most often found in urban areas, and are much less common in more desirable towns.read more
