Belt Auction

What is the best and cheapest way to buy a home in this market?

I have 200000 us in cash and wish to buy a condo for cash in los angeles. How does someone get the best deal. By auction.bank reposseions.short sales,etc.

Public Comments

1. easy; seriously; contact each county treasury dept in CA [born in LA county!] and ask when their 2009 REAL ESTATE property tax foreclosure sale is. u can buy houses, with no mortgages, for a few thousand $.
2. You will need to first get a newspaper and or housing advertisements and look through them. Find houses that you might like to buy within or slightly above your price range, and start making phone calls. With the economy suffering right now, you should be able to find a seller willing to work with you. You should also look into housing auctions. You might need to either contact banks or city hall to find them. I am not completely sure about that. But when you do find them, go and see what is available. You might be surprised with your options.
3. Why would any sane individual want to pay all cash for a house,condo or any real estate? You are house rich and money poor. All your money is tied up in your house and you lose a few of the tax benefits of obtaining a mortgage. If you would have an emergency, it would take a minimum of 3-4 weeks to qualify for and get a mortgage to see any money what so ever out of your free and clear house. Then the lender and closing officer is gonna charge you fees and points to get your money, further you are gonna be limited as to what a lender will allow you to borrow against your house. If you paid the very minimum of 10% down on a house with a selling price of $200,000 that is $20,000. Now you have $180,000 in the bank for your personal use when ever and however you want to use it. Further you will not have to qualify to get your own money and be limited to the amount you might want to use. Evening paying 20% down would still leave you with $160,000 in the bank. You can use this money for investments and draw interest on these funds The good thing about it is that you have your house as well as money in the ban. You have accomplished your goal of purchasing a home. Yes you will have monthly payments and yes you will be charged interest on the money you borrow, but then the interest you pay is tax deductible as well Check with your tax consultant for all tax matters as well as an attorney for all legal matters. There are lots of cheap ways to purchase property, but you need to educate yourself to know these methods and understand how they work. If you are interested you should purchase books on how to buy foreclosures and flipping properties or somewhere in those lines. There are plenty of such books at the book stores. You might even find a few at the public library. There are pre-foreclosure that are cheap, probate properties as well as other distressed properties. I hope this has been of some use to you, good luck. "FIGHT ON"