Many investors understand that there are certain risks involved with the purchase of a real estate foreclosure, but often do a risk/benefit calculation prior to making a particular offer in order to determine a positive and advantageous outcome. Ultimately each investor purchase of a real estate foreclosure is profit-driven and therefore will always consist of varying degrees of risk. So If careful consideration is given to this is a type of real estate investment, it will most likely be best for most people. Of course there are other types of real estate that may also good for investment, such as commercial property types, but residential property foreclosures are most plentiful in terms of individual units.
All properties in foreclosure are not necessarily good for for real estate investing due to insufficient equity, difficulty in reselling (such as vacant land), and special-use properties (zoned for one use only such as SROs & Landmark properties in New York City), among a number of other properties in foreclosure. It is not reasonable to assume that because the price seems unbeatable that the deal is going to be sensible for reasons mentioned already, so in order to be a prudent property foreclosure investor it is an absolute must that you get an abstract search done against the property to determine legal occupancy, zoning, and existing liens.
Buying and holding foreclosure property requires a different approach all together simply because you'll be expecting to hold it for a very long time while the value of the property appreciates in value. This requires someone that is very savvy when making these types of purchases or extremely lucky for the most part. More importantly however, it involves someone who has the patience and tenacity to hold on to their investments for a long period of time. These investments can provide a nice retirement for the right investor as well as funds at the proper time for the weddings of children or to pay for college. All excellent reasons to make this kind of investments but as stated earlier, more thought and skill must be put into this type of foreclosure property investment purchase.
Rental properties are another excellent way to make money for those who are willing to deal with a long-term property investment. After completing necessary repairs and any needed refurbishing, the investor actually becomes a landlord and by renting the premises to suitable tenants and collect money each month. The objective here is to have someone else (the tenant) contribute to the mortgage until the property is paid for and/or at a much later date at which point the investor will receive total profit from the endeavor. Obviously, there are some expenses along the way that is involved in keeping propertie(s) up to date and rental units in demand, but the benefits of this particular type of investment are almost undeniable for the right investor.
Of course there are high-risk real estate ventures for those that need a little excitement in their lives. One of the more common high-risk investments would be pre-construction real estate investing. With this form of investment the investor is actually 'betting' that the future property will sell for a higher price than the investor paid once the building is complete. Although there are seldom any foreclosure properties available for sale in the pre-construction departments of construction lenders, on occasion a builder may run into financial problems and the bank will have no other way out but to foreclose and offer the pre-construction foreclosure property for sale to the public.
Whether your investment needs are low-risk, high-risk, or somewhere in between there is quite likely a style of real estate investment that will be appropriate for your specific investment needs with the purchase of a foreclosure property simply because in today's real estate environment there are a record number of properties held by banks and they must sell them sooner or later. If you do not find a foreclosure property that will make a suitable real estate investment to fit plans then do not despair there is ample time and when the right one comes along you'll know it's right for you.