Anecdotes

I was talking to another realtor in my office a couple weeks ago. One of her clients is trading up her property for another in an upscale area of Marin county. According to this realtor, her client said the house in Marin was originally listed for $12 million, then the price dropped to $9 million. The house finally ended up in foreclosure at which point her client bought it for $4 million. My colleague and I both wished we had $4 million...

Word of advice. If you have any equity in your home, consider selling before foreclosure. Banks don't care about your equity, only recovering their loan.


Referral
I got a referral last week from a mortgage broker. It was a gentleman interested in buying foreclosures and flipping properties. Curious, I gave him a call. I learned he has $300K to start, has worked with around 20 realtors already, and has done real estate deals all over the world but has never owned real estate in the SF Bay Area. There are a lot of smart people who know what they are doing in the foreclosure market and besides, $300K isn't impressive. Good luck to him.

If you are interested in this area, I recommend www.realtytrac.com. The site lists notices of default (pre-foreclosure) and foreclosure for properties nationwide. The site will give you the owners name, the property address, bank information, and a link to contact the owner. There is also an auction area of foreclosed properties. The first 7 days are free, then it's $39/mo. Have a lot of cash on hand, do your due diligence on the property, and be sensitive to the people your contacting. Remember, you are dealing with people of a certain state of mind in unhappy circumstances.

Flip? Too many smart dollars looking for deals in San Francisco. Very few, if any, stones are left unturned here. There are more flipping opportunities in the East Bay.