I wonder if this could be a place to share experiences in foreclosure properties. I'd like to hear some stories on the subject and some advice based on real-life situations. Who out there has successfully bought and rehabbed a foreclosure property, and what good advice is there to be shared?

Success story time!

I always had better luck with preforeclosures

Ok this is just a personal experience. Husband and I were in the market of buying our first home together, but could not afford alot of money so we were basically looking for a starter. I started calling realtors and went and looked at several homes. We almost signed papers on one that we later found out was in flood zone.
Anyways, I ran across a house awhile back that I could clearly see had been empty for quite awhile, and I kinda kept an eye on it, to see what came of it.
Finally it became a Hud home and we called our realtor to show it to us. Of all the stripped down, foreclosed homes we saw, this was the best by far!
It took qute some time to actually sign papers on the place but its ours now! We put a new roof on it and fixed a sky light in the bathroom. Not to bad.
Heres the good part, we paid $53,000 for the place 2 almost 3 years ago, and today it appraises for almost $95,000. It sits on a little over 3 acres and we are hoping the price will just keep going up as there are new very pricey homes being built all around it.

I bought one of the houses I inspected fro $7500. becasue it had foundation problems .. Minor . Lived in it for 2 years will I repaired it ect. ( young and single of course)

then sold it for $115000 all tax free

it only cost me about 10K to repair foundation, everything else I did myself

Can you explain how you find these and how they work?

I have my realtor search for them doing a MLS search for properties between $35-$45 per sq ft. This is a very low price per sqft in my area and usually when something it listed this low it is either comdemned or a foreclosure. Then I just go thru the list and pick the ones I want.