When my family and I were looking for a foreclosed home to buy, it seemed all the ones we ran across and looked in were all gutted out. Why is this?

In a lot of cases, this is because the owners may have been in the middle of a remodel or something when the foreclosure happened. Of course, in a normal sale, the house is put in its best possible condition to get the best price. With a foreclosure, that doesn't matter, the owners are just out of the house.

However, this is a good thing! You can get a great property for a fraction of what the cost might have been, and once you finish up the remodel, you'll have built yourself some nice equity. If the house has good bones (solid foundation and roof and structure), then you can probably get it in live-in condition without spending a fortune.

r8rpwr is right. With foreclosed homes they're not put on the market to get the most money out of them - so they're not in tip-top condition. Owners are usually asked to vacate and the home stays in that condition, which isn't always a very good one.

But, if you're willing to put in some time and a little elbow grease, you can turn a pretty good profit on a home/property like this.

That's actually a great situation to be in, and one that I look for regularly. I consider that striking gold when I find such a house.

r8rpwr is right, usually when someone is foreclosed on, they leave immediately regardless of what they might be in the middle of. And the house may have been empty for a while and fallen into disrepair.

If you're lucky, you can get such a house for an unbeatable price and build some instant equity by finishing the fix up job. Nothing fancy, just a little updating and you will be in business.