Foreclosure Reviews

Editor's Star Ratings:

Foreclosure Listings:
Searching Tools:
Features:
Ease of Use / Navigation:
Ease of Joining / Registration:
Customer Support:
Value for Money:
Overall Star Rating:

Membership Costs:

• Subscription is $9.95 per week (billed monthly)

Features:

• At any one time you can expect to see information on roughly :
  • 475,000 pre-foreclosures
  • 450,000 foreclosures
  • 370,000 bankruptcies
  • 90 auctions

• Extensive listing information on each property
• Listings updated constantly
• Advice on how to avoid a foreclosure on your own home
• Help in finding a realty agent or relevant expert in your vicinity
• Helpful education tools
• Email alerts when suitable properties come on to the market
• Informational webinar series to teach you the skills needed to find the best deals
• A range of tools, including mortgage, Home Equity and Rent or Buy Calculators
• Access to helpful articles, e-books , e-documents and coaching/mentoring services
• Free Newsletter
• Access to Foreclosure.com blog and forum
• Opportunities for Realtors
• Become a certified foreclosure agent
• 7 day Free trial
• Fully secured website
• Customer support by phone, email or post

Editor's Verdict:

Foreclosure.com may seem like an intimidating slab of a name for a website. It is, after all, a word dreaded by home-owners across the nation, but other people's misfortunes can be your good fortune, allowing you to purchase their homes at a bargain price. Foreclosure.com shows you how.

The idea is that when home-owners cannot keep up their mortgage payments there arise various opportunities for others to buy these homes at knock-down prices. It is then up to the new buyer to decide whether to spruce the place up and resell it at a profit (aka "flipping"), hang onto it as a rental investment, or even live in it.

This website provides an accessible and enticing portal for searching for foreclosures, pre-foreclosures and auctions across the United States (and Puerto Rico), allowing you to simply click on your state on the map and then narrow your search to a city or county to instantly see what's available in your vicinity. This gives you a great overview of exactly what's on offer in each category of property without even signing up, including information such as price and exact location. It's really easy to get started searching foreclosures in a matter of seconds, but, should you feel you need more background info, there's a very helpful FAQ section that acts as a an introduction and "how to" guide for using the website.

Foreclosures prides itself on having the most accurate and up to date information possible as well as simply listing the widest range of foreclosure, pre-foreclosure and auction properties possible. In addition this website also covers bankruptcies, Sheriff Sales, Tax Liens and government HUD foreclosures. The sheer amount of useful information available about each property is also staggering. This includes all the obvious stuff (room details, square footage etc.) but also data from property tax rolls, local school information, photographs, value assessments and the ages of any improvements and renovations.

The range of tools and extras on offer here is also particularly good, almost as extensive as that of our number one choice. There are even specialized calculators for Mortgage home loans, refinancing, mortgage points, home affordability fixed vs. adjustable rate mortgages, down payments and home equity. A lot of the extras come under the banner of the "learning center", teaching you everything you need to play the foreclosures game and make a profit, bar instinct and experience of course. The educational tools include articles, e-books and e-documents or the option of picking the brains of a foreclosures expert. The "learning center" can also help you improve your broader understanding of the property game: teaching everything from how to add value to a home to avoiding a foreclosure on your own property.

There is even a selection of webinars (warning: "webinar" is not a real word) on everything from how the real estate market works as a whole to how to secure an FHA loan. Some of these are available to stream online at any time but others require you to register (for the "limited seats available") and watch at specific times - which seems a bit odd given that this all takes place online and could presumably be viewed at any time by as many people as wish to view it. Should you be highly excited by all this and decide to take the next step and actually train to become a real estate agent or broker, then Foreclosure.com can help get you started with that too.

Foreclosure.com also boasts a stronger online community aspect than you will find on most foreclosures websites. This includes a blog, forum and the innovative "Hometown Heroes Community Stimulus Program" which aims to salute those such as teachers, fire-fighters and police who provide an important service to the community by giving them a chance to buy homes at discounted prices which public-service sector works can actually afford.

Best of all, Foreclosure.com is a highly trusted and reputable website with a strong record of bringing users the most up to date and accurate information possible. There are a few dodgy foreclosure listings websites out there that have been known to rip their customers off or provide shoddy or unreliable information, so when you choose a foreclosure listings site it's important to know you have one you can trust. On this account Foreclosure.com delivers complete peace of mind.

Fortunately, when it comes to customer service, Foreclosure.com offer a good range of contact options including phone (lines open 8.30 am -5.00 pm Eastern Standard Time), email or conventional post. There is as yet no Live Chat option, but perhaps that's expecting too much. Capitalizing on the fact that whatever question you want to ask has probably been asked before by someone at some point, there is also a database of questions and answers that may save you the bother of having to get in touch with the company at all. Incidentally, be aware that there are several other foreclosure websites with very similar names (including "foreclosures.com"), so if you want foreclosure.com make sure you type the name exactly right, or better yet click on one of the links in this review to be whisked off there without any further delay.

The service offers a free trial, which then automatically transitions into a full membership costing you $9.95 per week, but seeing as it's only seven days, you'll have to be very sharp if you want to avoid being billed at least once (billing is monthly so one payment is about forty bucks). The subscription rates themselves are very reasonable, and currently less than those of our number one choice - but the value for money you get out of the service will of course depend on how you use it and whether you have the instinct, investment acumen and sheer lobes to be able to scoop up a bargain. Should you grow weary of the investments game, it's easy enough to cancel your membership, though this can only be done via the website's cancellations page rather than via phone or email etc. This is only a minor quibble as, whilst some sites give you more cancellation options, in practice the one option you get here seems to work just fine anyway.

Foreclosure.com is a very strong contender for the best foreclosure listings website and only loses out to the two sites ranked above it on a few minor quibbles and matters of our personal preference. Many users may in fact find searching for and buying foreclosed properties here to be just as rewarding as at our top ranked sites. It's simply a matter of finding the site that works best for you and then getting started making your property fortune. Good hunting!

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