[brewer12345]

Hmmm, some of it will depend on how foreclosures happen in your state. But there are generally three main ways to do this:

- "Pre-foreclosure": this involves buying out homeowners who know they are in trouble and just want te mess to go away before foreclosure. You would be buying a house which the owner may or may not have any equity in. If they have no equity and the price you pay is lower than they did, you would have to get the bank to agree to a "short sale" in which they agree to the sale and the loss aead of time. You would want to be careful not to buy a property with lots of other oustanding liens (chances are if they are stiffing the mortgage lender, they have stifed someone else who may be ble to stick a lien on the property). You also would want to be careful not to end up preying on desparate people in dire straits.

- At auction: This would involve literally showing up at a foeclosure auction and making a cash bid. Better have big balls for this, since you probably won't get to inspect the property before bidding and there may be liens that survive the foreclosure process.

- From a bank: This would involve buying a repo'd property from the bank, possibly via a real estate agent. The bank would deliver clean title to the property and might even be willing to finance you at advantageous rates/terms. The trade off is that the bargain you would get might be less juicy. Some national and otherlenders list foreclosure properties on their websites, which can make for amusing surfing.

I find buying from a bank the most appealing, but I would consider any and all depending on the price and what the property actually is.