Hard luck for some, opportunity for others—foreclosure crisis generating “investment opportunities”
According to an industry recruiting website, the average starting salary of a foreclosure specialist in the financial industry is over 100K. Jobs are reportedly available in accounting and finance, capital markets, cash management and treasury management, along with loan policy and loan work out.
The downturn of the housing loan industry is spiking a commensurate rise in particular jobs, if the recruiter’s claims are above board. There are companies, which promise to train you in the lucrative field of foreclosure finance, or foreclosure prevention, many of the job sites claim to be sponsored by industry trade groups.
According to one writer, the foreclosure rates are good for a particular subset of investors and employees who take the opportunity to turn foreclosure into investment or job opportunity.
This turn of events has caused many individuals seeking new careers to investigate the foreclosure industry. It can prove to be a very lucrative and satisfying career choice allowing you to take control of your future and generate a sizeable income as your own boss. However for the inexperience the industry can ALSO be very confusing and risky. So avoid losing your shirt by doing your homework first. Here are a few tips to help you get off to a good started. (Angela D. Griffin, “How to Get Started in the Foreclosure Industry”
Apparently, many people see opportunity in mortgage foreclosure and are gearing up to widely invest in the properties. Griffin notes that many people have little actual experience in real estate, or real estate investing, and the best tool they can hone is the ability to research real estate properties. (Ibid)
If the economy doesn’t completely tank and drive us into a 1929 type Depression (yes, I think the folk dropping the “r-word”—Recession are being optimistic), perhaps there will be some people who do make out like bandits, purchasing real estate at bargain basement prices, but the question remains, as far as liquid assets, capital and investment funds go, if the bottom drops out of the market, who is going to have the money to do all of this investing and take advantage of this marvelous opportunity to make a killing in real estate?
OK, call me a cockeyed pessimist, but the only people with that kind of discretionary capital during a major economic catastrophe are usually the ones who have so much capital that even depressions don’t wipe their wealth out. These folk can afford to lose a few million or so and still have enough money to buy Boardwalk.
But, wait a minute, we weren’t talking about them, we are talking about average Jim and Jane who somehow didn’t get sliced and diced by the real estate crash and who have enough money to feed on its carcass. So, we may soon see hoards of people haunting the nation’s courthouses, going blind reading “mouse print” foreclosure ads in city newspapers.
For, as they say, every cloud has a silver lining—hopefully this calamity won’t “drown” us, but many economists aren’t all that optimistic. They’re like a cat in a room full of rocking chairs, skittish and very nervous. You can almost see them tilt their head into the wind to sniff out turbulence in the economic event horizon.
Keoki McCarthy, a west coast real estate investor explains what the industry calls “short sales”. This is where investors “call on people in preforeclosure and try and work out a way to help them sell their house to that investor.” The writer believes that banks “are going to be a lot more willing do short sales knowing that if the don’t their REO inventory will go up.” (seattleinvestor.wordpress.com)
However, with the tailspin in real estate already laid at the door of fast talking real estate sellers, con artists in real estate and mortgage banking, sticking your hand into foreclosure real estate sales could turn some serious risky business if you don’t know what you are doing and don’t have the capital to make such investments.
Opportunities are sometimes hard to find. They just don’t stand in the sunshine attached to a billboard, but there are going to be lots of “investors” crawling out of the woodwork over the next few years. Hopefully they won’t lose their shirts. Perhaps some of them may actually be honest and know what they are doing, but the question is going to be this: with the possibility of so many homes going on the market and turning entire neighborhoods in to ghost towns, who would want to purchase a home or live in a home when you’re the only one on the block?
There are entire ghost towns of foreclosed property all over the country. Sub-division developers ran out of money or went bankrupt, leaving subdivisions partially inhabited and partly completed.
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