Your retirement is pending, but you are already thinking about making your money work a little harder by investing in one of the bank foreclosures springing up as some adjustable loans have their inevitable impact on borrowers living beyond their means. Have you been reading up on the specific differences of buying into foreclosures? Maybe you have already started a little curb crawling. Two questions that get asked frequently by home buyers and those new to the idea of investing in foreclosures usually go together. Which stage of foreclosure is less risky for a first time investor, and how do you find a property that doesn’t need a lot of fixing?

Bank foreclosures are regarded as easier for a new investor to make a modest profit as a part of a learning curve. The title is usually clean, tenants evicted and maybe some minor essential repairs already made. A realtor experienced in presenting an offer to the bank will be there as a guide, both for completing the essential paperwork and for assessing the true market value of the desired property.

It’s a fact that many repossessed, once loved family homes give off an air of decay. Boarded up doors and windows and unkempt yards sure don’t add up to curb appeal. Clusters of foreclosed homes don’t add attraction or value in a street or neighborhood. But the preconceived notion of a choice only of old, small, basic bungalows with tiny yards and off-street parking is far from accurate today. Just a look through the listings of homes up to median value of those on the open market will prove to you that bank foreclosures come in many sizes, styles, types (apartments, condos, period cottages, lofts for example) and ages. New, never occupied homes can appear in the listings as a slower housing market impacts on new mid-scale, urban developments. Many of the defaulting sub prime loans were taken out on newer homes purchased in the last 3 or 4 years.

Follow the rule of real estate and think “location, location, location.” A well selected bank foreclosure home in basic good order spruced up inexpensively, well presented and marketed in a good location with essentially good demographics (schools, transport, amenities) cannot fail to lift your confidence and set you off on a rolling start to investment riches.

Philip Smith is the writer of http://www.ForeclosureListingsNationwide.com. Your Source of Bank foreclosures online.