The Foreclosure Crisis: (An Emotional) Time to Buy Cheap

Ed Pruitt, I'm a real estate broker. A new real estate broker. I’ve had my license, now, for less than eight months, and this foreclosure crisis is the saddest thing to happen to Americans since the great depression. So many dreams, so many memories . . . dashed, with the loss of so many homes.

I think about the newlywed couples, having either received monetary gifts or having borrowed money from relatives to purchase their first home. I think about the thousands of families that refinanced their homes to send kids to college, to buy that desperately-needed 2nd car or to start a business that they had dreamed of their entire working lives.

I think about the devastation to the family and the embarrassment each member feels for losing something that meant more to them than they ever imagined.

Now we see the auctions, the bargain hunters and the thousands of investors ready to pounce on bank-owned houses. You've seen it -- the infomercials, with their fast-talking pitchpeople. . . practically begging you to take advantage of the foreclosures, the bank-owned properties, the vacant houses – the dashed dreams. I understand that there are many cultures in this world that feel to take advantage of someone else’s woe and misfortune would be a bad omen, sinister and forever cast a dark cloud over the situation. Personally, I would have real reservation about living in a house where such sadness, sense of loss, and social devastation was involved.

I would not do it. But what about you? Here are some questions I have for you to think about:


Would you purchase a house that you knew was foreclosed?

Would you reside in a house that you knew was foreclosed?

If you purchased a foreclosure and put it up for rent/ lease, would you disclose to the tenant it had been a foreclosure?

Photo Credit: http://www.bankforclosuresale.com/