foreclosures and short sales, buying a short sale

The rate of foreclosures and short sales across the country continues to rise, albeit at a slightly slower pace than in the last 12 months, and in some places, property values are holding steady and there really aren't any more foreclosures now than there were during the whole mortgage boom. But, where there are foreclosures and short sales occurring in great numbers, this can mean opportunities to those people with sufficient capital to take advantage of them. For those of you who don't know the term yet, a short sale occurs when a bank or other lender is forced to sell a home for less than the amount that was lent out on it, resulting in a net loss to the lender. If a bank or other lender has a lot of homes that have been foreclosed, these homes may wind up being auctioned off, and this is where a smart investor can step in, buying the short sale and then later flipping the house for a profit, once the market goes back up. Buying a short sale property can be risky if the area's property values continue to be depressed, but sometimes there is no opportunity without risk. Foreclosures and short sales are an unfortunate fact of life for home owners these days, but they're not always bad news for real estate investors.