Look for the shabbiest house on the nicest block in town. Spruce it up. Sell for profit.

That’s a real estate investing recipe for success more often than not, especially if you can discern between money pits and money makers. When it comes to flipping foreclosures, or even purchasing a discounted distressed property as a primary residence, it’s critical to spot the “diamond in the rough” before someone else beats you to it.

Distressed properties are often in less than tip-top shape, but it’s that shabby exterior that is concealing the massive opportunity for riches for those investors who know how to take advantage of great deals when they see them.

Spotting a diamond in the rough isn’t difficult, but it does take the right knowledge and an open mind. You need to be able to see past the unsightly condition of a home that has turned off other investors to determine if it is really worth your while.

The September 2011 edition of Foreclosure.com’s free educational newsletter, “Investment Exchange,” is now available, which shows you how to find and capitalize on those diamond-in-the-rough properties that are just waiting for an investor like you

Learn how to hone your detective skills to uncover these amazing deals before your competition does. The potential financial rewards will be well worth your time.

To read this month’s free educational newsletter from Foreclosure.com CLICK HERE.

It’s going to get worse before it gets better, but there is apparently a shimmer of light at the end of the national housing market’s long, dark tunnel.

Beginning in 2013, home prices are projected to increase a modest 1.77 percent, according to a survey conducted by MacroMarkets LLC, which is based on the S&P/Case-Shiller index over the next five years. In the foreseeable future, prices are expected to continue to decrease 2.53 percent in 2011 and .13 percent in 2012.

Overall, prices are predicted to grow on average 1.1 percent through 2015, according to the study, which surveyed 111 real estate experts and investment/market strategists, among others, to arrive at its conclusions.

Robert Shiller, MacroMarkets cofounder and Yale University professor of economics, explains the possible reasons for the slow growth:

“Markets and government institutions are visibly struggling to respond consistently to an unprecedented rash of crises and conflicts. These struggles diminish confidence, which compounds the underlying economic stresses and lowers expectations.”

It’s not overwhelmingly fantastic news, but the survey does depict the bottom of the crisis and the beginning of a housing recovery. That upward turn, if it does indeed happen when this report suggests, is a long time coming and well worth celebrating.

Baby steps.

To search foreclosed homes for sale in Plainfield, N.J., or anywhere else throughout the United States click here.

This morning I was speaking with the head of our data team when he mentioned several listings that he has seen reduced in price by as much as 80 percent over the last year or so. Right now represents a truly great opportunity to find amazing deals.

Sometimes it just takes patience.

As we researched these particular deals, we noted that there were multiple offers throughout the listing process. If the offers were rejected, and the homes would be re-listed, the price would be reduced about six weeks after it hit the market again.

Patience and the discipline of patience is where money can be made, or saved, for that matter.

That blend of risk taking and waiting can only be achieved by practice and knowledge. First you need the knowledge and then the practice. The application once these two key ingredients are combined is where wisdom is gained.

Have you ever noticed that change both positive and negative occur line upon line and precept upon precept? Taking an action, even if it’s small, takes you in a direction. From there, you can always change course, but taking an action is where it begins.

Long-term perspective can be a fruitful practice and the virtue of patience is real.

To check out (and monitor) listings in your target market be sure to check out Foreclosure.com today. You can “save” properties of interest and watch them, as well as their descending prices, until you are ready to make your patient move.

Foreclosure filings were reported on 228,098 U.S. properties in August, a 7 percent increase from the previous month, but still down nearly 33 percent from August 2010.

Sales of homes that were in some stage of foreclosure or bank owned accounted for 31 percent of all U.S. residential sales in the second quarter of 2011.

Photo by Taberandrew

Robert Galanida, a victim of paralysis lives on $22,000 per month. He is battling foreclosure. When a teenager an accident has made him paralyzed from his shoulders downwards. With the support legal as well as insurance settlements running into multimillions he now lives with his mother comfortably.

They were surprised when Bank of America, the servicer of his mortgage repeatedly tried to throw them out of his house in Tualtin. The house was built fourteen years ago, customized to his needs. The price had been below $400,000. It has spacious halls and wide doorways to allow easy access to his wheelchair and allow for functioning of air purification system designed to keep in check the temperature of his body and his breathing.

He could afford the monthly pay off on the loan amounting to $4,800. How could he severely default?

Forty one year old Galanida stopped paying from 2009 objecting to certain discrepancies in the loan following the taking over by Bank of America of Countrywide Home Loans. The bank told him to keep pending his payments while the matter was being investigated by them, informed his mother.

But the bank without offering any alternative plan suddenly initiated foreclosure proceedings against him. Bank of America sold it off to another party and then tried to throw him out. Galanida appealed to federal authorities for help and also to the Attorney General of Oregon; till now matters have not been resolved.

A paralegal attached to the legal firm dealing with Bank of America’s assignments told Galanida on 29th July that the bank did not have any plans to see that the house was saved.

The case of Galanida highlights the defects in the federal practices relating to foreclosure and modification. This has confused many. Bank of America is now facing innumerable law suits in Oregon and also elsewhere. Investors have lost confidence in the bank and this is resulting in the bank’s legal bills mushrooming; the taking over of Countrywide is the cause of the bulk of these woes for BofA.

The Treasury pays money to servicers to incentivize them to modify loans under Making Home Affordable plan. But since the major part of 2010 it has withheld the same from Bank of America and JPMorgan Chase as the Treasury wants these entities to make “substantial improvement” in reaching out towards the borrowers in all respects.

Do you have a Real Estate blog? Join ForeclosureListings.com Affiliate Program.

ForeclosureListings.com has a comprehensive, searchable database of foreclosures in areas like Columbus, Bronx, Derry, Missoula and in the whole country. Try to search foreclosures by state today!

Paralyzed Homeowner Battles Foreclosure

Allen Iverson isn’t just refusing to practice playing basketball, but the tattooed sharp shooter is also refusing to practice paying his mortgage on time.

Denver Post reports that the 11-time NBA All Star walked away from a 6,848 sq. ft. six-bedroom, nine-bathroom mansion in Denver, Colo., which he purchased for $3.875 million in Jan. 2008.

“The Answer,” who played for the Denver Nuggets for two seasons, “let the property in the Buell Mansion subdivision slip into foreclosure on an outstanding balance of $2,572,914.”

He apparently had a buyer lined up, too, who was “close” to paying the asking price of $2.85 million.

The good news is that the sale can still go through as planned; however, Iverson — who signed a blockbuster $70 million contract before the 2000 season — will likely have to pay around $10,000 in attorney’s fees when all is said and done.

Sounds like a “strategic” financial crossover on the part of the prolific point guard, who is currently a member of Besiktas Cola Turka of the Turkish pro league.

That’s because he recently told Philadelphia Magazine that he still has money … “a lot.”

Hmmm …

Allen Iverson isn’t just refusing to practice playing basketball, but the tattooed sharp shooter is also refusing to practice paying his mortgage on time.

Denver Post reports that the 11-time NBA All Star walked away from a 6,848 sq. ft. six-bedroom, nine-bathroom mansion in Denver, Colo., which he purchased for $3.875 million in Jan. 2008.

“The Answer,” who played for the Denver Nuggets for two seasons, “let the property in the Buell Mansion subdivision slip into foreclosure on an outstanding balance of $2,572,914.”

He apparently had a buyer lined up, too, who was “close” to paying the asking price of $2.85 million.

The good news is that the sale can still go through as planned; however, Iverson — who signed a blockbuster $70 million contract before the 2000 season — will likely have to pay around $10,000 in attorney’s fees when all is said and done.

Sounds like a “strategic” financial crossover on the part of the prolific point guard, who is currently a member of Besiktas Cola Turka of the Turkish pro league.

That’s because he recently told Philadelphia Magazine that he still has money … “a lot.”

Hmmm …

Allen Iverson isn’t just refusing to practice playing basketball, but the tattooed sharp shooter is also refusing to practice paying his mortgage on time.

Denver Post reports that the 11-time NBA All Star walked away from a 6,848 sq. ft. six-bedroom, nine-bathroom mansion in Denver, Colo., which he purchased for $3.875 million in Jan. 2008.

“The Answer,” who played for the Denver Nuggets for two seasons, “let the property in the Buell Mansion subdivision slip into foreclosure on an outstanding balance of $2,572,914.”

He apparently had a buyer lined up, too, who was “close” to paying the asking price of $2.85 million.

The good news is that the sale can still go through as planned; however, Iverson — who signed a blockbuster $70 million contract before the 2000 season — will likely have to pay around $10,000 in attorney’s fees when all is said and done.

Sounds like a “strategic” financial crossover on the part of the prolific point guard, who is currently a member of Besiktas Cola Turka of the Turkish pro league.

That’s because he recently told Philadelphia Magazine that he still has money … “a lot.”

Hmmm …