Acquiring Homes Owned by the VA

One of the many benefits extended to our men and women in the Armed Forces is the availability of the Veterans Administration to co-sign on a mortgage loan. With a VA Loan, soldiers and veterans can get into a home with no money down. It is a great benefit for the people who defend our country. But sometimes even these people get in over their heads financially and lose their homes.

With the VA co-signing on these loans, when the mortgage goes into default, the VA will assume ownership of these homes. It is at this point where things can get a little difficult when you want to consider buying this property from them.

The VA will usually pass the mortgage off to another company. Many times you will see a sign on the property that says the house is owned by the VA but will not be sold, and that it'll be sold through some other financial group. Yet, when you contact that financial institution, they might say all their assets are on their web site. And when you look at the web site, it might not be listed. Thus beginning the emails back and forth.

You might want to find someone at this asset group to be real nice to and plead your case. Tell them that you would like to buy the property, that there is a sign in the window that says they have it. You could also go take a picture of the sign with a digital camera and forward it to somebody at that bank. You could be a simple case of the left hand doesn't know what the right hand is doing.

Another thing you do is a search for the deed on line without even going to the court and find out has the deed changed hands recently. It is possible that some of the bank’s assets just aren’t ready to sell and aren’t listed on the web site.

You’ve probably heard it said before that the harder an owner is to find; the easier the property is to buy. This is something to keep in mind. But on the other side, you also have to know when to cut bait and move on. It is a trap that a newbie - or even a seasoned investor - can fall into when you don't have enough deal flow coming across your desk. You can find yourself chasing things that you probably would not have chased if there were a bunch of things coming across your desk.

For additional information on real estate investing and the hot foreclosure market, I recommend joining Ron LeGrand's Millionaire Maker Newsletter The newsletter itself is loaded with great tips and resources, and he's usually giving away something free like a CD or something that generally has a lot of great information on it.