It’s often the subject of the water cooler talk…the co-worker who just got a steal on a foreclosure. Now you may be in the market, having been looking at Roswell homes for sale.

Certainly, foreclosures are dominating the national and local housing market. Currently, there are 1.5 million such homes for sale, and more are expected to be available soon. That provides both opportunities and pitfalls for bargain hunters.

But before you jump into this with both feet, make sure you’ve taken the time to understand what it means to buy a foreclosure and make sure you’re represented by a local Realtor who can advise you throughout the process.

Here are five tips to consider to successfully buy Roswell foreclosure home.

1. Contact your Realtor

This may seem simple, but local Realtors that are active in the market follow the Roswell home inventory closely and know when a great deal pops up. Their working knowledge of the local market provides you with a huge advantage.

2. Get pre-approved with your lender

With foreclosures, you’ll find being pre-approved is a two-step process. You’ll want to get pre-approved with your preferred lender prior to starting your home search. This sets the benchmark for what homes you can afford and what your monthly payment would approximate.

Second, when you’ve identified a Roswell foreclosure that you want to make an offer, you’ll generally need to get pre-approved with the bank’s preferred lender. You are not obligated to use them, but banks just want to make sure that you can truly qualify to purchase the home.

3. Like sharks to blood 

Keep in mind that many banks have finely figured out that it makes a whole lot more sense to price their Roswell foreclosures at significant discounts to the market. This often results in a feeding frenzy and a multiple offer situation. Don’t get caught up in the feedding frenzy. Just offer what you would be happy paying for the home and if you get it, you get it. Realize that if you don’t get it, there will be more opportunities in the coming months.

4. Inspect, inspect, inspect

Be prepared to hire a professional inspector once you have a Roswell foreclosure home under contract. Keep in mind that while foreclosures are listed “as-is”, it does not preclude you from being able to have a due diligence period to inspect the property. By as-is, the bank is merely stating that they don’t know anything about the property and will not be fixing anything. Also, realize that you may be responsible for turning on the utilities. Foreclosures often do not have utilities turned on.

In 25% of cases, homebuyers do persuade lenders to fix some of the problems before the sale closes. Most of the time, banks would rather sell the house to the next available bidder — one who doesn’t ask the bank to pay for repairs.

5. Be patient

While banks do respond fairly quickly on an offer, it’s definitely not the same as buying a regular home. Keep in mind that some banks may have a holding period, say 10 days, when initially listed before they will respond to offers. Each property may have different peculiarities, but just realize that being patient and flexible will go a long ways towards getting a great deal on a Roswell foreclosure.

Today, the House of Representatives overwhelmingly passed a bill that would extend the $8,000 first-time homebuyer tax credit to home purchases under contract by April 30, 2010 and closed by June 30, 2010. This is the same bill passed by the Senate on Wednesday and could be signed by the President as early as Friday.

This is an extension of the credit that was set to expire on November 30th.

The bill also creates a $6,500 credit for those who buy a home after living in their current house at least five years. These homes would also need to be under contract by April 30th and closed by June 30th.

The credit would be available only for the purchase of principal residences priced at $800,000 or less.

The bill also raises the adjusted gross income cap to $125,000 for single filers and $225,000 for joint filers. The amount of the credit currently begins to phase out for taxpayers whose adjusted gross income is more than $75,000, or $150,000 for joint filers.

This is a great opportunity for first-time homebuyers and move-up homebuyers and we’ll be discussing the value and opportunity for both of these targeted groups.

If you need assistance with your Atlanta real estate needs, be sure to contact us, your local market experts.