NJ Ranks #1 For Foreclosure Property Opportunities

New Jersey still ranks first in the country for foreclosures. What opportunities are there?

According to the latest data from ATTOM and RealtyTrac, NJ leads the US with the highest density of foreclosures. What does it means for investors?

According to the latest numbers, 1 in every 623 housing units in NJ was in some stage of foreclosure in August 2017. Those numbers are equal to what some states were experiencing in the pit of the 2008 foreclosure crisis. So, what’s behind these numbers? How can individual investors help and benefit?

In Warren, Sussex, Cumberland, and Camden counties, more than 1 in every 384 properties is in foreclosure. In Salem County, 1 in every 183 properties are in foreclosure. If you live there, you can bet someone in your condo building, or on your street is in foreclosure right now. As of August pre-foreclosure filings were up 4.1%. Foreclosure auctions rose 10.1%, month over month, and 12.7% year over year. Bank owned property levels rose a massive 43.4%!

You can bet there are a lot more distressed properties in the pipeline behind this. Many are old, and are just now being processed. Though there are also likely to be many re-defaults from lenders and servicers having put borrowers into terrible loan mods or other plans.

Many borrowers got behind, and have never been able to catch up. Many weren’t given a chance to. This is a great opportunity for individual investors to help, and generate strong investment returns at the same time.

There are several ways to do this. Buying distressed properties and flipping them, or rehabbing and renting them can be a great financial move. It’s a lot more work than most realize, but it can be very helpful and profitable. Just note that you’ll probably need to source these deals direct from individual sellers or mid-sized and smaller funds, as big banks are not a viable direct source for most individual investors. Not unless you are buying tens of millions of dollars of their portfolio at a time.

Investing in, and buying these non-performing notes is another way to do it. Then you can work things out with the borrower and get them back on track. If that’s not possible, you can take back the property and manage or resell it. Private lending is another option. You can make loans at good rates to borrowers in need, or investors who are on the front lines. Or, a more simplified strategy, and one for true passive income, is to invest in a fund who is doing all of this for you.

Investment Opportunities

Find out more about investing in secured debt and real estate, go to NNG Capital Fund