No matter what the talking heads on info-mercials and late-night cable TV say, not all foreclosures are what they're cracked up to be. While there may be some great foreclosure investments, you will need to know where to find it and how to make a fair offer in order to successfully acquire it. Lenders can practice more restrictively in markets where home prices continue to rise. When you couple that with the influence that home owners have over the selling price, it can create a situation that is less than friendly to buyers.

The purchase of a foreclosure property requires that the purchaser fully examine the property from every angle, financially and structurally. Patience really is a virtue, even in this robust market with many options that superficially appear to be bargains. In order to be considered a serious buyer, your offer to the seller should reflect this image. It is the well-researched offer that makes for a realistic starting point in the negotiation round.

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A new study says a tidal wave of foreclosures-about 1.1 million- will soon flood the nation.

Christopher Cagan, director of research and analytics for First American CoreLogic, explains that the study focused on 8.4 million adjustable-rate mortgages (ARMs) that were obtained in the period of 2004 to 2006. More than a million of those borrowers will lose their homes to foreclosure in less than a decade.

There are ways to tell if you're the type of borrower who is likely to lose your home. For instance, ARMs are a losing bet right now. Homeowners who got one of these mortgages in 2004, 2005 or 2006 have a one-in-three risk of foreclosure. Those who got a subprime ARM during those years have a lower risk, with only one in eight of those homeowners projected to lose their homes.

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With the state of real estate markets, coming to an agreement between buyer and seller is difficult enough. This difficulty is increased when a so-called short sale is attempted, usually by a borrower struggling with their home loan. In these situations the seller must also have the approval of their mortgage lender.

The term short sale refers to an owner attempting to sell a property for an amount less than the value of their loan. These types of arrangements are hard to accomplish in part because the mortgage servicing company must also approve of the diminished sale price.

In this situation, the parties involved are at the mercy of the institution in ownership of the loan of the seller. Even when a sale price is agreed upon by both buyer and seller, the company owning the loan could be hesitant to accept the offer and may take upwards of two months to make a decision in regard to the suggested figure.

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