BY CAROL HAZARD
Media General News Service
Published: March 24, 2008

Looking to find a house at a bargain?
You might want to try a new Web site by Long & Foster, which lists all the foreclosed houses for sale in central and Northern Virginia.
Some houses are not in great shape, agents say. Some are sad stories involving people who got into financial trouble and couldn’t hold on to their houses. Some are investors who banked wrongly on the housing boom to last.
About 2,610 foreclosed single-family homes, town houses and condominiums — most in Northern Virginia — were listed one day last week on the site at Foreclosures
The data is compiled from the Central Virginia Regional Multiple Listing Service, which serves this area, and the Metropolitan Regional Information Service in Northern Virginia.
In this region, Richmond topped the list with 53 foreclosed properties, followed by Chesterfield County with 33 and Hanover County with 24.
A total of 146 foreclosures were listed in 19 localities in central Virginia.
Foreclosure information can be difficult and time-consuming to find, since the process involves legal notices and auction sales.
The properties on the site are owned mostly by banks, said Scott Shaheen, a regional vice president for Long & Foster and president of the Richmond Association of Realtors.
“Investors are always looking for a good bargain,” Shaheen said.
“There probably are some good ones. Banks don’t want to carry these in their portfolios, so they often offer incentives and special financing to get rid of the houses.”
Long & Foster in Northern Virginia has promoted the Web site by offering bus tours of the foreclosures there. There are no plans to do that here, Shaheen said.
“We don’t have that many. We still have one of the lowest foreclosure rates in the
country.”
One of the most expensive foreclosures on the site is a house listed at $699,900 at 6325 Ridgeway Road near the Country Club of Virginia in Richmond.
“Buyers will need to come in with highest and best due to multiple offers,” the Web site says.
The same property is listed on http://www.homes.richmond.com, but one needs to click on the property and look under “additional home attributes” to find out that it’s a foreclosure.
The key term in the description is “REO,” for real estate owned, meaning it has been repossessed by the bank.
The cheapest house in Richmond on the Long & Foster foreclosure site was for $30,900 at 2316 R St. in Church Hill. “This home has suffered fire damage,” the Web site says. “Seller will make NO repairs of any kind.”
w Hazard is a staff writer for the Richmond Times-Dispatch.