Buyer Beware If It Looks to Good to Be True

You see a great buy online from website such as RealtyTrac and you can't believe this could be true. A 3 bedroom home in El Dorado Hills for $75,000 when most list prices for similar start at around $250,000.

Couple of things are in play here. One is that foreclosure websites would like you to sign up for their service and it can be useful if you know what you are looking for.

Second, is that the $75,000 mentioned online that is in default is the second mortgage, not the $400,000 first mortgage (a common scenario).

One way to do a quick check is to go on Zillow.com and see the Zestimate of homes surrounding. While this is not a perfect answer either, it will get you must closer to a reasonable selling price than some of the foreclosure websites.