How to find and buy a home in Bakersfield, California

Real estate investor Carrie Wageman explains that her real estate market is currently favorable for sellers, with homes in the median price range of $400,000 to $500,000 being the most competitive. However, there is a need for more inventory in all price ranges in Bakersfield. Finding affordable housing or low-income housing can be difficult, but using websites like foreclosure.com can help. Once you find a property, you can contact an agent, or if the property is in distress, you can contact the owner directly. Most properties can be purchased with a loan, and it only takes a day to get pre-qualified. To utilize foreclosure.com, sign up for email notifications to be one of the first to know about new foreclosures in your area.

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Search for foreclosure and pre foreclosure homes in Bakersfield, CA:
Today’s video is with real estate investor Carrie Wageman 

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Transcript

0:00 - TJones - Welcome to foreclosure.com. My name is Tim Jones. I'm excited to introduce our guest today, Carrie Wageman. Carrie, Thank you for speaking with me today.

0:08 - CarrieW - Thanks for having me.

0:10 - TJones - We're glad to have you. Can you tell the audience about your real estate background?

0:15 - CarrieW - Yeah. My experience with real estate has started with investing. My husband and I started probably a little over 15 years ago, looking into foreclosure properties, properties that would go to auction, and buying those properties at auction. And since then, we've either flipped or created rental income. A little more passive income out of that. So, eventually, I decided to get licensed as a real estate agent. So I could also help people in that process, maybe in the pre-foreclosure process, and then, as well as you know, just help people buy and sell homes.

0:54 -  TJones - Great. Well, thank you for sharing your experience with us. So, what are some current trends in the Bakersfield real estate market?

1:03 - CarrieW - We're still right now where, you know, you can, as a seller or as anybody selling a home, you can still get that top dollar for the home. Obviously, something we're noticing is the homes that are a little more competitive are the ones that people have taken the time even just to clean up. But also, our typical median home range is still very popular. It's still competitive. So for us here in Bakersfield, that looks something like 400,000 to high fours, maybe even 500,000. So anywhere from 400,000 to 500,000, it could get competitive, and anything outside of that you're looking at homes, maybe sitting on the market a little bit longer, but still getting what they, you know, they are valued at, they were valued at when the market was very competitive a couple of years ago. And now that rates have dropped just slightly enough. We have more people out in the buying pool. So, we're in a place here in Bakersfield where we could potentially use a little bit more inventory in all price ranges.

2:11 - TJones - Ok. So, how do you find affordable housing or low-income housing in your market?

2:17 - CarrieW - Right. So that is still hard. We don't have a lot of inventory for that. So, for me, I have found it again. I used foreclosure.com a long time ago, but I really love about is the famous pre-foreclosure that you can find on foreclosure.com; there are other websites out there obviously where you can see a home is in foreclosure, but getting it there is an opportunity to maybe try to create a direct buy and sell or you know, obviously just to see that this house is probably gonna go on the market. So maybe I can take those steps as a buyer to purchasing this house at a lower price so that you don't have to worry about competing with those people who are fixing up the home, and if it ends up going for $40,000 - $60,000 over asking if you're looking at a foreclosure list or pre-foreclosure list, you're setting yourself up for the opportunity to create more of that income and equity in your home when you can buy something that maybe just needs a little bit of TLC or maybe it just needs literally a lot of times the homes are just a little distressed and nothing major. But, you know, you can kind of look at it and, and put your own touch on it, but get a better deal on it. So I'm using those types of sites are a way to see where you can, where you can find those properties.

3:42 - TJones - So, once you find a property, what are the following steps to purchase the property?

3:49 - CarrieW - So, luckily, when you see things on a site like foreclosure.com, it's not the end of the road where you can only do a cash buy there are some other websites where your only option is an all-cash purchase. But what you'll see on the foreclosure.com site is that you might see the house is actually listed with an agent. Or obviously, since it is just in distress, you can contact an agent, or you can actually get the information direct. So, you can contact anyone, and as long as you are pre-qualified for a loan or you're set up to be able to get some type of loan, most properties now. And there are some new California laws out there that will allow you to have any type of borrowed loan to purchase a home. So whether it's conventional or, you know, FHA, even VA loans, you can get a home. But just, it literally takes a day, and you just need a couple of pieces of paper to get pre-qualified. And then that way, if you're ready in the pre-qualification process, you can be shopping for a home.

5:01 - TJones - Appreciate that information. I know you touched on this a little bit, but how do you utilize foreclosure.com to search for real estate opportunities?

5:10 - CarrieW - So I make sure that I'm signed up for the email notifications so that I can see because, like I said, it's competitive, and it's even competitive when there's a deal. You have those people, you're competing with those people that do have cash and want to be willing to give cash to those offers. It doesn't exclude you, but you're, you're competing with them. So, I like to get on those email notifications, and I'm on them, and it's very simple: you get the notifications daily. So today, I got one new foreclosure in your neighborhood, and so I click on it, and if it seems like something I might be interested in, then I can get the information from there. And I'm already pre-qualified, and I can go try to purchase that home. But it, it's key because people are getting foreclosures and buying foreclosures, and they are paying with cash, but they're, they're getting that in the further step when that's kind of the last result, it goes to a trustee cell. And so if you're on those email notifications with foreclosure.com, you will get that notice, and you'll be able to be literally one of the first people to have an opportunity at that deal.

6:21 - TJones - What is it? The early bird catches the worm, right?

6:24 - CarrieW - Yeah, for sure. I mean, like I told you earlier, I was trying to get ticket sales, and it literally reminds me of something like that but not as cutthroat. Haha, you're literally just giving yourself the opportunity first. So, I mean, those email notifications are super powerful.

6:45 - TJones - I appreciate your time and all the information you shared with us today. That's all the time we have for today, but I wanna take this opportunity to thank you again, carry. So, thank you for joining us today. We appreciate your time. Don't forget to sign up for our free email alerts, which will bring foreclosures, pre-foreclosures, tax liens, and bankruptcies to your inbox. So, if you're looking for any of those types of distressed properties, don't forget to sign up. And until next time, I'm Tim Jones with foreclosure.com, and thank you for watching.