Preforclosure - Conventional Financing

[Travis H.]

I have a book and done some research on Pre-Forclosures. Is there anything preventing me from doing conventional financing from a bank to purchase this? (i.e. put 20-25% downpayment on a new mortgage).

What are the downsides? I am assuming time and higher cash requirements? Perhaps competition can react to a deal quicker if they can buy cash, avoid red tape with hard money loans, or try something like "subject to" deals or wrap around mortgages, but my concern is that I am not quite ready for those options. The latter seem overly complex for someone trying to purchase his first property. Ultimately my strategy is buy and hold for long term, but I would like to find the best deal possible in order to improve cash flow. The deals I am seeing on MLS are closer to turn-key and won't cash flow well. I am not afraid to hustle. I'm in sales now and sell enterprise software for my day job so I don't think finding the deal will be my problem.

Thanks in advance for any input you can provide.

Travis