Foreclosure in my neighborhood, can this be my first investment?

[William Rooney]

My wife and I purchased our first SFH almost a year to this date. We bought at or around market price since the house we were renting was bought underneath us. We've done a ton of renovations and made a very cute house. While I've done most of the work myself, we worry we might have out priced the neighborhood (low equity). This is one of the many reasons my wife is terrified of real estate investing, along with the market is due to turn soonish.

A few months ago a house in our neighborhood had a jungle for a front lawn and we didn’t think to much about it. Well today I walked up and saw the abated nuisance poster on the door dated in for a court hearing in October. Looking up the property on Zillow states that it’s a preforclosure.

It’s a 1555sqft 4/2 with two car garage in a good neighborhood surrounded by decent schools.

The last loan issued (according to Zilllow) was $395,444 back in 2012 and as of Aug 2018 the home is in default with $130,377 past due. The house last sold in January 1998 however for $148K; I assume since Zillow uses public records, it missed the last sale in 2012.

Regardless, I want to know if this is worth looking into (Also HOW can I personally find information on this house). I'm very green in REI, I've caught the last two webinars, read a few "trending" discussions on the BP app and listened to 8ish podcasts; but I never looked into foreclosures as my understanding is you need cash to buy them. ANY direction will be appreciated!