Robert Huseby shows the class of 15 a page of foreclosure notices from the newspaper.

The Providence Journal / Ruben W. Perez

Location, location, and location. The first three laws of real estate also apply to buyers who hope to get a bargain on foreclosed property, according to Providence lawyer Robert Huseby.

“You have to have a really precise focus on the neighborhoods you’d like to buy into,” Huseby told students at a recent Learning Connection ( www.learnconnect.com) evening class in Providence.

The lecture on buying foreclosed property attracted about 15 students, including many inexperienced buyers and investors, some looking to make their first real estate purchase.

The logical first step in any real estate purchase is to learn everything possible about the real estate market in the particular neighborhood where you want to buy,

Whether buying real estate as a place to live or as an investment, Huseby advised, the first issue is to decide where to buy. By zeroing in on an individual neighborhood, attending open houses, looking at all the recent sales of properties, visiting at different times of the day and talking to people who live there, buyers will become experts on that neighborhood market, he said.

“It’s hard work. It’s nitty-gritty stuff,” Huseby said. “It’s no different than buying anything else … You have to know what you’re looking for — where you want to buy.”

By doing the legwork on a particular neighborhood, buyers will have a good idea on what is really a good buy, and what is not.

“It’s scary out there,” Huseby said. “There’s really not a good fix on what things are worth” in today’s market.

“There are such good deals out there,” he added. “But it’s not good deals for everybody.”

In general, buying a foreclosure after it is bank-owned, rather than at the foreclosure auction, affords buyers more protection, Huseby said.

At auctions, potential buyers often don’t get a chance to get inside the house and inspect the property, and there are usually no seller disclosure forms detailing how the property has been cared for in the recent past.

But sometimes, special properties can be available at foreclosure auctions, and if it is a unique or especially desirable property, such as a waterfront parcel, the foreclosure auction may be the only opportunity to buy it, Huseby said.

With any foreclosure, the status of the property’s title and any outstanding liens can be in question, and these facts need to be hunted down by any prospective buyer, Huseby said. He even suggested potential auction bidders should consider buying title insurance before an auction if they are serious.

cdunn@projo.com