Every part of a down cycle in real estate sees the rise of foreclosure seminars and books touting how to buy a home for half price.  In reality, they are all shams.  Once a home in default reverts back to the lender, they will list with a local agent and the home will be on the open market like any other home and subject to the same competition you were trying to avoid when seeking foreclosures. If you want to buy at the public auction prior to the lender taking the home over, good luck!  You need to bring the entire amount in cash to the foreclosure without the benefit of inspections or title searches.  Not a good way to buy a home for the novice investor.

The only real opportunity for investors is to track the notice of default and trustee sale notices and try and contact these owners on your own behalf and see if a direct sale can be accomplished with a motivated seller.  Even here, these owners will also be getting hounded by other Realtors trying to get listings. 

With all of the information now on the Internet, it is almost impossible to find a great deal since homes with equity rarely go to the end of the process, and homes that have a higher loan balance than the purchase price must be bought from the lenders who are very experienced and rarely sell below market.  If you want to have access to foreclosure information, search our site for foreclosures, but don't get your hopes up too much.  Great deals are hard to find.