I am young would like to buy my first piece of property, and I have been advised that I should be doing this by buying a forclosure property. I don’t want to go through any of those gimics that you see on TV, I just want to buy a regular house that I can live in, then rent out when I have more money to spend on something. Can someone tell me the best way to find out about finding out and buying these properties, do you do it directly through a bank? How is it done? I want to be able to finance the property, so I can’t buy it outright unless it is really cheap. What should I do?

I am interested in buy in Southern California, and either buying a house or a condo.