Mining For Gold At The Court House
OK- I am new, and just had my first trip to the court house today in search of opportunities. Here are some of the things I am thinking I can be looking for:
Forclosure notices (trustee sales).
Divorce filings.
Privately held mortgages.
Probate court proceedings.
I have a couple of questions... Are there many of you out there that go to the court house to find gold? If so, what specifically do you look for?
I have a good idea of what to look for on the first three items, but what should one look for in the probate court? How can I cross reference these proceedings to those that have property to sell? What type of marketing techniques are used for inhereted property?
Sorry to ask so many questions, but I need some insight. I know there is a huge opportunity out there, but I just need to figure out how to find them efficiently.
Help? 
Hi fordecan,
It might be a good idea to focus on one (or two at most) of those areas and specialize in them. The areas that you suggested below, all fall into different categories, as to how you would market to them.
Although there may be opportunities in all of the areas that you listed, your best bet may be to work the Foreclosure notices and specialize in those first. Go to the courthouse every 10 days or so and update your list of NOD's. Create a marketing campaign for them (postcards or letters) and mail to them often (not just once). You may have to change the wording or approach in your marketing, but continue to change and work it until it is oiled like a choo-choo train!
As soon as you conquer this, then, if you still have time left, open your investment career up into another category and do the same thing over again!
Best of Success!
BAMZ
Smiling~....Jack of all trades?
Thanks BAMZ. I understand the need to focus. Do you or anyone else have a good postcard to use for forclosures? I am also looking for a good subject-to contract. Any leads there?
Appreciative in Idaho!!!
Hi Fordecan,
For marketing info, try here http://www.thecreativeinvestor.com/modules.php?name=Downloads&d_op=viewdownload&cid=10
BAMZ
hey fordecan, you must be in ada county ..i started out there and found that NOD's were very easy to find on micro, and, all your in-depth prelim title searches were all right there at the tip of your fingers..and yes, it is a gold mine doing your own searches and being diligent about it in ada county..let me know how the market time is up there..
regards-pat
fordecan,
Your assessor is on line at : http://www.adacountyassessor.org/propsys/index.jsp but it appears that you will have to go to your recorder’s office and do as Pat suggests above.
Best of luck
John (LV)
[ Edited by jfmlv1950 on Date 01/04/2004 ]
Thanks Pat and John... I have not yet gone back to the court house, but I plan to. I am going to try to stick to L/O's to start out... I am finding that if I try to do 2-3 methods of REI it is overwhelming... Especially since I am new. L/O's seem to be a hot market here right now...
I wish you the best of luck as well.
I have found that the Probate leads are the easiest to work with, foreclosure leads have everybody and their mother trying to contact them. I have found that there is a much smaller group of people at least in my area approaching properties going through probate. What I do is go through the most recently filed cases find out if there is a property going through probate and approach the PR about purchasing the property. This approach has been very successful for me. Good Luck
So once you market to these people about your interests to purchase, what is the avg. amount of money you need to purchase? Can you do it with little cash?