REO/Foreclosure Departments In Banks?
I have been contacting banks by the hundreds trying to get lists of pre-forclosure properties from the REO departments. They all tell me the same thing! Sorry, but we do not have any properties available. So, I figured I must be doing something wrong? Can someone that is experienced with this, please inform me how I go about getting these lists from Bank's REO departments? PLEASE?! 
A book I am reading stated that same thing. He said it is next to impossible to get the banks to admit any REO's being that they don't want any depositors to think they have a lot of bad debt out.
John
Banks can not release any info on pre-foreclosures. They must have the owners permission to talk to you. Your best bet is to use the list in the public record and contact those owners. Hope this helps.
Who told you to do what you were doing?
Tell 'em to give you your money back.
I did not pay anyone to tell me to do what I am doing. I just figured this method would work. My brother-in-law (who lives in Texas) is a Mortgage Banker and he came up with the same idea and has been successful at it over there. I though it may just be NYC that makes it difficult!
Oh well, I will look through public records at the court house.
NYCinvestor,
I also sent out 196 lettters to banks in my area and I got 8 responses and only 2 admitted they had REO's. I have now moved on to pre-foreclosures and I have had much better response. The only setback for me is that I have to go to the courthouse personally to pull information, but I have sent half as many letters andd gotten far better response from it. I have gotten 6 contract from 70 letters and I got 10 ot those letters were return to sender. I recieved aproximately 14 calls and made 8 appointments from those. The other calls were people just wondering and 1 guy even thanked me for the letter because he didn't know that he was being foreclosed on. He fixed his situation and called me to thank me for brining it to his attention. Good luck
reo=real estate owned. you deal with who is owning the property at the time. given that:
pre-foreclosures you deal with the owner because they're still on title, then with thier approval, you enter dialogue with the lender's loss mitigation department.
foreclosures you deal with the lender (REO), because the bank owns it again - after sale.
at any rate, here's 1 site that has reos:
http://www.ocwen.com/residential/reofindbystate.cfm
NYCinvestor- it seems you are getting a lot of conflicting info here.
Are you really seeking PRE-foreclosure properties from banks (Properties that haven't been gone to the auction yet) or REO's (Post foreclosure- properties that have been to the auction and the bank ended up with no bidders so they own them)?
Pre-forecolsures are not going to be available from the banks, they are in the process of foreclosure and won't disclose them to you, if your brother in law is getting that information I would considered it insider information that he is receiving, and the banks are violating privacy laws.
You get pre-foreclosure info from public sources such as the papers that they publish the foreclosure notice in, or the county records. (as well as subscription services you pay for) It isn't that the banks don't want to admit anything about owning pre-foreclosures, it's just that they really don't own them yet in that process.
Now REO's are a different story. I have seen tons of advice posted, or in books or even from gurus saying you have to contact the banks directly for their lender owned properties list. It is my experience that that information is not correct. In my neck of the woods and it seems in the majority of places across the country, banks are simply listing every REO they have with a listing broker, who places it in the local MLS. So there is no treasure hunt for REOs, just a simple search of the MLS for usually "lender owned" or "bank owned" properties.
I haven't ran across banks that are ashamed or hiding the fact that they have foreclosures on the books, in fact it is just the opposite. As a business, they seem to realize that having them is part of doing business in mortgages and the best way to get rid of them is to expose them to the people who have the ability to take them off their hands, which is investors and potential homeowners, which is why they list them in the MLS.
So there are no REO's in NYC?? Death (4closure) must have taken a holiday over there..
The fact is that you called "hundreds" of banks with the same outcome. It follows that there are "hundreds" of other investors/tire kickers calling each bank..
Banks are in the banking business not the real estate business. They let the real estate companies handle the marketing of their REO's. Call the major real estate companies in the area and ask to speak the the agent who handles the bank's REO. Cuidado: All agents can handle FHA/VA REO. You're looking for the agent who is specifically wired to the bank.
Mr. pejames came from an interesting anglecovering what heppens when the people do not know that they are been foreclosed on and you alert them with your letter. Oh, it hurts pejames to know that you saved someone home and got "thank you" instead a $1,000.00 gift certifiacte for example....
I often run into such situations when I work the tax defaulted properties. People move and forget to change the mailling address. USPS forwards the mail for 6 mo and than it stops and the mail starts going back to sender who in the case of State, NEVER looks for you, knowing they have the leverage.
When they do not get the bill in the next several yoears, owner often think "gov might have forgoten me, just to learn the hard way that you cannot get away without paying property tax unless you are a buyer in NY. As fa ra s I know there the cort wipes out all the lins when you buy the proerty in court. beside that, it is werry nice to hear anouncement how much is owed on the property on which you have a 30 days to pay... In NY, you only have to have a 10% check on tht day of biding ...
Usually wifes who manage to extract the house, condo or other rental properties from their past "beloved" husbands do not know a darn thing about records and tax obligations so the record statest the wrong address...
This most often hapens with rented out condos. Owner might still be registered to live there but when tenant gets the mail, it toses it in the trash not wanting to gamble if he going to be trowen out or not, which heppens anyway if someone do not alert the wify. [ Edited by omega1 on Date 12/22/2003 ]
pejames mentioned an interesting situation covering the angel whayt heppens when the people do not know that they are been foreclosed on.
I often run in those situations when I work the tax defaults properties. People move and forget to change the mailling address. USPS forwards the mail for 6 mo and that it starts going back to sender. Owner sometime think that gov forgot to charge them so tehy lern the hard way that you cant get away ... Usually wifes who manage to extract the house, condo or other rental properties from their past "beloved" husbands do not know a darn thing about records and tax obligations so the record statest the wrong address...
This most often hapens with rented out condos. Owner might still be registered to live there but when tenant gets the mail, it toses it in the trash not wanting to gamble if he going to be trowen out or not, which heppens anyway if someone do not alert the wify.