Is Subcribing To Foreclosure Websites A Valuable Tool Or Ripoff?
I am very new to REI and have seen quite a few sites listing foreclosures for a price to be able to view them. Are these sites worth it or is the data outdated?
I'm with one thats great in my opinion...
The vast majority of these are merely sellign you things that you can get for free yourself.
I'd recommend looking for a local service that send people to the courthouse every week, and sells you local info that you can acutully use.
Would you mind sending the name via email? Have you been able to successfully complete a purchase that was profitable from info gathered from the site?
To answer the subject lline: RIP-OFF.
I subscribe to one, which is a good one in mu opinion. The one I subscribe to charges a monthly fee, so they have an incentive to make sure that the info they have is up to date.
I have made two purchases with the info that I received from them. So, being that the monthly fee is 20 per month, I could keep sunscribing for many years...
Good luck and happy investing
Derek
Can you email me the name of the site please?
Dear Outdoorsr,
I do not have a clue as to what state you are in but here in Los Angeles I use a service I have used for many years. It is a complete run of all NOD and TD www.sales.They even call the sales one day before and one day after. This catches the postponments and cuts down the run time. check them out on line. www.Retran.net About $79 a month. It is one line you just dial in and the breakdowns are very complete, enough to run on or to contact the Owners of the Properties. It takes a little while to train up to absorb all of the information, it breaks it by Zip Codes and Areas, You just print up what you select, go to the Thomas Guide and set up your run. I average about 4 to 5 a day depending on the heat of the day and the economic conditions of the period. Run too close to first default and you get a lot of doors slammed in your face. Suggest about 2 weeks after NOD. By that time the deluge of paper has hit the negative. Impact value of "normal" mailers is no longer effective. Only the strange and sick ones are still opened. I use some very far out forms aftrer the second week.
The Pink envelope with handwritten address. The formal governmental window document stamped Official Trustee in the upper left. Inside form looks like a duplicate of the Notice of Default but with instructions to call you with the type of text normaly reserved for religious occasions Amen Of course my favorite is the one with Red Confidential stamped on the entire left hand edge of the envelope. You open it up and on 24weight paper very stiff on 18 font bold. Is a small statement which if casualy examined states that you are entitled in California to the services of a Licensed Real Estate Counselor who will upon your call come to your house and solve all of your problems including advanced lepersy. I know I lied, I can't cure Leporsey but then I have yet to run into a case. The return on all this stuff is not great but it is better then the attorney type letters they get suggesting bankruptcy or self emolement. My best shot is hit the door, ring the bell wrestle with the vivious dog or child that bites, and talk to the person who is going down the drain, scared to death and frozen in time and space. Oh dear, there I go on my soap box. In any case do your very best to solve the problem and in the process make a few bucks for yourself. Cheers Lucius
The majority of the sites are rip-offs. Usually, they have very stale information and don't give the complete breakdown of all the trust deeds. Retran isn't bad in CA -- they've now raised their price to $90/mo. Check in your local area to see what companies are pulling directly from the county recorders office and updating them on a regular basis. Many of these companies offer a free trial subscriptions --- check the listings and see if they still active. If not, keep trying. I'm sure there is a good service in your area. You can do it yourself, but the legitimate services cost more money but they are worth it.
In California, you can do it yourself, but are you prepared to look at a tape of 6,000 recordings, select from those recordings the NOD's as they wizz by. Fight the nausea caused by passing page by page. You stop, extract and then go www.again.That's every day, that is why I use the service. I dial in the zip of my area of interest. All the NOD's are there, I select the ones I want to play with and I hit another button and there are all the reports in great detail. I print them, line them up on a plastic Thomas Guide and draw my lines of the daily run. Off I go, water bottle on the seat, Brooks Brothers Jacket and a Borstal (old School tie English). I hit the first door, I notice it is a pub. The name of the Pub, George and the Dragon. The door opens a woman stands there wrapped in an old worn dressing gown. "What do you want?" She screams at me. Before I can answer she slams the door. I stand there a moment and of course I ring the door again. It opens there she stands even more ratty then before."You still here she bellows?" "Please," I reply, can I speak to George?". Cheers Lucius da door knocker.
LOL!
Hi DaveREI and Derek,
Would you, please, email me the address of the pre-foreclosures/foreclosures info sites you're using?
Thanks,
Frantz
I've used one that is pretty good. It's about $40 a month & I have found (and closed on) properties that were listed here before the general market. (I closed on a property in June where I was able to get a 4 day jump on the rest of the market - - this was critical in the final contract!) There are some free services which are worth getting on their email distribution lists as the ones I use do not inundate me.
A lot of the sites, however, are a rip off with very outdated info. The best thing to do is to research some by checking out reviews by users and deciding for yourself.
You might also consider subscribing to or picking up the weekly foreclosure edition of the paper in the county you are investing in. The papers are usually only about a dollar and are loaded with info.
It is also worth forming a good relationship with an agent to feed info to you on foreclosures, pre-foreclosures, and fixer uppers. Try to find an agent who is also an investor!
Good luck!
Jenny
HI.
Please email me off line the name of this service. My email should be in my profile. It's a yahoo email.
Anyway, I wonder if there are any good pre-foreclosure deals in North NJ.
Thanks
-Ariel
The above comments were great. We suggest you talk with your local mortgage broker. They need leads for their mailings and this is how we found a LOCAL service. The price is reasonable $50 for 4 weeks or $270 for the year. The benefit of this provider is online custom reports and filtering PRIOR to downloading the information. Again, call a local service provider and request a trail membership, what do you have to loose.
Eric & Rosa
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