The Best Way To Find Pre-foreclosures
I am trying to find pre-foreclosures to purchase before auction or SS from the bank. I have been going directly to the records office of the areas that I am interested in and looking at NT of Defaults as soon as they list. Can I get a direct modem acsess to the different records offices? Or is there a listing service that gets the info just as fast? I have heard ones like John Locke talk of data bases that they use but are these inside data bases that only few big guys have access to? I Tried "Foreclosure.com" and wasn't very Impressed. I found going to the records office provided much fresher information. Is there any way to get fresh information from different areas without leaving home.
Thanks for all the help so far!! Shaun 
What will you do once you find such properties?
-Source
There should be a service in your area
that provides you access via the internet.
Do an internet search and there should be a company. You could call up County Records Research in Huntington Beach, Calif. and they would probably know.
Jeff Adam
[addsig]
Hello hrtz4mejod,
There are a couple of factors to consider. The first is to realize what will be your exit strategy once you acquire these properties. The second is determining what your competitors are doing. I have found that advertising with flyers, ads, or signs works better than internet searchs. Just market directly to the people who need your help. Don't worry they will call you.
I agree with giveyoucash:
My partner, Liz, and I got fed up with the prescribed methodologies of going to the courthouses or the auctions, doing mailings, driving around and knocking on doors.
Spend a little money advertising directly to homeowners. They will call. Our approach is a little different because we actually help people work things out with the lenders. We charge a modest fee for our service but we not only save their homes, we save them tons of cash.
ONLY when a case is unmitigatable do we ever talk about liquidating their homes to avoid foreclosure and since we have developed a sense of trust with the homeowner, we more or less have the right of first refusal to acquire their homes at a fair price OR we assign the deal to one of our investors.
This may work in your market as well.
C- <IMG SRC="images/forum/smilies/icon_eek.gif"> [ Edited by cpifer on Date 02/23/2004 ]
Liz,
Kudos to you for structuring something that's mutually beneficial and less mercenary.
Of the cases that you take on, what percentage lead to the purchase of the home.
I've been tinkering around with the idea of viewing people facing pre-foreclosure as potential investors.
In other words, shifting the paradigm from buying the property from them to managing it for mutual gain.
Thanks for the replies. I will try to test what gets the best results. I think I am going to go to a couple of the REI group meetings in my area. Good Investing All
foreclosurefreesearch.com
will send you pre-foreclosure information daily by email. It pulls directly from the county's records as soon as they are updated. I'm using it now, and it works great.
hrtz4mejod,
You asked: "Can I get a direct modem acsess to the different records offices? "
The answer is, no you cant. Over the years, TD's came in different format and even giants such as DataQuick have trouble sorting out ALL information in a one compact data base. As Jeff have suggested, check the Links section of this site or check sites such as www.Foreclosures.com or County Records Research in Huntington Beach, CA. For a cheaper service try www.Realtytrac.com. Hope this help!
Good Luck!
Hi all,
Realtytrac has turned out to be quite a good site. Thanks much for the input.
Shaun
Foreclosures and freesearch are only for REO properties (unless I am mistaken) when I used their service there was nothing "pre" about the foreclosures. It was all "post" and REO (which isn't always a bad thing).
Randall
[addsig]
My local REI group almost laughed at me like I was new at this game (which I am) when I mentioned these websites. They said they COULD work but if I wanted to be a real entrepreneur investor I would have to do more work than visiting a website in order to get the really good deals. I trust them because they all are successful in RE. They almost make me sick how wealthy they are.
I've been told those online foreclosure websites are typically behind, so they really aren't worth your time. You can read the legal section of your local newspaper, that is the earliest a potential foreclosure will be advertised (legally). If you want a pre-foreclosure earlier than that, it needs to be word-of-mouth, referrals, etc.
In Atlanta where I live, there is a service that pulls the info from the 13 county metro area legal newspapers, adds in a little bit more info through research, puts it in Excel and sells it for like $60/mo. Is it worth it? Depends on you.
[ Edited by godiva on Date 06/09/2004 ][ Edited by godiva on Date 06/09/2004 ]