Where to Find Foreclosures for Sale
If you are looking for bank foreclosures I suggest you sign up with an online foreclosure listing service. All of them list bank foreclosures, some information is more fresh than others, however not all these services list pre foreclosures or NODs (notices of default), and some don’t even list real estate auctions or sheriffs sales. I teach my students that you can find all this information for free if you know where to look. But if time is money for you go ahead and sign up for these services.
Better than Foreclosure Listings
Do you know what’s better than foreclosure listings or even free foreclosure listings? The name of REO brokers. REO brokers or agents are real estate companies that specialize in bank foreclosures or REO (real estate owned) properties. The secret to making money in the REO market is befriending these REO or bank foreclosure agents. Did you know that REO brokers do BPOs on foreclosures for lenders weeks or even months before a foreclosure listing is even listed on an online foreclosure listing site. So what I do and what I tell my students to do is hunt down these REO brokers or bank foreclosure guys. You need to become friendly with them and if you do they will give you the heads up on all their good deals. Are there any real estate investors out there who have inquired on a foreclosure the very first day on the market and they find out that the property is under contract already? Well now you know why. It happens all the time in the real estate investing industry. Stay tuned for some more foreclosure tips.
Where to Find Foreclosures
A real estate investor can buy a property when foreclosure proceedings have begun (pre foreclosure) by making an agreement with the homeowner. Or a real estate investor can buy a property at sheriff’s sale (real estate auction) or when the bank has repossessed the property which is a bank foreclosure. Bank foreclosures are also called REO or real estate owned in the real estate investing industry. Where do you get the best deals? It all depends. All three have their pros and cons.
Free Foreclosure Listings
What type of foreclosure listings are you in search of? If you go to your county courthouse you can get a free list of notices of default. A notice of default is simply a notice that a homeowner is in default of their mortgage. Some people call it a pre foreclosure. For anyone who is in the short sale business or is looking to get into it, then this is the list that you want. For real estate investors, I suggest you get that list and contact these homeowners via direct mail or just knock on their door. If you discover these homeowners just want out then it’s your lucky day. Have the homeowner sign an authorization for you to speak to their lender and have them sign an agreement to purchase their property. After that just submit your short sale package and wait to hear from the lender. The short sale market is hot right now. In this real estate market there are lots of outstanding loans that are more than the value of the properties and in order for the banks to sell they must take less. How much less? It all depends on their desperation.
Foreclosure Freeze
Why are the banks putting a freeze on their foreclosure proceedings? Did they really lose all those mortgage docs? Have you taken a look at all the foreclosure homes that are on the foreclosure listings services? There is lots of inventory; and when there’s lots of supply, prices will come down even further. I believe the banks are trying to buy more time; waiting for real estate values to increase. They put a freeze on their foreclosures for this upcoming year because they know prices will start to increase in a year from now. These big banks will not sell their foreclosure inventory at a real estate auction right now because they don’t have to. They’re not desperate for cash. They have plenty of money thanks to our great government.