| Locating high potential pre-foreclosure and foreclosure | | | | and document numbers, and take this with you to |
| property investments is a crucial part of the business | | | | the county recorder's office. Once there you can |
| of pre-foreclosure and foreclosure investing. Especially | | | | review the corresponding documents (i.e. notice of |
| when it comes to pre-foreclosures, a lot rests on | | | | default or Lis Pendens, as the case may be). These |
| your ability to find promising properties as soon as | | | | will give you the loan details and the address of the |
| possible... and before any or many other property | | | | properties being subject to foreclosure proceedings. |
| investors! Unless you hire someone to find potential | | | | 3. Foreclosure Listing Sites |
| investments for you (a good idea in many cases) | | | | There are various companies offering lists of |
| here are the main sources of information about | | | | foreclosures on their websites. In most cases, you'll |
| pre-foreclosure and foreclosure properties that you'll | | | | need to pay a fee in order to access such |
| want to be familiar with. | | | | information. An up-to-date foreclosure listing site can |
| 1. The Local Newspaper | | | | certainly save you time in locating information about |
| Your local newspaper will typically have a "legal | | | | properties undergoing foreclosure. However, just be |
| notice" section where you will find, among other | | | | sure that the information is, in fact, up to date. |
| things, notices that a certain lender has filed, or is | | | | There is no advantage - and in fact there is a |
| filing, a notice of foreclosure on a particular property. | | | | disadvantage - to paying money for out-of-date |
| This basically indicates that a property has gone into | | | | information. |
| pre-foreclosure. Alternatively, newspapers also publish | | | | 4. Property Finders |
| notices of trustee sales and foreclosure auctions that | | | | Finally, you can hire a property finder or "bird dog" to |
| are about to occur, including the time, date and place. | | | | do the leg-work required to find suitable |
| 2. County Recorder | | | | pre-foreclosure or foreclosure properties for you. |
| The local county recorder will keep a database of | | | | Rather than you do all the research, you can hire |
| notices of default. Depending on the county recorder | | | | such individuals to scour the newspaper, county |
| in question, you may be able to search this database | | | | recorder's database and/or foreclosure listing sites. |
| online. For example, you may be able to search by | | | | Even better, though, is to hire someone who has |
| "document type" and get all the notices of default, | | | | connections in the area you are interested in |
| including the relevant owner names and document | | | | investing, and who is on good terms with the real |
| numbers. | | | | estate agents in the area. That way, such hired guns |
| If the online database does not provide details of the | | | | may be able to uncover - and reveal to you - new |
| loans and properties to which these notices relate, | | | | opportunities as soon as they crop up. |
| you can still note down the relevant owner names | | | | |