newbie quesion - recently sold properties, forclosure lists

[Jimbo]

Hello,

I'm a newbie and trying to start bird dogging. I had a few questions for ya'll experts out there.

- How would i go about obtaining a (free or cheap) list of every house sold in a city (or county?) in the past six months or so. I can't seem to find this master list anywhere.

- Whats the story with pre-forclosure lists? I understand that you can obtain this information from the courthouse or from third party research services. Is it wise to pay for this service, or shold/can i just go to the courthouse for this info?

thanks for helping!!

-Jimbo

[tedjr]

To get most of the houses sold the best way would be thru the MLS service in your area. There may be a service that tracks and lists all sales but I do not know where to get that info. It would be very hard to go to courthouse and look thru all recordings for the past months at least here in Austin.

The list services are a great way to get in on the action. Some are on line and can be fast enough. The best way is to find the property before it even makes it to the courthouse. Visiting the courthouse is the fastest way to find a deal if you have not found it by other means.

Good luck and hope I helped answer some questions

[Admin]

Jimbo,
If you have a relationship with an agent you could get some of the information by particular area, but a list for the city, I doubt it.

For the foreclosures the courthouse will be the quickest.  For the list please see this thread...
http://www.texasrealestateclub.com/forums/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=178&highlight=foreclosure+list

hope it helps...