Foreclosure lists, where can you get the listings directly?!!?

[verbsara]

I've been struggling  to find directly information with foreclosures. It appears everyone is charging $9.99 per month for a listening of foreclosures in any given state.  Can anyone explain where exactly one can obtain these listings themselves?  Whom in the city or state do you contact to obtain a list of all the foreclosures?   Another question is how exactly do you proceed to act on a foreclosure, do you contact the bank who is in control, and how exactly do you find out which bank owns the foreclosure property?

If anyone can please help I'm lost in this world and really looking to get some great advise.

Thank You so much

[Mark-Austin-TX]

What city(s) are you interested in?
Realtors have quick access to LOTS of
information. We can estimate
the market value of a house in just
a few minutes.
Furthermore, we pay a lot of money to have
quick and easy access to a large amount
of comparable, updated and relevent housing data.
I would recommend
building a relationship with a hungry
Realtor who has time to meet your specific
needs.
Any ?'s?
Peace
 

[Me]

Tipical answer coming from a realtor.

So be honest and answer the question if put another way.

Many of us want to buy directly from the city,county or state selling forclosures so where do we get those FREE list.

Why should we pay a hefty commission when those same list are available to everyone.

Stop being secret about it and tell all of us where to find those list.

[Mark-Austin-TX]

I'm not trying to be secretive. By definition, I would have to to have a "secret" for me to be "secretive."

VERBSARA was referring to foreclosures, not PRE-foreclosures.

I DO NOT CHARGE "A HEFTY COMMISSION" TO INVESTORS.
My commission is paid by the seller.
In the case of foreclosures, the seller is usually a Bank or the Gov. If you go straight to the seller, the foreclosure listing agent (who lists all of the foreclosures in a given area) will get the investor's agent cut of the commission anyway.
Are you aware of how commissions work?

Furthermore, MY LISTS OF FORECLOSURES ARE FREE TO MY CLIENTS, who do not pay me anything.

Even if VERBSARA was referring to pre-foreclosures, which
she may have been, why would you wait for a list to come out?
The smart thing is to market yourself as an investor and have the leads come to you. If you think you can make money by browsing the internet for free lists, you are sadly mistaken.

Good luck.

[Skeeter]

Mark

How about Houston Texas?

[fawna]

so, if you go down to your local bank and say, "gee, would you show me your list of foreclosures, i am an invester," do you think that they would do so?  By the way, all those services that charge $9.99 on the internet or whatever, where do they get their information?

[Skeeter]

Are those "lists" that you pay $9.95 a month for "old news" or they listing homes that are "posted" for foreclsure??

[Mark-Austin-TX]

Skeeter and co.,
Sorry about the delay.

All of the bank, REO and HUD foreclosures are are now listed on
the local m.l.s. so they sell quickly. They are very popular amongst investors and people looking for instant equity.

Suprisingly, only a few realtors know how to customize their m.l.s. search so they only bring up foreclosures.

If you want a free list, no charges, just find a realtor you like on a personal level. Honestly it may take a week or two :-)

Then ask them if they know how to pull up all of the foreclosures for a given area or city. I cannot do this for houston, only Austin and surrounding cities.
They will probably tell you that they can't or don't know how.
(it's a matter of creating a custom search and knowing what catagories/labels to include.)

I guess you could go to each bank and ask for a list, but that would be a huge waste of time. You'd be better off paying for a list, which I've heard are often out-dated by up to a couple weeks. (you need to know of new foreclosures THE DAY they come on the market)
There are a lot of different banks holding foreclosures.
Also, keep in mind that many foreclosures use an internet bidding system. Basically you bid via their web site and all bids are assessed in a given period.
Most bidding systems require bids to be submitted through a broker to protect all parties and make sure everything is legit. (ALL VA and HUD's, along with some banks)

The minute a new foreclosure is added to the market, it's emailed directly. This is what almost ALL investors do to stay ahead of the competition, or to stay current with the competition I should say.

Hope this helps!

[Mark-Austin-TX]

Oops, almost forgot,..
The internet sites that offer these lists get the list from Broker/Realtors,... the same way I described above.
They usually have some kind of contract with a brokerage.
When you give them your info and sign up, you will likely have a realtor offering you his/her services. This is not the way to find a realtor. You should go to realtor.com or call around until you find someone who you think will have the time/expertise to help.
Hope this helps!

[fiatx199]

Verbsara;

Depending on the county and state you are in, there may be different ways to obtain a pre-foreclosure list or NOD lit. Some areas all you have to do is go to your county clerks office and request it. When the lender issues a notice of default or NOD they often register this with the count clerks office. Your county clerk may give you a print out or simply allow you to view it and copy it.

Another way is through your small community newspaper. They often list 2 to ten pages of pre-foreclosures each week or two. These are not the main large city papers but the community papers.
I hope this helps.

[RALORA]

Skeeter and co.,
Sorry about the delay.

All of the bank, REO and HUD foreclosures are are now listed on
the local m.l.s. so they sell quickly. They are very popular amongst investors and people looking for instant equity.

Suprisingly, only a few realtors know how to customize their m.l.s. search so they only bring up foreclosures.

If you want a free list, no charges, just find a realtor you like on a personal level. Honestly it may take a week or two :-)

Then ask them if they know how to pull up all of the foreclosures for a given area or city. I cannot do this for houston, only Austin and surrounding cities.
They will probably tell you that they can't or don't know how.
(it's a matter of creating a custom search and knowing what catagories/labels to include.)

I guess you could go to each bank and ask for a list, but that would be a huge waste of time. You'd be better off paying for a list, which I've heard are often out-dated by up to a couple weeks. (you need to know of new foreclosures THE DAY they come on the market)
There are a lot of different banks holding foreclosures.
Also, keep in mind that many foreclosures use an internet bidding system. Basically you bid via their web site and all bids are assessed in a given period.
Most bidding systems require bids to be submitted through a broker to protect all parties and make sure everything is legit. (ALL VA and HUD's, along with some banks)

The minute a new foreclosure is added to the market, it's emailed directly. This is what almost ALL investors do to stay ahead of the competition, or to stay current with the competition I should say.

Hope this helps!

Mark,

I'm new to REI and have access to the MLS thru a friend. However he's a fairly new Realtor and we don't know how to do the search for foreclosures. Could you could share how to?
Thanks ahead,

Raul-Florida

[Mark-Austin-TX]

Sure RALORA.

We use a program called tempo to access the mls and county tax records.
As long as your realtor's mls program is reasonably current,
this MAY work the same.

1. Create a custon search.
2. Choose all of the specific fields you'd like the search to include.
  (i.e. list price, ADOM,CDOM, area, yrblt, etc.)
3. Make sure you choose "LABEL" as well as the above criteria.
   That's the most important part.
4. Then save the search.
5. Now bring up the custom search and scroll down in the "LABEL"
   box until you get to "HUD/REO/VA" (all of the different    
   foreclosures). Make sure this is the ONLY field highlighted.
6. Then click search and it will only bring up listings that are either HUD(gov.), VA (veterans affairs), and REO (real-estate  owned,banks) foreclosures.

Voila!

Please let me know this works. I'm curious as to whether all mls programs let you do this.
-Mark

[dsincere]

I use realtytrac.  

[Mark-Austin-TX]

Realtytrac, eh.
To access the mls?
Are you the agent in question whose helping out?

[Skeeter]

Newbie question and complaint

Is this "Realtytrac" worth the money?

I am working with two agents and one is working hard, but we keep coming up with no houses to re-hab!  Where is the best place to find foreclosures????????