How do you find real estate foreclosures to buy without buying a list from some marketing firm?

Question

Most of these marketing firms generates the same lead info at a high price? Isn't this info part of public information? Is it fairly easy to research and find with alittle effort?

Answer 1

you can go to your county records office,
my county publishes a daily newspaper, that lists all the foreclosures, addresses and $ amounts associated

as far as Foreclosure auctions, I have been to a couple and they are relativly informal. there is a list of properties that were to come to auction that day
many of those properties are taken off the block prior to auction (due to countless reasons including paper work not turned in, property owner working to get current etc...)
once a property is auctioned, there is a minimum price (in my area seems to be about 3-5% above default rate)
if a property is not sold at auction it becomes bank owned real estate.

notes on auction, you have to have the $ or cashiers checks that can be endorsed over I think they prefer the checks so they do not have to walk around with a bunch of $

bank owned realestate I think is offered by one agent that represents the bank, so a regular agent might not know much about bank owned properties.

hope this helps.

Answer 2

There are several things you need to know when flipping properties.

First of all you should go to the nearest book store, purchase several books on buying, fixing and flipping properties. There are several that you might be interested in.

Once or while you are doing this you should buy one of the TV guru's distressed property programs. These programs will give you some legal forms you might use when writing an offer to purchase a property. You will also find several scripts to use in taking to your potential clients. The also give you tips and a formula on how to figure if you have a property that you can make money from before buying.

If you are without funds to accomplish this business, you will have to find some investors that will assist you. You will have to make a deal with them about a certain percentage of the profits made from the sale of the property.

Normally this is 50/50 however it could be more or less depending on how your relationship is with the investor.

Now you have to determine how you are gonna market yourself to get.

#1 You can purchase a pre-foreclosure list from a list broker (Join the crowd most do this and mail letters to the person that is in foreclosure)

#2 You can advertise in your local paper that you are in the business of purchasing foreclosures.

#3 You can do a direct mail to people in your city stating that you are now in the foreclosure business.

#4 You can do the research at the county recorders office yourself (time consuming and tedious-but workable. You should get enough leads for a least one days work.)

#5 You can select an area of your city that you want to work and target your that area with your energy. You can walk the area pass out flyers that you are now in the business of buying property distressed, divorced and foreclosures as well as probate property.

Pass out these flyers for at least 2-3 months after which you should go to a newsletter of some sort while still explaining that you purchase properties.

After passing out the flyers for 2-3 months you should follow that up with a newsletter to the same area. Check with the post office and inquire about a bulk mailing stamp. This is a more economical way of mailing business matter.

You will want to form a professional team to assist you in your new career field, which should be composed of but not limited to an attorney, cpa, tax preparer, notary public, title rep, real estate agent and others that you feel will make you successful.

They should pass out your business card to their clients that need your services and you should pass out their cards to your clients that need their services

I hope this has been of some use to you, good luck

"FIGHT ON"

Answer 3

You can check your local newpaper for when the auction is coming.
Then if it does not sell at auction it will go to a real estate agent that handles foreclosures. Check with your local realtor.
Do not buy this list. It is not necessary.