Posted by John sterling on October 01, 2003 at 14:28:37:
Here is an up to date list of all the states and all the counties who have their information on line. First you will need a fast connection to download and view the PDF files, cable or DSL?
Then just chick through to the county that you want and take a look at the search page, you may want to clear your internet files and cookies first, and some sites may need a small adjustment in your internet security settings to a lower setting?
Do a search for just one business day at first to get up to speed on what you are looking at.
additional progress, foreclosure chasing - Posted by John Sterling
Posted by John Sterling on September 28, 2003 at 13:51:30:
Well one or two small steps at a time seems to be doing the trick.
Joined REAPS a local real estate investment club here in Seattle and basically found the overall answer to finding private money.
For Private money the best way is probably just run an ad in the paper for a month looking for the sources. A member of investment club gave me this advice as I am sure it has been mentioned on this board many times in the past. The rate is typically 12% and 2 points. The points kind of acting as a prepayment or yield helper when the money just comes right back to the investor in a very short time.
Back to chasing the foreclosures- For the most part, very few people are actually going to the trouble of knocking on the door of the home in foreclosure in my general area. Sure there may be hundreds of people attending the next “how to buy foreclosure property” seminar at the Investment club meeting next month, but the % of people who continue to knock on a week to week basis is virtually very close to zero in my opinion. But I LOVE it, I always think in my mind that the owners are going to just invite me in and beg me to buy their house at any price and terms that are agreeable to me. No matter what the result, I always go to the door with this in mind. Possibly the biggest challenge in buying foreclosure property before the sale is your attitude and what is rolling around in your brain that keeps you from knocking on that door to find out what is really going on in the possible sellers mind.
Well I am off to look at and find the possible seller on two houses today. Good luck and happy hunting to all other chasers out there in real estate land.
John,
I was wondering what steps you take when buying foreclosures. I just closed on my first fixxer upper project last week and am starting the rehab. I bought this property from a pre-foreclosure company. I got a great spread, (bought for 75k comps 125k) needs about 15k in rehab. I would like to start getting leads on people in foreclosure and go knock on there door. Where do i get the leads and how do i sort through the good one, the bad, and the ugly? Do you have any scripts you use or systems. Any info is greatly appreciated!
Health, wealth, and happiness!
Re: additional progress, foreclosure chasing - Posted by TroyT
Posted by TroyT on September 28, 2003 at 18:19:26:
Good for you John. Its sad that so many investors stop at attending the seminar. Harvey Mackay said that 90% of business is just showing up. The rest is having something to say. (I’m poorly paraphrasing him) Too bad more people don’t leave the theoretical world of Real Estate Investing and jump in with both feet. Perhaps that’s a good thing, reduced competition, but I find I can’t handle all of the potential deals around me.
Re: additional progress, foreclosure chasing - Posted by John Sterling
Posted by John Sterling on September 28, 2003 at 19:16:14:
Ryan,
I simply look at all the postingsor listings of trustdeed sales on the county records search for King and Pierce Counties. The information is available on line and is free for public use.
Then I look at every recorded notice of trust’s sale about 1 month before it is going to auction. I try and review and understand what is going on based on the age of deed, loan amount, grantor, husband and wife, single, is there a divorce in the chain of title, are there other liens in the chain of title, when did they buy the house and for how much? What are my existing loans or loan in addition to the deed going to sale? Do these grantors get themselves into and out of foreclosure all the time? or is this their first time? Are they behind in their property taxes? what would be my best guess as to a market value based on what, when and howthe owner’s purchased the poroperty, etc, etc, etc.
In other words I want to understand as much as possible before I head out to the property and knock on the door.