The banks REO (Real Estate Operation or Office) will have a list of the houses that are in the process of being foreclosed. What you really want is to get the list of deadbeats and contact them before the house gets foreclosed. Many times you can pick up the house for the balance of the mortgage as most homeowners do not want a foreclosure on their records.
This is what all the "we buy your house for cash guys are doing.

When a house goes to a bank auction the bank will get the price of the balance of the mortgage, any additional money goes back to the owner.

For a Sheriff's auction, the money goes to pay back taxes, then next in line is the bank and then are all the other lien holders. This can be more expensive then just getting the house for the mortgage balance, but the good thing is that a Sheriff's deed wipes out all liens on the house. I bought a house at a Sheriff's sale in NJ back in 2001.

I have also used www.foreclosurefreesearch.com in the past but never bought anything I found there.

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