PeachParts Mercedes-Benz Forum - View Single Post - Where is a good place to get lists of forclosures??

Jim B. · #6 08-22-2007, 11:38 PM

You know, Hat,

A loooooong time ago I used to sell title insurance for second mortgages and do title searches and write TI policies so I skirted around this stuff once in awhile.

About 90% of this stuff is pure hype and garbage. You see ads all over the place on media and late night TV about how for the price of a loaded Oldsmobile toronado you can snap up properties that would be worth the value of a Jumbo 747.

It appeals to the basest instincts of people immersed in that age old "get rich quick" mentality.

First, you really have to be dogged and determined, there is some work involved. Sure there are always a few notices of default flapping around at the County Courthouse Kiosk but there is more to it than that.

You have to be Really, Really, keen and knowledgeable on the local properties you are interested in. The best residential realtors seem to have a VERY good network of connections and knowledge about a small area known well to them. The bad ones are those who covedr a large territory with little knowedge of large areas, and no knowlege of small areas ...

Could be different in Commercial Real Estate, but, too, those are differeent with lease backs, contracts of sale, other stuff you never see in residential.

Someone who "specializes" in Residential and Commercial Real Estate to me is a BSer - like those auto repair shops: "We specialize in allAmerican and Foreign cars"

There are newspapers out there you can subscribe to, which is I guess what you are asking about, that come out every week or two with lists of notices of default, sheriff's auction, foreclosure auctions, and the like. But they are for the truly serrious and dedicated - is this you?

How good are you at drive by appraising? Do you have bank contacts, who you can call for instant payoff amounts owed on defaulted residences?
Do you cultivate them, take them to lunches? Bankers and lenders LOVE to get taken to lunch, beleive me.

A lot of these properties have multiple loans on them when they go sour.
What about unrecorded loans? Are all the 2nds and 3rds subordinated to the first? No bank worth its salt would EVER loan a penny unless every other loan even first in time got subordinated.

Imagine if a first loan was for $20,000 to Uncle Joe was recorded first in time and the Bankof America loaned $500,ooo and the Uncle Joe loan went sour.
Uncle Joe forecloses, the property sells for $200,000, uncle Joe gets paid his $20,000, and the property sells at 220k at the Courthouse auction, and the Bankof America gets to eat a $320,000 loss.

I have seen some pretty funny scenes when Jr. lenders wont subordinate.
But in the end they always did. BUT, sometimes the banks lose anyway.

Like when the lender owes more than the property is worth. Happens most of the time anyway, which is why the acttual bidders on crunch day are often just the lenders. Would YOU buy a $320,000 house with $400,000 worth of loans and liens on it?

And some of the property is really trash, you would never want it for any money - or on a downward slide.

Me neither.

Things are changing quick these days. People going belly up, houses in foreclosure.

Seems to bring out the worst in people.

A little due diligence is all.

Certainly not preaching. Just giving a few remembrances from a time awhile ago, quite awhile.

You probably forgot more than I know, about a lot of this, but there's a lot of piranhas out there too.

Know your knowledge and your contacts, you should be ok.

It could be a wild ride for sure.

Do you know how to run title searches quick, and if not, have some one with access to a title plant (duplication of City Records, but by property?) Not by name like at City Hall.

Can you pick up City liens, water tax and garbage liens, and do a "name run" on the owners to pick up any Judgments or liens or contractors liens agains them or the property?

My best guess would be that the REALLY good foreclosure stuff goes to the "insiders".....the Banks and Institutional lenders' favored friends and insiders, before it EVER goes to a foreclosure sale.

Hands are shaken, money changes hands, title search run, and then it changes hands one fine morning. It can happen like that. I bet it stilldoes.