RealtyTrac and Foreclosures

[Brian White]

I'm sure this is a newbie question. However, there are so many tools out there, from Zulia, MLS, BP, etc that I'm trying to figure out which are valuable and for what. Has anyone used RealtyTrac for foreclosure research and notification? Is it helpful, timely and accurate or way behind any action that could produce a good deal?

Thanks for your help!

[Chris Martin]

It has been a long time since I looked at RT. Years ago, it was a joke. I posted as much here (http://www.biggerpockets.com/forums/16/topics/57543-realtytrac-banked-owned-but-not-for-sale-) on 11/28/2010. And they used to mislabel REOs, and called them foreclosures so you couldn't identify where a property was in the foreclosure process (I posted as much on 5/16/13 here: http://www.biggerpockets.com/forums/41/topics/89410-best-way-to-find-foreclosures-preforeclosures-in-charlotte-looking-for-primary-residence )

So I looked again (first time since 5/16/13) with no prejudice... just using an initial "easy" test for realtyTrac to master. I used the trustee sale list for upcoming sales. I narrow down to property #1 in Apex, NC. RealtyTrac has the property identified correctly as AUCTION (Trustee sale) but the opening bid is incorrect. They call it the "Est. Opening Bid", but the trustee has already priced it, and RT is off. So for #1, RT is not helpful since they provide incorrect information that is publicly available. So... on to property #2. Also in Apex, the sale of this property was postponed by the trustee until 1/2/2015. RT says: "Auction Date: 8/29/2014 (Awaiting Update)" The update (the correct information) is publicly available, from the courthouse and from the trustee sale list. Their data is woefully out of date and useless.

0-2 is enough for me. Test over. And this was 'easy' for them. They failed. Sorry, they add no value to me.

At least in my area, you would do better just following the trustee published information, e.g. http://www.rtt-law.com/reports/Sales_Report.pdf