Alternative strategies for buying abandoned properties?

[Neil Sinha]

Hello BP!  I've been locating abandoned properties here in San Antonio with the belief they are more likely to be distressed and have value.  Most have either deceased owners or owners who have abandoned the house out of fear of collections / foreclosure.  Some examples:

Scenario #1)Owner inherited it from mother, used it as collateral for cash-out refinances to fund a failing small business.  Declared Ch13 and then Ch7 bankruptcy and had debts discharged but lien remains on property.  Fled home, but all publicly available info still has that as his residence.

Scenario #2)Owner took out home equity loan before passing away about three years later.  They had no children, so next of kin are two siblings.  I reached a niece that held a memorial service for the deceased owner.  She believed bank owned property now because of loan, but no foreclosure has happened.  I offered to help family probate estate and clear lien, so that they could profit.  She declined.

Scenario #3)Owner was caught up in predatory lending refinance scam (found online info of a class action lawsuit including the loan), but has left property.  Was listed on a foreclosure notice last fall but didn't proceed to auction.  Have made contact with owner's brother, but don't know where owner is.

My general idea has been to try and skip-trace the owners or their next of kin and see if we can arrange a short sale to net them a small proceed instead of leaving the property vacant. However, making contact with these owners and families is proving difficult. So, I'm wondering if anyone here on BP has alternative strategies for similar situations. Does pursuing the non-performing note ever pan out by securing a collateral interest in the property? Are there other means to bring the owners to the table and incentivize selling their share of a distressed property? I've found several of these situations and feel there is equity there to be discounted, since they're not completely underwater relative to ARV, so I'm just trying to figure out an angle. Thanks for any insight.