The Thrill of the Chase

[Wayne Thurber]

So after being disappointed by the bank's unwillingness to negotiate realistically on foreclosures lately, I decided to start venturing into some of the more proactive methods that you read about in the books and try to locate vacant/derelict properties myself. I got a lead from someone in my network about a vacant house (extremely rare here) in a more mature subdivision where he sometimes walks his dog. The homes are from the late 60's and this one will obviously need to be updated and have the exterior redone, but would be a great project at the right price. The area is ideal for a low-risk flip because its mostly all tract housing, and this house was the most common design; meaning I can easily figure out what price I would get for the home once completed. I went to Google street view to check it out and noticed a paper stuck to the exterior wall. Score! I drove down to the home to see what the paper said. It was a notice from the county to address the safety hazards lying around the property and had the homeowners name on it. I was able to Google search the name and found an older gentleman of the same name in an online newspaper article who was an avid participant in a sport locally, but no real info aside from that. He was old school, so no facebook, no home phone, no e-mail, etc. I had another contact who was actively involved in the same sport as this homeowner and was able to tell me the general area of town that he thought the homeowner lived. After that conversation, I went back to Google to look up the association of the sport that he was involved in and found that he had been the president of one of the local chapters in the past, but the president's contact information was the e-mail address of a lady. So I did a google search of the lady's name and found her listed phone number. I reverse searched the phone number and found she is the owner of a house in the area where my second contact believed the homeowner resided. So long story short, I believe I now know where he currently lives, his current phone number, a mailing address that he actually would receive mail at and should be able to contact him through any one of those mediums (perhaps more than one) once I figure the best route to break the ice with him. I am sure he's been badgered by realtors and flippers in the past (in fact I know a few people that stated they left cards or letters at the house before). Anyway, I know this is only the first small step, and there is a long way to go to achieve anything out of this, but it made for an exciting day of clue searching for me which I'm usually not accustomed to as part of my search for deals.