Marketing to Preforclosures

[Zeke Sherrod]

Hello Bigger Pockets! 

I am getting started in Wholesaling here in Houston, I have been studying up for a few months and I am eager to start doing deals! I am wanting to learn how to market directly to people that are need help preventing foreclosures because this seems like a good pool of potential deals but I want to:

1. Avoid knocking of every door of a pre-forclosure property owner, fish with a net rather than a hook. and...

2. I certainly don't want to get in touch with people offering help after they have just lost their home.

I am finding most of my pre-foreclosure info on Zillow but I am not sure their info is entirely trustworthy. I am not afraid to knock on doors and have a conversation with folks especially if we can work out a Win-Win deal but I don't want to waist time and efforts on leads with little potential. So my question is:

How do I verify auction dates? Can I just look it up online or do I need to call or visit the County Clerk's office? 

On a similar thought, I recently listened to the BP Podcast where they were discussing advertising with your website and they were also advocating Lead Propeller to this. I already have a URL and I would like to learn more about online marketing with my site so if you guys could point me in the direction of some resources on that I would greatly appreciate it!

Thanks Everyone!