Foreclosure in Our Neighborhood

[Chris V.]

We noticed a house in our neighborhood had a yellow paper taped to the front door for a few days, and it doesn't look like anyone's living there now. We live in a quiet, safe and affordable neighborhood. I'm interested in trying to buy the house. Any issues you guys see with owning a rental in your neighborhood? Also, how would I go about asking to buy it before its foreclosed? Drop a note in the mailbox? Does that even work?

I assume that whatever we offer will likely get declined, but just thought it'd be a good chance to try something that makes me hella-uncomfortable, and that is trying to buy someone's house who hasn't listed it for sale.

Thanks in advance for any thoughts/experience, and hope I don't offend anyone.

[Joshua Fulenwider]

Look on your county assessor's website to identify who the current owner is and their address.  If it is a bank it has already been foreclosed and they may be waiting for the redemption period to expire before they list it.  You can contact the bank and try to get first crack at it.  There are rules and sometimes banks are required to list properties.

If it is still owned by a person the county may have a different address.  You may have to do some sleuthing to track down the owner if the address is the same as the foreclosure that they are not living at.  Another option would be to send a letter to the owner at the foreclosure address and hope they have filed a forwarding notice with the post office.