I have located pre-foreclosed homes...now what?

[Josh Picker]

Hello, 

I have mapped out three homes in pre-foreclosure that I found using the Foreclosure.com website. Extremely useful site for anyone who is looking for homes in pre-foreclosure. I found information on the owner, lender, trustee, etc. 

Now what is my process? I was planning to go door-knock this weekend and introduce myself to the owners. I do have several questions before doing this: 

1. How do I know how much to offer the owners? Is there a general rule when making an offer to an owner in pre-foreclosure? 

2. Should I be contacting any other intermediaries or third parties? I.e. their lender, Trustee? 

Thank you!

[Doug Woodville]

Hey @josh picker I don't think you need to be contacting their lenders as I believe they still have the ability to pay the default amount and come out of pre-foreclosure. I think a good place to start is just like any other house that needs work. Get the ARV's, tour the house and create a repair estimate and determine if its a deal using those numbers first. Find out what the owner owes and what they want to walk away with and then see if all of those numbers align. If they don't then you might have to start negotiating or you might have to walk away. Obviously in this situation you'll be speaking to them first so you might be able to determine what they owe and what they want to walk away with before creating an estimate. I'd hope you know the area decently so just by those numbers you can judge if it's worth doing an estimate.

Does this make sense?