Recommendations on Finding Preforclosures

[Diante Lawrence]

What is a good website to find preforclosures lists?

[Sean OToole]

@Bob Okenwa - thanks.

@Ron S. - Not sure where you learned that, but the industry standard definitions also widely used by government agencies are actually a bit different.

Delinquent - The period of time between when the owner misses a payment and the filing of the first foreclosure notice - Notice of Default, Notice of Sale or Lis Pendens depending on the state.

Preforeclosure - The period of time between the first foreclosure notice being filed, and the actual foreclosure itself - essentially "before the sale". 

Foreclosure - The act of foreclosing - just a moment in time when the foreclosure sale is actually held.

In Foreclosure - Short for "in the foreclosure process", and includes everything between the time the first foreclosure notice is filed, and the bank ultimately reselling the property. There's been some industry debate on the last part, but this remains the common definition.

There are a couple of other things that probably deserve clarification:

1. It is absolutely LEGAL for credit bureaus to sell delinquency data. Because it is credit data and not public records data, there are strict requirements for those buying those leads, and around how those leads can be used. While it is therefore possible, unfortunately if you follow those requirements you'll also likely see zero results on your marketing efforts. If you don't follow the requirements then you are breaking the law. Thus some oversimplify by saying the leads themselves are illegal, but that isn't actually true. Our company chooses not to sell them because we don't see any legal way for our customers to see decent results, but we certainly could.

2. Contrary to popular but very misguided belief, getting to people facing foreclosure "early", is actually the least effective point in the process. When someone first misses a payment, or even gets their first foreclosure notice they typically still believe they can resolve the problem. The most successful "preforeclosure" investor I ever met bought almost all of his deals by tracking sales that were postponed due to bankruptcy. He then watched PACER to see when the motion for relief from stay was issued, and would then talk to the owners as at that point they finally had no more options and were truly going to lose their home.

@Diante Lawrence - I can't help you in Florida, but if you want to purchase lists of preforeclosures vs going to the county and collecting them yourself, I'd actually recommend Attom Data (RealtyTrac) out of all the foreclosure data providers for your area. Corelogic (Listsource) has too many delays and Attom has a large network of abstractors. If you can afford it use their professional data solutions rather than their consumer site though.