Contacting people who's homes are being foreclosed on

[Bodi Anderson]

I'm a rookie real estate investor and to the forums.  I live in Utah and am trying to find off the market deals.  Has anyone had any luck contacting people who's homes are being foreclosed on and offering to buy the property?  

[Sharon Thorson]

Hiya Bodi,

I live in Temecula, CA (Near San Diego County) and I'm currently in the process of locating Foreclosed properties slated for Auction. My daily routine is: Driving for Dollars, Searching the MLS (I have access since I'm an Agent), checking Craigslist for FSBO's, checking Auction sites, and searching on the Title Company site that a rep gave me access to. I can search for Foreclosures in specific areas and create a list, then pay 0.06 cents per record. The next step is to send the owner a postcard and/or place a hand written letter on the door if you are out and about. I will also be attempting to obtain phone numbers, but haven't got that far yet. I speak with neighbors and ask questions about the properties, and even had one neighbor offer to pass my information on to the owner who he has contact with. I've also placed ad's on Craigslist offering to Buy Homes for Cash. All this while being a single Mom to 3 kids, (which is really difficult because I am constantly being pulled in different directions!)., almost NO capital, and A LOT of sweat equity. I've been at this pretty much daily for about 3 weeks now, but haven't received any solid responses...YET.. I'm NOT GIVING UP!

  I have some friends who are successful Investors and they have told me in my market I will get about a 1/2 percent response rate to any DM, and that's just people contacting me, then I will still need to vet those calls and try to secure a deal. One of my friends sends out 5000 postcards per month!  Unfortunately, I don't have the budget for that now, so it's all on me to do as much of the grind as I can.

  Everyone want's the easy, simple answer to how they get Foreclosed properties, but the truth is, it takes time, energy, research, networking, studying, money for advertising/gas/marketing materials, etc., and most importantly, persistence!

  In the next few weeks, I have no doubt that I will be posting on BP that I have secured my first property, because I am willing to do whatever it takes to get the job done!

   Good luck to you, and feel free to ask me any questions as we are all in this together, and I love that there is a Community in place here on BP, which I check in on constantly throughout the day (and night), and listen to Podcasts religiously.  It really helps to know you are not alone!