Which bank is foreclosing this house?

[Adam Franco]

I found a single family home nearby with overgrown grass and a winterization notice plastered all over the door and windows, this house clearly screams foreclosure. However, when I look the house up, the owner is listed as a person, that same name matching the name on the mailbox. My question is, how do I figure out which bank is foreclosing on this house? I'd like to try and get in touch with them to purchase the home with cash.

[Frank Chin]

We had houses like this in our area. Some of them are owned by older people who went into nursing homes for a number of years, and then dying with the estate in probate. Interestingly enough, the are no bank mortgages on these, paid off long ago, taxes are paid presumably by folks handling the estate. The only thing is those managing things never got around to get the grass mowed. 

As was mentioned, you can look up liens, mortgages besides names of owners. There are two houses like that on the block next to me, apparently abandoned and I had it checked out.

One such house was built in 1920, and in recent years the property was had names added to the deed. It seems the same family owned it since 1920, no liens. I walk by it every day for several years. abandoned about 2 years ago. First we see overgrown grass, then shutoff notices from the local utility on the door. The public records show the owners name, and googled the original owner's name and found the owner on the deed was the lady in her 80's. The added names had the same last name, and apparently related.

This May apparently someone bought it, tore the house down. I looked up the public records again, and found the house was sold to a developer. The old lady in her 80's apparently is still alive because on the deed, her daughter who has the power of attorney signed for her. It is apparent from the public records that she moved to a nursing home some 2 years ago, still alive, and sold the home with her daughter signing the papers, as POA for her mom.

So overgrown grass, shutoff notices from utilities does not mean foreclosure. It means close relatives don't live in the area, and they didn't hire anyone to mow the grass.

Further down the block, there's house in a similar situation. Appears to be abandoned a year ago. Some junk mail was left behind. One, a phone book wrapped in cellophane was on the front steps all this time, and got moldy. The same soda bottles was left on the front yard for over a year.

Again, the checked the public records, no mortgages and liens. Googled the owners name but couldn't determine if she's living or dead, only she was in the Olympics some years back, Owner would be in her 80's if alive. If I had to check further, I could check with the probate court.

I know in many areas, the above scenes spell foreclosure. But in my area, where homes go from one million to two million, that's unlikely. The more likely explanation is the owner got into a nursing home or died. So your have to start digging and find out.

Alternatively, out on Long Island, not far from me, they have a problem with zombie homes. Owners skipped town. Banks will not take title to these properties even when in foreclosure. So if you search the public records, the owners name still show up.

I bought my current home at a foreclosure sale in 1993. It was in foreclosure for a while before it was sold at public auction. From the paperwork given to me, the bank only deeded the house to it's name, and then to my name after the auction. So it's still under the original owner's name and I understand the original owner, the builder of the house, skipped town over 2 years prior.