Brand New to investing....Questions on Pre-Foreclosure property!

[Joel Lawson]

Hello All!

I just started listening to the bigger pockets podcast 2 weeks ago and after years of making excuses as to why I couldn't invest in real estate, I'm pushing that all aside and going for it! I have a couple of questions regarding a property I came across by chance that is currently in pre-foreclosure. To give a bit of background:

My grandmother's next door neighborhood passed away a little over a year ago and none of her family members have visited the property to clear out the house, manage the property, or even take over the payments. Reps from the bank recently stopped by and said that because of the default on payments it would be going into foreclosure, but I know this process can be a lengthy one. Being that it is in pre-foreclosure I figured it might be a good idea to try and contact the title owner of the property, and purchase the property at well below market value and then resell, for an easy flip. Being new to this I'm not entirely sure where to start so I'm hoping for some advice. A few questions to get started:

I'm not entirely sure how to find the contact info for the current "owner" of the property. After extensive research online and calling the county register office I still can't find it...any tips here?

Secondly, would offering the owner to get current with payments that are past due, then doing a quitclaim deed be the best route to go? Should I just offer to purchase at a rate well below market value with a substantial amount upfront? Should I look to do a lease to option?....not quite sure the best approach to take.

Piggy backing on the last question, when figuring out what to offer, what numbers should I look at before deciding what that price should be? I know the average listing price in the area as well as the average selling price. I have an idea of what the house is valued at, but I'm not sure what other numbers or formulas I should be looking into in order to help me figure out the numbers moving forward....

I think this is probably a good start, but any other advice would be extremely helpful! Thank you all so much in advance for the help and the encouragement in taking this leap. Good luck to everyone in their ventures!

Best Regards,

~J