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Realty Trac
Anyone use realtytrac? They seem pretty good. I have tried them a few times...Have never been able to purchase a forclosure though. My experience has been when call the lender (the information realty trac provided) The guy told me, he was getting tons of calls for the same property i was calling on, and that he was not the lender, and didn't know why his name was posted on the site)
Realty trac is better than most out there, but the info isn't always the most current... and I have found a few fake listings.
Why is it so hard to find foreclosures?
Where are you looking? There are tons of REO's on the market in the area I live in. You can look at HUD homes online. Find a realtor to send you regular listings of REO's in your local area. I'd be surprised if you can't find any.
Sorry if this sounds ignorant but I am new to this, what does "REO" stand for?
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Originally posted by "handsdown":
This article should explain things for you:
http://www.biggerpockets.com/foreclosure-process.html
I did a free 7 day trial with Realtytrac and found out that all of the listings that they had in my area were at least a year or two outdated. I went so far as to drive by a house, and saw a family eating dinner in there happily. Now either they are the family that would be kicked out soon, or they are the family that bought the property a couple of years ago. I'm assuming the latter. I do have a question though if anyone can help. Suppose a property is and REO, meaning that it has gone through forclosure and auction with no bidders, and is now a bank owned property. And suppose that the property was worth half a million with a default loan of about $50,000. Would it be ok to start negotiations from the default loan amount, or is that not feasible? Thanks in advance to anyone who can help me out with this. :D
You can start negotiation wherever you want, but banks will always try to get as much as they can. You could hope that someone doesn't do the evaluation correctly, but that usually doesn't happen.
Rant Insuing about RT :
I'm a Real estate agent that handles REO properties, I HATE IT when people that subscribe to realty trac call me!
I currently have a property listed, it's a nice little ranch on 1.1ac , as a agent, and one who works with the bank, I know alot of information that most people don't see.
Origional ammount owed on loan (Deliquent ammount) of $139,000
Origional Bank list price for home $131,000
Current Bank list price $119,000.
My estimate is the house is worth $117,900 or something in that area.
I've got MULTIPLE calls from individuals who ask "Will the bank take $85,000". My usual responce is "Why would they take a offer that's $40,000 under what the home is worth, it's not like we're not getting offers on it already". The callers are usually indignant and don't understand why realty trac is giving them a number of $85,000.
Here's why .......Realty trac is STATING on the website that the foreclosed price is $85k , this price is the one that the bank paid for it back at the sherrif sale, no one bid on the property that day. Anyone who's been at the Sherrif sales knows they will bid up to a point where they recover an acceptable part of the mortgage.
Unacceptable figures............Very unacceptable.
Here's what you do if you really want to play the game well.
Go find the mortgage record, amoritize the loan and figure out how much is owed ,then go from there.
These banks aren't out to make money, they're out to RECOVER part of the price they lost.
Realty trac is a very poor tool for finding REO properties...
Brandon that was a awsome bit of info! I too hate realty trac and cancled my membership after the second day. How does someone access the mortgage record? Are there online sources? Any information would be a great help.
Thanks!
Depends on your county...
Google "Your County" auditor, or recorder.
Most counties have auditor RE information on them, and many also have the recorder's information as well. Search the previous owner's name, and find out how much the mortgage was for.
I've also found realquest.com to be helpful in my county for seeing the mortgage information on most properties. I think they may still offer a free trial!
Thanks for the tip on realquest.com. I will use them to find mortgage amounts due. $2.00 a report isn't that bad. I am running into difficulty finding comp sales. I live in Texas and it is a non disclosure state. So all values are estimated based on mortgage amounts. Any info on the most accurate comp sales without having to bug the crap out of my broker?
I guess I could find one that sold near buy and run a realquest report on it.
Of course my view will be in favor of this but...
FIND A REAL ESTATE AGENT THAT INVESTS IN REAL ESTATE!!!!!!!!!!
I deal with foreclosures, and *try* to work with those who invest in real estate. I need about 3 more investors than i have now to be able to get a larger ammount of inventory sold. I run into ALOT of deals in my area (And i'm fairly rural with a county population of 52,000). Most investors won't move, if you're one that does, there will be agents that will be their worth in gold. They'll also be able to pull the comp reports you want ,and help you along the way.
:protest:
I am an investor and a Licensed Real Estate Agent. I signed up yesterday to look for properties for out of my state and browse what is listed in my area. Signed up for the 7 day trial (I'm on day two) and must say that this site is full of errors and outdated information.
I searched the area where I lived and was surprised to see my neighbor's house, who lives across the street, on the list of lis pendens (preforclosure). I just couldn't believe it and decided to do some investigating. When I compared the information on Realty Trac to my area's MLS and my county's public records, none of the information matched. The property description didn't match, the owner name didn't match. I finally located the address of the legal property description and owner name shown on Realty Trac and woudln't you know...it is located on the other side of town! What a waste of my time. I spent over five hours looking at different properties and most of the information was conflicting when I checked it against other reputable sources. I'M CANCELLING MY SUBSCRIPTION ON MONDAY!
I can't even begin to imagine how upset I would be to see my home address inacurrately listed on a Preforclosure list!
I do not know about here but a discussion of RealtyTrac has taken place on numerous websites and mailings lists.
The universal feeling is that they have information but is days, weeks or months behind the live records in the county where the foreclosure action is taking place.
Did you know that many times you can get a list of recently filed foreclosure actions from a local title company? It will be slightly behind the official records at the county but they can supply it as an excel file or just simple text in an email.
They expect a little loyalty. If you do a deal bring it to them to close. That is how they get paid back for getting you the info.
John Corey
i've used realty trac a few times for foreclosures and the same thing happened to me. I called 3 foreclosure ads and they were fake.
I signed up for Realty Trac and actually paid the $200 to be the listed agent for my specific zip code. I was recieving 2-5 leads a day for buyers of foreclosure properties. I am familiar with the rule of 10 on leads and after literally 100's of phone calls calling leads, finding the properties they are looking for and, trying to transact the deal, I found it to be a BIG waist of Time and Money.
In the several months I was the "Prefered Agent" in my area, only 1 person called me directly. They shopped what I gave them and didn't end up buying anything. Of the several hundred other leads I would say 1% are qualified buyers. I am a good agent, and very knowledgable in my area, and have closed several deals on my own; I was new and willing to pay for leads or do whatever would grow my business; but in the end it was a big dissappointment. I always seem to learn the hard way? But I can atleast LEARN from my mistakes and offer this so no one else will make the same mistake. County Tax records and the lists from the courthouse are much more accurate for lis pendins. However, I was small time so I never was able to match or beat what the "power investors" were doing at the auctions. And with only "knowledge" and no "experience" I wasn't able to attract unique buyers. After much discouragement, I gave up and decided to try a different route.
I've been trying to tap into this business for over a year, and finally found 1 investor who was inpressed with everything I knew of this foreclosure business and is giving me the experience of Short Sales and buying REO's all within the last few months.
This website has been the single most effective tool in my research and I have just started to use it over the last few weeks. Thank you biggerpockets, and especially oklahoma1 for all the knowledge that he offers in his posts. I have 1000's of questions still but have spent most of my time reading the forum to "catch up" before I start asking repetative questions.
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Originally posted by "dabeach13":
This website has been the single most effective tool in my research and I have just started to use it over the last few weeks. Thank you biggerpockets, and especially oklahoma1 for all the knowledge that he offers in his posts. I have 1000's of questions still but have spent most of my time reading the forum to "catch up" before I start asking repetative questions.
I'm glad that we've been able to help you in your research! Spread the word and let all of your colleagues and friends know about us! Good luck.
Originally posted by "Richguy512":
they have old data and they are not very reliable. i have used foreclosure.com but they don't have the preforeclosure data in my area like they should. I keep my own list.
Originally posted by "REI":
Did you know that many times you can get a list of recently filed foreclosure actions from a local title company? It will be slightly behind the official records at the county but they can supply it as an excel file or just simple text in an email.
They expect a little loyalty. If you do a deal bring it to them to close. That is how they get paid back for getting you the info.
John Corey
This confuses me....what "Deal" woud you be bringing to them? If you buy property at a trustee sale, my understanding is that there is no need for a title company. Just record the deed they provide, and one representing you as the new owner.
What am I missing?
Originally posted by "split63":
Originally posted by "REI":
Did you know that many times you can get a list of recently filed foreclosure actions from a local title company? It will be slightly behind the official records at the county but they can supply it as an excel file or just simple text in an email.
They expect a little loyalty. If you do a deal bring it to them to close. That is how they get paid back for getting you the info.
John Corey
This confuses me....what "Deal" woud you be bringing to them? If you buy property at a trustee sale, my understanding is that there is no need for a title company. Just record the deed they provide, and one representing you as the new owner.
What am I missing?
There may be other issues with that transaction that would require a title search/insurance.
Regardless, I think it's also about future transactions the buyer may do that the title company wants to do the work on.
while i agree with your general assessment about RT, i would like to differ on others.... In your example, why wouldnt a bank take $85k? Maybe if the house was just foreclosed on and just hit the market, but if the house has been sitting there for a while and the bank is still losing money they might take the offer. The banks have bean counters that crunch the numbers and deceide when to take a loss, or take a lower profit... So if that guy wants to offer $85k, why wouldnt you throw that offer out? Adding to him that the lowball offer will probably sit on someones desk for about a year...
now my personal experience with my first REO and first rehab purchase... We had looked at this house in a nice neighborhood and it needed a lot of work to it... The county valued the property at $95K and the realtor first listed it at $55k then dropped it to $45 k... and the day we were going to put a bid in on it for $40K the bank dropped it to $35K and they finally accepted my offer of $30..... REO's just take a LOT of patience
Originally posted by "schockergd":
Rant Insuing about RT :I'm a Real estate agent that handles REO properties, I HATE IT when people that subscribe to realty trac call me!
I currently have a property listed, it's a nice little ranch on 1.1ac , as a agent, and one who works with the bank, I know alot of information that most people don't see.
Origional ammount owed on loan (Deliquent ammount) of $139,000
Origional Bank list price for home $131,000
Current Bank list price $119,000.My estimate is the house is worth $117,900 or something in that area.
I've got MULTIPLE calls from individuals who ask "Will the bank take $85,000". My usual responce is "Why would they take a offer that's $40,000 under what the home is worth, it's not like we're not getting offers on it already". The callers are usually indignant and don't understand why realty trac is giving them a number of $85,000.
Here's why .......Realty trac is STATING on the website that the foreclosed price is $85k , this price is the one that the bank paid for it back at the sherrif sale, no one bid on the property that day. Anyone who's been at the Sherrif sales knows they will bid up to a point where they recover an acceptable part of the mortgage.
Unacceptable figures............Very unacceptable.
Here's what you do if you really want to play the game well.
Go find the mortgage record, amoritize the loan and figure out how much is owed ,then go from there.
These banks aren't out to make money, they're out to RECOVER part of the price they lost.
Realty trac is a very poor tool for finding REO properties...
where did realty trac come from? i feel like the site shot out of no where from some great marketing through newspaper articles. every single article about foreclosures has realtytrac as a source.
9 years later, any change in sentiment about Realty Trac's online offering?
Time for the 10 year update!
Glad to have bigger pockets as a resource! I was thinking of signing up realtytrac and will not now. I had signed up for HUDforeclosures before and that was a waste- same deal, outdate information. 10 years later, I think it's still the same.
