Most creative way to find a deal or dumbest idea imaginable ?

[Westin Hudnall]

While listening to Brandon Turners podcast earlier tonight I began to brainstorm in attempts to find a way to easily find great deals (if there is such a thing)and heres what I was thinking :

Since banks know what loans are going in default and will hit their books in the next year ; is their an employee at the bank that you could go to that would have a list of these homes of potential great deals : You could save the bank a year worth of foreclosure costs while taking a handful of properties off their plate

Genius or Idiotic ?  You decide :

[Hattie Dizmond]

@Westin Hudnall 

I'm not going to say it never happens, but what you're suggesting is illegal, from the bank's standpoint.  Names & addresses of mortgagees, along with the current state of their loan is protected information.  The bank can't release that information without the homeowner's permission.  Again, I'm not saying there isn't ever someone doing something shady, but it can't be done above board.  Once foreclosure proceedings begin, particularly in judicial states, the rules change, because it becomes a matter of public record.

I would expect, considering what the potential sanctions could be, the way these brokerages are getting a head start on these deals is that the bank is actually contacting the brokerage to dispose of the property, when foreclosure is achieved.  The bank doesn't really care whether the brokerage sells the property to a 3rd party or buys it themselves, so long as the institution gets what they want from the sale.