Deals on abandoned houses?

[Darvin Ezell]

I am new to real estate wholesaling in the Jacksonville,fl area. I have been driving around trying to find for sale by owner signs and I came across a property that is abandoned. It has a notice up from the mortgage servicer. How would I go about trying to get a deal done with this property? Any help is appreciated.

[Mark Elliott]

hi darvin. here is the possible deal. banks have been dropping some houses from their books lately. by this i mean they started the foreclosure, then decided it was not worth their time and effort to own and resell the house, so they drop it off their books. they then file a release of lein with the local register of deeds. that is key here. if the bank has released the lein, the house now belongs to the orginal owner and you can buy directly from them. the banks usually hire a firm such as safeguard or others to " manage" the house while it is in foreclosure. this being mowing the lawn, checking on the house on a bi-weekly basis, etc. when the lawn stops being mowed, papers pile up on the porch, taxes stop  being paid, etc. its likely the bank has released their lein. you then need to find the owner and buy him out. usually they do not care about the house and will let it go dirt cheap. good luck