@Zach Schwarzmiller
Trustee sales and Preforeclosures while kind of related have different criteria and require different approaches. It used to be that many properties headed to auction had equity and were ripe for preforeclosure approaches. These days very few have any equity so your only real hope is to stave off the sale by trying to push through a SS. That being said I did see one sneak by last week.
In WA prior to trustee sale a notice of trustee sale (NTS) must be posted at least 90 days prior to the auction date. These notices can be found a number of ways:
1. Searching through the NTS postings yourself. This can be rather tedious and requires some knowledge on your part.
2. Checking with the trustees directly. There are a handful of trustees that handle 90% of the sales, some of them operate websites, others email out lists or have phone numbers.
3. Signing up for a data service. There are a handful of websites you can subscribe to that collect most of the NTS data and make it available to you.
4. Signing up for an auction service. There are a number of local companies that for a fee specialize in helping investors buy properties at auction. This would be the most turnkey option.
It gets a lot more involved, I can answer any specific questions you have about the pros/cons of each or anything else.
I ran a brief basic search (snohomish county, 5+ acres, SFR) and there are properties that meet that description that have a open NTS.
