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[ Follow Ups ] [ Post Followup ] [ The Forum Board ] [ FAQ ] Foreclosure Investing Posted by List of My Trustee's Sale Process/Research Steps on December 13, 2009 at 4:46 PM I am retired computer programmer, past real estate broker and real estate title searcher and have been following foreclosures for about 4 years now. My Missouri county has about 25 listed sales a month now. I don't have a lot of money to invest so I'm risk averse and don't bid often. However, over time, trial and error have taught me the following approach: 1) First, keep track of the sales by designing a form where you can note key information of each trustee foreclosure sale listed. Mine includes date/time of sale, name of mortgage holder, date/recorded id of mortgage, $amount of mortgage, address of property, trustee holding sale, trustee contact info, opening bid, notes. 2) Some of this info is not available from the foreclosure listing. The opening bid will not be listed. The property address will often not be listed. $Amount of the mortgage will not be listed. This is all filled in with research. 3) DO NOT START ANY RESEARCH until a week before the sale. Most sales are cancelled or postponed so don't waste your time. 4) AFTER THAT TIME, call/check web site of the trustee to see if sale is still scheduled and will they give you an address. If not, you can get the address by calling/visiting the county tax office based of the name on mortgage. Is the property well located or looks of interest to you? (THE NUMBER ONE PROBLEM WITH FORECLOSURES IS THAT YOU CAN SELDOM SEE THE INSIDE OF A HOUSE TO SEE IF IT HAS BEEN TRASHED/STRIPPED OF VALUABLE HOUSE PARTS. If the outside central AC unit is gone, beware!) 5) If it looks of interest, contact trustee (call and/or look at their web site) to see if they have an opening bid on it? 6) If the opening bid looks attractive or is not available, continue research. (Often, no opening bid is available until the day of sale.) 7) Go to county recorder's office and lookup $amount of mortgage. Why? It will tell you what a bank/appraiser thought the property WAS worth at one time. If it is a low amount, it COULD mean it is a 2nd mortgage foreclosure (danger!). 8) Contact the trustee again to see if they NOW have an opening bid? 9) If still of interest, you must dig into the legal history of the property further at the recorders' office. Have all prior mortgages been paid off (released)? Are there any liens (state/ federal income tax, city fees, Home Owners Assn, etc) against the property? Will they be released at a foreclosure sale? 10) Contact the trustee again to see if the sale is on schedule, how must payment be made (full cash/10% deposit/Wire) and do they NOW have that damn opening bid!! This is all time-consuming work and most (80%) of the foreclosures will be cancelled or postponed. Also, of the remaining 2 out of 10 that go to sale, 70% of those will not be worth the opening bid and there will be no bidders. Of the few remaining that might be worth bidding on, there will often be other bidders that will pay more than YOU want to bid. This game of cashing in on foreclosures is TOUGH to win at. Any comments/suggestions on this brief outline? LarryG Follow Ups: 25 trustee sales per month? Skimmer 9:57 PM, 12/15/09 (1) Re: 25 trustee sales per month? Realio 2:16 PM, 12/20/09 (0) Post a Followup: Name : E-Mail : Subject : Comments: : I am retired computer programmer, past real estate broker and real estate title searcher and have been following foreclosures for about 4 years now. My Missouri county has about 25 listed sales a month now. I don't have a lot of money to invest so I'm risk averse and don't bid often. However, over time, trial and error have taught me the following approach: : 1) First, keep track of the sales by designing a form where you can note key information of each trustee foreclosure sale listed. Mine includes date/time of sale, name of mortgage holder, date/recorded id of mortgage, $amount of mortgage, address of property, trustee holding sale, trustee contact info, opening bid, notes. : 2) Some of this info is not available from the foreclosure listing. The opening bid will not be listed. The property address will often not be listed. $Amount of the mortgage will not be listed. This is all filled in with research. : 3) DO NOT START ANY RESEARCH until a week before the sale. Most sales are cancelled or postponed so don't waste your time. : 4) AFTER THAT TIME, call/check web site of the trustee to see if sale is still scheduled and will they give you an address. If not, you can get the address by calling/visiting the county tax office based of the name on mortgage. Is the property well located or looks of interest to you? (THE NUMBER ONE PROBLEM WITH FORECLOSURES IS THAT YOU CAN SELDOM SEE THE INSIDE OF A HOUSE TO SEE IF IT HAS BEEN TRASHED/STRIPPED OF VALUABLE HOUSE PARTS. If the outside central AC unit is gone, beware!) : 5) If it looks of interest, contact trustee (call and/or look at their web site) to see if they have an opening bid on it? : 6) If the opening bid looks attractive or is not available, continue research. (Often, no opening bid is available until the day of sale.) : 7) Go to county recorder's office and lookup $amount of mortgage. Why? It will tell you what a bank/appraiser thought the property WAS worth at one time. If it is a low amount, it COULD mean it is a 2nd mortgage foreclosure (danger!). : 8) Contact the trustee again to see if they NOW have an opening bid? : 9) If still of interest, you must dig into the legal history of the property further at the recorders' office. Have all prior mortgages been paid off (released)? Are there any liens (state/ federal income tax, city fees, Home Owners Assn, etc) against the property? Will they be released at a foreclosure sale? : 10) Contact the trustee again to see if the sale is on schedule, how must payment be made (full cash/10% deposit/Wire) and do they NOW have that damn opening bid!! : This is all time-consuming work and most (80%) of the foreclosures will be cancelled or postponed. Also, of the remaining 2 out of 10 that go to sale, 70% of those will not be worth the opening bid and there will be no bidders. Of the few remaining that might be worth bidding on, there will often be other bidders that will pay more than YOU want to bid. : This game of cashing in on foreclosures is TOUGH to win at. : Any comments/suggestions on this brief outline? LarryG : : [ Follow Ups ] [ Post Followup ] [ The Forum Board ] [ FAQ ] WWWAdmin 2.0a © 1997 Matt Wright and DBasics Software Company, All Rights Reserved

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