| Online foreclosure listing services are an invaluable | | | | when they first start out. This way they can learn the |
| resource for every foreclosure investor, and may well | | | | basic concepts of how the foreclosure life-cycle |
| be the lifeblood that feeds the foreclosure pipeline with | | | | works, how to determine what information to look for, |
| new leads on a daily basis. Foreclosure research that | | | | and how to get an idea of good vs. bad deals. But this |
| would otherwise take several hours or days of manual | | | | should only be for learning. If you truly want to succeed |
| effort can be condensed into a fraction of the time, if | | | | in the foreclosure investing business, you need to be |
| you leverage an online foreclosure listing service. | | | | able to process all of the leads that come through. |
| Without an online foreclosure listing service, real estate | | | | What if in your county there are 200 properties in |
| investors would need to physically drive to: | | | | foreclosure at any given moment. There is no way |
| - the county sheriff's office to find the notices of | | | | you can manually research 200 properties in a timely |
| default, the lis pendens notices, or the list of properties | | | | manner. |
| scheduled for public auction | | | | Even if you are doing the business full-time, it would |
| - to the county recorder's office to look up real estate | | | | take you at least (let's say you're really fast) 10 |
| transfer and lien records, | | | | minutes to research one deal, and there are 200 leads |
| - to the county tax assessor's office to look at | | | | you need to get through. That's a little bit over 30 |
| property tax records and to obtain the property's tax | | | | hours of research. And those 30 hours can only be |
| assessed value, | | | | done during the business day. So when are you going |
| - and to the county courthouse to look up the actual lis | | | | to go driving by houses and knocking on homeowners |
| pendens court case (in a judicial state) | | | | doors? Driving from house to house itself can take up |
| ...all with the aim of researching foreclosure deals. | | | | several hours per day. |
| If you haven't guessed, this is a very time-consuming | | | | This is where online foreclosure listing services come |
| process that requires a lot of manual research, and | | | | into play. What is an online foreclosure listing service |
| travel, not to mention that you would need to either | | | | and what does it do? |
| pay to photocopy / print the information you find, or to | | | | Essentially, an online foreclosure listing service provides |
| take notes by hand, depending on whether this | | | | the following services: |
| information is stored in a computer system or not. You | | | | - A team of researchers will go to the county offices |
| are also limited to business hours, typically from 8am to | | | | and conduct research on every real estate |
| 4pm. | | | | foreclosure in the county. This includes the property |
| All these can pose a problem for the part-time | | | | transfer history, mortgage and judgment lien history of |
| foreclosure investor who is maintaining a day job while | | | | the homeowners, the property tax amounts and |
| trying to do deals on the side. When would you have | | | | payment status, the assessed value, the foreclosure |
| time to go to the county government offices in order | | | | initiation and auction dates, the minimum bid amounts, |
| to do the research properly? During your lunch break? | | | | and the appraised value of the property. |
| Or just before or just after work? | | | | - In some counties across the country, much of the |
| When I first started doing real estate investing, I used | | | | data is already made available in an online format, so |
| to do exactly that! My work would start at 9am but | | | | the researchers would be able to leverage this to |
| the county recorder's office opened at 8am, so I would | | | | compile their research. |
| drive to the recorder's office and be there at 7:55am | | | | - The foreclosure listing service will compile all of this |
| to do the research... But the problem is that I had to be | | | | information and make it available to you either online or |
| at work at 9am, so I ran the risk of running late for | | | | through e-mail or even through hard copy if desired. |
| work... and then if I were to lose my day job, I sure | | | | In the case of online availability of data, you would |
| couldn't "fall back on" real estate investing, so I was a | | | | simply subscribe to the online foreclosure listing service |
| relative newbie at the time. | | | | website and you would be granted 24-hour unlimited |
| So after about a week of this (I even tried leaving | | | | access to search through millions of foreclosures |
| early from work to head over to the recorder's office, | | | | nationwide. The data is updated daily. |
| or even going during lunch, but you really don't have | | | | Foreclosures are on the rise. Why spend your valuable |
| much time. One hour is not enough time to do manual | | | | time at the courthouse researching government |
| research. You have to drive to the offices and drive | | | | records when you can "outsource" your foreclosure |
| back. That takes away time from the research. | | | | research and analyze deals in real-time online, to weed |
| Doing manual research is extremely inefficient. Now | | | | out the good deals from the bad, and then spend your |
| don't get me wrong! I think every newbie real estate | | | | time actively pursuing those deals? |
| investor ought to learn to do the research manually | | | | |