An investor on our forums recently posed a great question that others out there can learn from. I thought it would be a great idea to share with the rest of you.

“Theres been a property at the end of my street that has been abandon for close to a year+ now. At no point did a for sale sign go up but I haven’t seen anyone living in it at all. The family just kind of picked up and left . . . I guess in short my question would be where do I go to find out more about the house?”

Abandoned properties provide a great source of leads for investors. There are many reasons why someone might abandon a property, but with the right info, savy investors can easily locate the owners of these homes and possibly even get a great deal on them!

One of our members, Wheatie, suggested the following:

You can start with the county recorded for the county where its located. They will have someone down as the owner. May not be correct, address may not be correct, but its a place to start. You can try just sending it a letter with forwarding requested and see if it goes anywhere.

This is great advice! We’ve even made it easy for investors to find their local recorder/assessor’s office online with our free directory of county records’ offices.

Another member, Brandon Schlichter, suggested another path for investors to take:

You can always trace back the history and maybe find a prior owner. Asking neighbors is always a good thing to do (You can get deals from them too!).

Prior owners and neighbors are fantastic resources. I’ve used neighbors to find information on properties in the past and they love to share what they know! Neighbors are a treasure trove of information on any home or other property. I always like to chat with them before making an investment.

A final suggestion that should surely prove to be helpful comes from another member, username REI.

The technical term that some will use is skip tracing. If you search on the term then you will find leads to services or individuals that can do the work for you. Some are rather modest in their costs. Some investors use the net plus pay for a skip tracer as some have access to professional databases that are closed to the public. Some databases are too expensive for a 1 off use.

If you’re willing to pay, then skiptracing services are absolutely worth it. They can simplify and speed up the entire process for you.

All in all, if you try all three of these suggestions and still can’t find the owner of the property, you might be striking out. Maybe a detective would prove to be helpful, but the question that arises is “is it worth it?”.

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Tags: abandon, abandoned, abandoned home, assessor, find property, home, house, invest, public record, real estate, real estate investment, recorder, skip trace, skiptracing

I was talking to a friend who was looking at purchasing a piece of property. He was nervous because it was to be his first home and asked me about liens.

How Do I Find Out if there are Any Liens on a Property?

The answer is pretty straight forward. For the most part, liens are a matter of public record once recorded. To find if there are any liens, here are your options:

• Search the county recorder, clerk, or assessors office online. All you need is the name of the property owner, or it’s address. If your county does not have the data online, then:
• Visit the county recorder, clerk, or assessor’s office in person. Generally, you will find that these people will be quite helpful, and could give you pointers if you need any.
• Contact a title company. Title representatives can be extremely helpful in many ways . . . finding liens is one of them. I strongly advise having a good title rep as part of your investing team!

With that in mind, Title Insurance is there to protect you as the buyer from liens you did not expect such as last minute liens, or those that may not have been known or recorded. Like other insurance, they will write a check to deal with the liens if they are missed. If you want to protect yourself from any potential liens, you want to be sure to purchase an owner’s policy. It is an owner’s title policy, not a lender’s policy that protects the buyer of the property.

Keep in mind that you shouldn’t count on the word of the seller or even your real estate agent, as they may not necessarily know about all liens or possible defects in the title.

Tags: assessor, county-clerk, county-recorder, find-lien, insurance, lien, mortgage, property-lien, property-title, real-estate-lien, title-insurance, title-rep

Hello Everyone. We wanted to give you an update on a few exciting new things going on here at BiggerPockets®!

New Website Features

1. Meet the Investor
   We’ve begun to interview investors in an attempt to help others learn more about what it takes to be successful. Have a look. Many of our blog readers are already familiar with this feature, but we are looking for more people to interview . . . it’s a great chance to get some free publicity for you and your blog/site!

2. Find County Records
   We’ve assembled a directory of county records offices for every county and parish in the country with a website. Use the directory to locate your local assessor or recorder’s office or to find property records online.

3. Join our National Investor’s Database
   We are building a national real estate investor’s list. The purpose behind the list is to be able to offer exclusive real estate deals to our members that we hear about constantly. Jump on board! It only takes a minute to fill out.

4. Investors Network
   In an attempt at bringing some increased exposure to our members with investor websites and blogs, we’re creating a directory of real estate site. If you’re a wholesaler, rehabber, landlord, or other investor and have a site, let us know and we’ll get you in the directory!

Changes at the Forums

Now With 6,000 Members and Counting!!!
We’ve been adding some new areas to the forums to help organize things a bit. Stop by and check out these new areas:

1. Wholesaling Forum
   Finally! Discuss Wholesaling strategies, learn about different techniques, how to conduct a wholesale deal, making offers, assigning contracts, etc. With some fantastic wholesaling experts on site to help out, this is the place to go for your questions!
   Not sure why we never had one before, but we do now!

2. Ask About a Real Estate Company
   Wondering if a company is a scam or conducting fraud? Heard about a new investment offer?
   Ask about any company doing business in real estate. Discussion topics include: Nouveau Riche, Club Freedom, Pinnacle Development Partners, etc.

3. Home Owner Association (HOA) Issues & Problems Forum
   This area of the site is for the discussion of any questions, issues, or problems that arise with condo or community Home Owner Associations. With little State or Federal governance, these bodies have been a headache for countless investors, realtors, homeowners!

Another small change we recently made on the forums is the addition of birthdays. If you scroll to the bottom of the main forum page, you’ll see members having a birthday (editable on your profile page). Make someone’s day and send them good wishes on their big day!

Ideas & Suggestions for BiggerPockets

We’re always trying to improve the site to better serve you. If you ever have any ideas or suggestions for doing that (no matter how small), please let us know!

We’ve got plenty of other new features coming soon . . . stay tuned!

New Advertising Opportunities

First, I want to thank all of our new sponsors! Our advertisers keep coming back for more . . . a testament to the benefits of sponsoring our site!

We have been testing some new advertising positions around the site and are currently working to fill out ad placements on our forums. You can now sponsor any forum thread category! For as low as $25/month, you can promote your website, company, etc on the forums and focus on your exact target. For more information about this or other advertising opportunities, visit our ad page

Wrap Up

Thanks again to everyone for all of your participation here on BiggerPockets! Our site has really been helpful to so many people and without your participation that wouldn’t be possible. Please keep coming back and share your interest, your knowledge, and your enthusiasm with everyone else!

All my best to everyone and have a great weekend!

Sincerely,

Joshua Reed Dorkin
Founder - BiggerPockets, Inc.

Tags: assessor, bigger pockets, biggerpockets, county-records, HOA, home-owners-association, real estate forums, real estate investing, real estate investing forums, real-estate-scam, recorder, wholesaling

Last time we hosted a carnival, it stirred up a bit of controversy. Today, we’re announing the winners of a different Carnival - The Carnival of Real Estate Investing 4th Edition. There were many good submissions that investors and agents will find helpful - here are the best of the best:

For Real Estate Investors

1. Michael Emilio, a Realtor, writes a good basic article explaining How to Wholesale Real Estate to Make Quick Cash. This article was written for the total newbie, who wants to find out what wholesaling is. It presents good info, but does not get into enough detail to actually get anyone started.
2. Nick Gifford reviews 3 pieces of software that landlord investors will find useful in Rental Tracking Software. There are a few that I’d add to his list, but they are all worh a look.
3. Steve Burns writes a fantastic piece advising investors of the benefits of their County Assessor’s Office in The MOST Effective Tool an Investor Can USE!. I completely agree with Steve on this one! If you don’t know about your assessor’s office, the time to find out is NOW!
4. In Keeping A Bad Tenant Can Delay An Expense, Anesia Springborn talks about a section 8 horror story where a tenant just trashed one of her units. The post is a great one, however I would like to pass on some advice to help avoid this situation. Always inspect your units when purchasing a property, especially when the tenants are section 8. In addition, I recommend holding periodic inspections for these tenants as well. If they aren’t living up to their end of the deal - taking care of your apartment - let them go! I feel your pain Anesia - been there - done that! Good luck!

For Real Estate Agents

1. In Working Effectively with Real Estate Investors, Derek Burress talks about working with real estate investors from the agent’s point of view. With advice like “cut his investor client part of his or her commission as a way to ensure that with each new transaction, that their client is getting a great deal”, it sounds like Derek has worked with some of us before!

There were several other submissions that did not make the carnival - I felt that these 5 were of much more value to the real estate investing world. I would like to note that there were also some SPAM submissions this week . . . looks like the spammers are now trying to infiltrate the carnival circuit. (I loathe SPAMMERS!)

Thanks for having me as a host and stay tuned for next week’s carnival on December 18th at Mortgage Manifest!

Tags: 8, agent, assessor, carnival, estate, landlord, real, Real Estate Investing, realtor, section, software