While driving for dollars my wife and I ran into a vacant house that has JP Morgan Chase stickers on the door. I am guessing this property is being foreclosed but have no idea where in the process it is. My question is how do I find out. The lender contact information is on the JP morgan stickers on the door. Has anyone contacted a lender is this manner? If so, who would I need to talk to and what should I ask. The realtor does not know anything about the property and I can not find anything on the internet including auction sites. Other then contacting the lender, is there any other options for finding more information about the property? Thank you for any input on this subject!

Ok thanks!

@Account Closed will the bank at this point be open to offers if I call or will list it for sale no matter what?

Houses typically can have the "preservation co." stickers on them for a year or more before the actual foreclosure auction.  You need to learn how look up foreclosure actions in your Local county records.  Contacting the bank is absolutely useless, and if the property is upside down (likely) also a very long shot.

ON THE SUBJECT OF REO'S ,WITHOUT CONTACTING THE BANK IS THERE A LIST THAT CAN BE ACCESSED ONLINE WITHOUT A LOT OF HASSLE?

@Mike Wright who does a person request talking to when calling a bank? asset manager perhaps?

@Corey Frank

Banks don't talk to the public, especially a large big box bank like Chase.

If it's a trust deed you call the trustee's office and the staff might tell you the current status for the auction.

@Christopher Phillips how do I find out who the trustees office is?

@Corey Frank

It will say in the pubic record. You can probably just look on Zillow under the foreclosure information section.

Hey @Corey Frank .  Welcome to the site.  I have no idea what they mean by trustee, have never heard of one in a Wyoming foreclosure, I suppose it could happen but is dam sure not the norm.  There are 2 kinds of foreclosure in Wyoming.  Foreclosure by publication and court foreclosure.  The vast majority are foreclosure is by publication.  They are MUCH faster and cheaper.  You have to file all your notices in the paper then you have a sheriff auction it off on the courthouse steps.  in the court foreclosure you file papers and serve them and get a court hearing.  Getting into court can take well over a year, and you have more lawyer expenses.  We have statutory redemption periods here, and lower creditors can step in after that if there are any.  One of the best ways is to simply look in the newspaper.  Foreclosures by publication is the most common.  You can go to the courthouse, they actually keep the newspapers in them.  Also check the assessor records, they are online over there, and the Clerk of District Court.  That is where foreclosures by court action are filed.  Sometimes the people go into bankruptcy and that holds them up for awhile.  There are several online auction sites that list the coming foreclosure auctions, check them out.  I have seen a ton of places going to auction in your area.  Your area has been hit dam hard.  I know folks who have a lot of rentals over there and they are hunkering down trying to wait this out.  Gillette has gone from a VERY hot market to a pretty bad market.  They are a victim of the war on coal that has been going on.  

And I'll jump on the bandwagon and second what @Jerry W. has said. Watch the foreclosure announcements in the paper. They run the same announcement three weeks in a row which is plenty of time to research. I've been attending the "auctions" at the courthouse steps for about six months and only one person has bid on a house; all the rest were bought back by the lender. The one person that bid? My friend bought a house for $19,000 and it's a steal of a deal! Owners had a ton of equity in it and it's in decent shape, needing only cosmetic repairs. I suspect he'll put less than $20,000 into it and after-repair value (ARV) will be in the neighborhood of $130,000.

Do your research. Many foreclosures have hidden liens on them. For example, I saw one last month that had an ARV of $150,000 and went to foreclosure for $65,000. That sounds like a good deal until you find out there's a medical lien of over $100,000! If anyone were to buy it, they would have to pay off that medical lien and end up in the hole. I usually look at the amount owed (published in the newspaper foreclosure notice) and then check the county records for tax-assessed. In about 90% of the cases, the individual has hardly any equity and the auction price is going to be close to market price, making it a bad deal. If it looks like they have enough equity to make it worth while, I'll dig deeper, drive by, etc.

I work with a local investor/flipper that has offered to be my private-money lender if I find another good deal so I'm just biding my time. So far, I've only seen two in six months that were worth the trouble and the one my friend bought was the only "great" deal.

@Jerry W. It is great to meet another investor from Wyoming and thank you for the information. We have been hit hard. Even with coal jobs slightly coming back it seems as if the market is dropping still. Hope to see it rebound soon.

@Nathan G. I appreciate the information! It sure seems like without research a really good looking deal can be a lemon. The house that I am looking at that is foreclosed on that made this question come up looks like the owners had owned it since 2003

Originally posted by @Nathan G. :

And I'll jump on the bandwagon and second what @Jerry W. has said. Watch the foreclosure announcements in the paper. They run the same announcement three weeks in a row which is plenty of time to research. I've been attending the "auctions" at the courthouse steps for about six months and only one person has bid on a house; all the rest were bought back by the lender. The one person that bid? My friend bought a house for $19,000 and it's a steal of a deal! Owners had a ton of equity in it and it's in decent shape, needing only cosmetic repairs. I suspect he'll put less than $20,000 into it and after-repair value (ARV) will be in the neighborhood of $130,000.

Do your research. Many foreclosures have hidden liens on them. For example, I saw one last month that had an ARV of $150,000 and went to foreclosure for $65,000. That sounds like a good deal until you find out there's a medical lien of over $100,000! If anyone were to buy it, they would have to pay off that medical lien and end up in the hole. I usually look at the amount owed (published in the newspaper foreclosure notice) and then check the county records for tax-assessed. In about 90% of the cases, the individual has hardly any equity and the auction price is going to be close to market price, making it a bad deal. If it looks like they have enough equity to make it worth while, I'll dig deeper, drive by, etc.

I work with a local investor/flipper that has offered to be my private-money lender if I find another good deal so I'm just biding my time. So far, I've only seen two in six months that were worth the trouble and the one my friend bought was the only "great" deal.

 @Nathan G. How do you find out about other leins?

@Toni Annis any liens filed against the property will be recorded at the County. It may sound intimidating but don't be shy! Visit your county office and explain what you are looking for. They should be happy to help you research the property and see if there are any liens filed. You can also look at the current deed, search for recorded easements, etc.

As I said before, I recommend a cursory look via the map server just to get an idea of the current tax-assessed value. You should be able to see if taxes are current or not. If it looks like a potential deal, drive by the property to see what kind of condition its in (I recently heard of a guy that bought a property without actually looking at it; he drove by after the auction and discovered it had burned to the ground!). If it still looks like a good deal, go to the courthouse and start digging up everything you can on it. Be sure to "refresh" your investigation right before the foreclosure auction because liens could be filed at the last minute.

Do some reading on BP. There are many people that can speak from experience.

Thank you @ Nathan G.

@Toni Annis I worked for a broker and managed REOs (HUD, Freddie Mac, Fannie Mae, BOA, WF, and some smaller banks) and we were able to give out information regarding when we would list. So if you can figure out which broker or agent is representing the seller (the bank that foreclosed), they will be able to give you some information. Sometimes (especially for a Freddie Mac) we would do repairs, so they wouldn't go to market for at least 3-6 months after foreclosure. Usually the broker will have a posting in the window as well for contact information.

Do you guys have a foreclosure publication in your major news paper? I had a property in Memphis that went into foreclosure and all of the information was in the county foreclosure weekly online. The owners name was on there as well and I contacted the owner.

You will get no where if you try to call the bank directly. Best bet is to wait until it hits the market. 

Good luck 

@Amy Herzing thank you. That is good to know. It seems there are just a couple of realtors in town that handle most of the foreclosures. I'll talk to them and see what they can tell me. 

@Michael Williams I honestly don't know. I don't get the paper. I will definitely pick one up and check it out now though. I never thought of that. Thank you.

@Amy H. that is very good information. thank you. @Michael Williams I do not recall seeing publication in our newspaper but will take a closer look

@Corey Frank I found this for you. I don't know how big the city of Gillete is but there were only 3 Notices of Foreclosures listed but this should get you pointed in the right direction. Hope this helps

http://www.gillettenewsrecord.com/classifieds/comm...