How do you locate Pre-foreclosurers in Georgia?

Question

What is the best way to locate homeowners who are behind on there mortgages? I know Georgia is a 30 day state, so a lot of the services you would normally purchase are not available here. I am in the Atlanta area and looking more particularlly in Fulton, Forsyth and Cherokee. Thanks for the help!

Andrew Jones · Answer

I have done a seller financed deal and I am open to Sub2 deals, but have not completed one. That being said if you look through these public notices you will see that vast majority if not all of them are from loans between made in 2005 or 2006 which means the property is far under water and probably not a good candidate for a Sub2 deal.

Joel Owens · Answer

Kevin you are trying to do sub 2's on pre-foreclosures??

I don't see how that would work.If they are getting the 30 day foreclosure notice in the paper it is really far along in the process.

When looking at the notices you have to see if it is a bank foreclosing or a private party from a deal gone bad.

If the property is vacant it could be the owner has already left the area or an investor owned it.In any case there would be little motivation for them to do a deal with you at that point.They have already emotionally disconnected from the property and moved on.

You could approach the lender and buy the note yourself and foreclose or you could wait and from the closing attorney the starting bid at the auction or wait and buy REO.

In Georgia we are a non-judicial state (no court) sometimes there is judicial process to clear title issues etc. but rarely.

In other states that are judicial the lender files a notice with the court you can track early ahead of others.In some non-judicial states the law requires a lender to record a copy of the notice they send out (demand letter) which you can get an early jump that way digging out the info at recorders office.

In Georgia with non-judicial the lender IS NOT required to record the demand letter they send to the owner prior to advertising for foreclosure.So only the owner gets the notice in the mail from the lender.

The only public notice is the 4 week advertisement in the paper before the auction.

The lender will not stop a foreclosure process usually for a sub 2 deal.You will need to do a short sale,or a note purchase etc.

Kevin Barker · Answer

Thanks for the info Andrew. I see you do Sub2's, which is the same strategy i am trying to get into. What do you do next when you have this data? Do you send out letters and if so how do you locate mailing addresses if home is vacant?

Andrew Jones · Answer

I believe this may help.

http://georgiapublicnotice.com/pages/results_content/search_content

Search for Notice of Default or Notice of Sale

(Would like to know how to link this)