How to Locate/Who deals with FOreclosures

[Anthony Lomonaco Jr]

Best ways to locate foreclosures and who at the bank would I want to get into contact with? Who at the bank manages these foreclosures? thanks.

[Jeff Copeland]

Once a bank owns a property, they list it with a realtor on the MLS 99.9% of the time. Like any seller, the bank wants maximum exposure to the market, and the maximum price for their asset.

Any real estate agent should be able to set you up with an MLS search for REO/Bank Owned property listings in your market.

Many investors target the owner of the home while they are "in foreclosure", but BEFORE the bank takes ownership of the property (sometimes referred to as "pre-foreclosure"). If the seller has equity in the home, there is often a way to help them avoid foreclosure by buying the property and paying off the mortgage that is in default. 

But therein lies the problem (and the reason we haven't see a lot of bank-owned properties on the market in recent years*): If the seller has equity, the seller has options. It would be foolish to let the bank foreclose when they could just sell the house. 

*Out of curiosity, I just checked the number of bank-owned SFH listings on the market right now in Pinellas County, Florida (a market with a population of 1 million people and over 500,000 housing units). There are 3 bank owned properties on the market, and the cheapest one is listed at $424,000.