Updated over 9 years ago on . Most recent reply
Driving for dollars
I've been driving the areas that I am interested in investing and have come across a vacant house with uncut grass in a beautiful neighborhood. I did some research and found out the house is in the process of foreclosure. I know the names of the owners but don't know where they currently located or which bank their loans are with. Would appreciate some advice on how I can find the current owners or how can I make a offer on the property.
Many thanks!
Jackie
Most Popular Reply
@Jackie Kat, if you are going to succeed at driving for dollars, you MUST have public records as one of your tools. Using your local clerk of court/register of deeds is going to be your road map to finding out the story of what is going on with the house and more importantly the owner.
Since your profile says you're from Old Bridge, NJ., I assume that you are driving for dollars in Middlesex county. Here are a few links to get you started.
You will use link number one, property tax assessor site to match the house address to the owner. (If the site doesn't work like that, call your county tax assessor or collector's office and ask them for the owners name for the subject property.
Link number two is for you to do a name search for the owner. This should show you what mortgages he/she has out on the property as well as what kind of court issues, including foreclosure, he/she is dealing with.
The third link should actually take you into the actual foreclosure civil case site. I believe that NJ is a judicial state, which means that the bank has to go through an actual foreclosure process. This means that you should be able to look at the documents and see exactly what is going on with the owner by looking at the complaint. You can also have the bank do the hard work for you of finding the absentee owner, since the bank hires a process server to find the owner and serve them with the foreclosure papers. (Where the processor found the owner and served him can be found in the case docket as well)
You will even be able to see what the bank alleges is owed so you can see if it is worth your trouble.
(Again, if you can't see all that info online, you can always get that info straight from the nice people that work in that area.
Hope this helps.