How to Automate Building Your Foreclosure List

Are you looking to buy properties at a discount? Does the idea of creating a system that can save you time and effort excite you? You are not alone!

By establishing a system you can reduce your margin of error and grow your business more quickly. This article will cover an example of how to build a foreclosure list automatically using web scraping. You do not need coding experience to follow.

What is a Foreclosure?

Foreclosed homes are “bank-owned properties” that are seized and put up for sale by the bank that gave the original owner a loan. In the mortgage contract, the bank places a lien on a property. This allows the bank to take control if mortgage payments are missed. 

If the current owner is unable to keep up with their mortgage the property can eventually go to auction. This is where the bank tries to recoup the money for the property.

How Does a Foreclosure Work?

A foreclosure has four main stages:

Payment default and notice of default: When the homeowner has missed 90+ days of missed payments a notice of default is sent. The time of foreclosure will vary based on whether the lender provides a new payment plan and the terms of the contract.

Notice of trustee’s sale: It is required for the lender to record the impending sale publicly. This is done with the county and can usually online be found on an online portal.

Trustee’s sale: The lender tries to sell the property at a public auction.

REO (Real estate owned): Occurs when the property does not sell at auction.

Why Should We Care Now?

Due to the rise of unemployment during covid-19, many homeowners could not afford to make their mortgage payments. In order to stop Americans from losing their homes and falling further into debt, several forbearance programs were enacted. This delayed a wave of foreclosures from happening.

The foreclosure process is lengthy. It can take 18 months from beginning to end. However, it is beneficial to start the process of list building now to prepare for the potential of a large volume of foreclosures down the road.

How to Build a Foreclosure List?

Bidding to Buy: A Step-by-Step Guide to Investing in Real Estate Foreclosures by Aaron Amuchastegui & David Osborn provides a great overview of the steps.

How to Automate Building Foreclosure List?

Check out my easy-to-follow tutorial video on how to automate building a foreclosure list. In the video, I cover the process using an example county website:

How to Automate Building Your Foreclosure List with Selenium in Python

There are three main steps to follow:

#1 - Web Scraping: This process extracts the contexts of a web page. This includes text, images, links, and other media. Navigate to the trustee's website for the county you are looking to invest in. Scrape the web page to identify links to click or data to extract.

#2 - Web Navigation: URLs (website links) can be dynamic. This can be a challenge to automate knowing the right link to scrape. For example, if a county's website has a new URL for every new property at auction how do you know where to find the right link? Using libraries in python like Selenium, you can drive webpage actions such as entering forms, clicking links, and downloading files automatically. Use this library in conjunction with web scraping techniques to navigate the county's.

#3 - Data Aggregation: This is where you combine all of the data pulled from the county's website into a spreadsheet or another form of output. You can then bridge in other data sources (i.e. rent or property estimates) and enhance your analysis by adding property analysis metrics (i.e. cash on cash return). This can help you to evaluate and score potential deals before analyzing them.

Where to Find More Technical Solutions?

Check out my YouTube Channel, AnalyticsAriel, to get up-to-date insights on technology solutions in real estate.