All Forum Posts by: Marty Boardman

I'm curious, do you know of an investor/s that have gone to jail for doing subject-to deals with homeowners in foreclosure? Most deeds of trust/mortgages have a "due-on sale clause" that states if title is transferred they can "call the note". But this doesn't trigger any sort of legal action against either party in the transaction. There is no "due-on sale jail". If the lender accelerates the new owner has to pay off the loan or lose the property. But if the payments are made on time it's hard to believe a bank would call a note that's performing.

The BEST source for finding pre-foreclosures is at your county courthouse. Some counties post the notices online, others may require you go to their location to get the information.

But I like to think about it like this...the more difficult it is to get the info the better (less competition).

The problem with big companies like Auction.com is that their information is outdated and inaccurate. It's very difficult for them to "farm" this information consistently.

You didn't say what state you live in (the foreclosure process varies state to state). But, what you're looking for is the notice of trustee's sale, notice of foreclosure, notice of sheriff's sale, etc. This notice usually contains the owner's name, address, auction date, foreclosing attorney and principal balance of the loan and/or judgment amount.

With the owner's name and address you can do a reverse lookup. There are lots of free services for this, my favorite is TruePeopleSearch.com. They tell you if the number is a mobile or landline. I've gotten great results text messaging. I've closed 2 pre-foreclosure deals this year almost entirely through texts with the homeowner.

I wouldn't worry about the do not call list. You're not a telemarketer and aren't selling anything. You're making an offer to buy.

Finally, don't use auto-dialers to contact homeowners in foreclosure. That's very impersonal and the homeowner won't respond. They're already getting bombarded with this kind of marketing. Make ALL of your messaging (texts, phone calls, letters) personalized and empathetic. 

Good luck!

No injunction needed, I called the attorney and told them I had the funds to reinstate the loan. They sent me the figure with wiring instructions and I sent the money to bring the loan current. This cancelled the auction. Of course, I had the deed in hand signed by the seller prior to doing this (subject-to).

I have a four step plan for contacting sellers in foreclosure:

1. Drive by/door knock - as @Eliott Elias mentioned the best way to meet the homeowner where they are at and provide options is face to face - most won't answer the door so leave a heartfelt letter on the door

2. Text message - reverse look up their name/address and find all possible numbers then send a heartfelt text - the last 5-6 deals I've got were by making first contact by text message

3. Mail a heartfelt letter - put this in the mail and don't use fancy letterhead - handwritten and personal

4. Drive By/door knock 7 days, 3 days, 2 days and 1 day before the auction - at this point the homeowner is totally out of options and you're their only hope

You MUST at least drive by the house. If it's vacant then you can get to work on finding the owner and making a deal. I've found my most profitable deals this way.

Good luck!

There are some problems that price can't fix. I've looked at houses that the owner could have given me for free that still wouldn't make a profit.

I'm curious Robert why you're so aggressively pursuing this property? Do you want to buy it to live in? As others have pointed out, the seller reinstated their loan. They are no longer in distress and have a lot of options now IF they do want to sell. 

I fix and flip houses (AZ and WI). My issue with MLS properties is that they get A LOT of exposure to a very broad market. After the initial wave of interest from retail buyers, landlords and rehabbers subsides and DOM begins to increase it's like the house becomes stigmatized or tainted. So as a rehabber the only way I can "cleanse" it and make a profit is to: 1) get a huge discount and 2) do a major renovation so the house looks nothing like it did when I bought it off the MLS.

Of course, if your exit strategy is to buy and hold then this "theory" of mine isn't applicable. If you can hit your target ROI then I think the MLS is definitely underrated.

For what it's worth, I'm a licensed Realtor in AZ (and was in WI from 2013-2022). I agree with @Nathan Harden that the MLS gives you an edge over the competition with knowledge of the property.

You're welcome!

I market specifically to homeowners in foreclosure. Here in Arizona they have 90 days to bring their loan current, or pay their loan off to stop the sale. I wait until there are less than 30 days until the auction date, by then the seller has run out of options and I can lock up the best deals. Less competition that way too, not many investors can get a foreclosure stopped this quickly. 

I don't have access to BP's foreclosure alert system and I'm not sure where they download this information from, but as @Eliott Elias mentioned, the BEST source is at your county courthouse. I did some research and it looks like you can access their records online here: https://researchga.tylerhost.n...

Rubin Lublin is a law office the handles a lot cases in Georgia - right now there are 11 active cases in Chatham county on their website:

https://rlselaw.com/property-l...

If you're not finding the property on any other lists it may be because the sale has been cancelled.

Good luck Karan!