How to find foreclosed homes

Probably the biggest reason most people choose to look at foreclosed homes is the lower prices often found for those homes.  There isn’t any specific price reduction attached to a home because it’s foreclosed, the lower price will often be a reflection of needed maintanence (which might be as little as paint and carpet), an individual lender’s desire to reduce their REO portfolio or a weak regional real estate market.

So, how do you find these homes?
There are three main ways to find foreclosed homes, the first is by using a real estate agent who will pull all the properties listed in the MLS with notations such as “bank owned”, “REO”, “lender owned”.  Not very scientific, but it will provide most of the foreclosed homes actively being listed by lenders.

The second method is to use the individual lender listings provided by many lenders. Our foreclosures page is an updated list containing links to many lender and asset manager lists.  One benefit of these lender lists is the common inclusion of properties that have not yet been priced or listed for sale with an agent.  Competition will be less when a property is not listed on the MLS.

The third method of finding foreclosed homes is the use of paid subscription foreclosure lists.  Why should you pay for this kind of service?  It’s a personal choice, but paid lists save the time spent searching individual lender lists, the records are normally drawn from public records rather than from the lender or MLS and most subscription services include default and auction property along with the REO property.

Happy searching.