Mbs,

Are you talking about the Trustees Sale notices in the paper? If so, those homes are not sold yet, but will be auctioned off on the courthouse steps on the date noted in the Trustees Sale notice/ad. Indeed, the most proactive method to search out distressed properties is going directly to the courthouse to search for recent filings of Trustees Deeds.

FYI, Virginia is a state where the bank does not have to go to court to foreclose, but does have to have a Trustee's sale....at which the highest bidder--OVER the opening bid--takes over the property (and any tenants, possibly other liens, etc with it!) With our market, the highest bidder usually ends up being the bank itself, as the opening bid is typically what is owed on the home---which now a days, is more than what its fair market value is. With the bank as official owner at that point, they will put it on the MLS to sell. This can be awhile from the date of foreclosure as they may need to evict the previous owners and inventory the property's condition. You can contact the banks directly (some have websites) to see their foreclosure homes. You may be able to get the jump on them before they have them listed on the MLS.

Otherwise, find a good realtor with foreclosure experience to set you up on a no obligation auto email program. The realtor enters your criteria and you will automatically receive an email the day a new property hits the market. You'll need to be ready to move quickly though, the best ones often get multiple offers and go under contract fast. Any questions, feel free to email. Good luck!
jackie.hagenston@longandfoster.com

Whatever you do, don't get CONNED into those $50 a month services that tell you about foreclosures. I even spoke to one investor that said that nobody ever buys from those places. How do they make money?a) By misleading you and b) by having Realtors pay them for the leads.

1 Realtor in Texas that I met gets most of his business from those services. Like flies attracted to the light.. and he says the service stinks for info, but great for prospects.

So bottom line, sign up for email alerts with a Realtor and be alerted for every REO or "Bank owned" and be prepared to jump on it. Banks don't have time selling 1 offs to investors directly. It is easier to put it on the MLS. ALso they want to make sure there are no scams, and they do that by making it a requirement that they are fully marketed.

Hey, MBS, I am right here in Leesburg, give me a call and we'll talk... There are so many things involved... too many short sales go into foreclosure, and you've wasted your time. You have to know how to screen them, how to know if they will be approved. What's the hardship? How many liens? How many banks? Was there mortgage insurance? Who are the banks? Are they late? Hint: In Virginia, by the time you see the posting in the paper, the house is usually going to foreclosure no matter what - there is not enough time to do a short sale. Then, you pretty much have to wait for it to be listed with a broker. Why? Well read through the articles in my blog - they'll answer part of your questions. In addition to the article I am linking to (which also appeared in the local Times), there is a series on buying REOs. None of it might be exactly what you're looking for - but all of it will be insightful. Free information from the front lines. When you're done reading, call me and let's have coffee. Vicky 703-669-3142 vchrisner@kw.com

By the way - if you're an investor - have you thought about using a self directed IRA for the purchase? Just a thought. I can give you information on that, too.

Hope to hear from you soon.

AJ & Jodee suggest another good way to find preforclosures. And I agree totally that "MANY people that are going into foreclosure are tense/mad/bitter/frustrated/scared, so don't expect them to welcome you with open arms." In addition to all that, many are in denial. They just don't think it'll happen. They expect their brother/sister/aunt/uncle/friend to lend them money or to help find a solution for them.

That's why I prefer to have them contact me. With CraigsList, bandit signs, direct mail, etc., the ones who respond not only are motivated, but they recognize (at least to some extent) that they need help.

And Cindy's right that most of the people in trouble today have no equity in their properties. In that case, the primary option is to try for a short sale. And she's right about determining how much they owe, and what the property's worth. Just a couple of days ago, I got a call from an owner in Annandale who had a condo to sell. When she first called, she said the condo was worth $385,000, but that she'd sell it for $330,000. I ran the comps, and they were around $265,000. When I talked to her, I asked how she'd come up with the $385,000 figure. Well, she explained, that's what they were selling for a couple of years ago!

Hope that helps.

Just to double back on my answer remember that most people today who are in trouble on their mortgages are upside down. The homes have no "instant equity" for you to be able to tap into or flip for a quick profit.

Make sure that when you contact someone about a home that you are interested in buying that you know HOW MUCH DO THEY REALLY OWE on the property and what is the MARKET VALUE of the home in today's market.

You can get caught up in the late night hype that says buy homes for pennies on the dollar only to learn that you made a deal with a seller that the bank won't honor or that will cost you more than the real value of the property.

MBS,

The simplest way to find houses in trouble before they end up in the paper is to go to the County land records department and conduct a search of Subsititute Trustee filings on the public access computers. I do this in the Alexandria City land records department on King Street to see what properties have started the foreclosure process.

You can always put up signs, place ads on Craigslist, etc, but that puts you at the mercy of people contacting you, versus you intitiating contact to them. Just to let you know... MANY people that are going into foreclosure are tense/mad/bitter/frustrated/scared, so don't expect them to welcome you with open arms. They may have ended up in this situation by not answering the phone calls from the lender to begin with, or they may just be in denial.

Whatever the case, that's the best way I know to find pre-foreclosures, or you can pay someone like Realty Trac to go to the courthouse for you on a monthly basis.

Hope this helps!

You market to likely foreclosures. There are lots of ways to do it. A few of the hundreds of ways include:
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Advertise on CraigsList. Look under "Houses Wanted" and "Real Estate Services."
For example, just a moment ago I checked out "Real Estate Services." The link for DC area is: http://washingtondc.craigslist.org/rts

[Trulia doesn't like my actual cutting and pasting, so I've edited that out. But just go there and look for all the listings.]
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Use Bandit Signs.
Those are the "We Buy Houses" signs.
Just Google "bandit signs."
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Work With A Realtor
A good Realtor can "smell" listings where the owner is in trouble. Some are marked as short sales. Others aren't, but there are ways to tell if the owner is facing foreclosure. Those are properties listed on the MLS.

Have the Realtor supply you with expired listings. Sometimes, desperate sellers will attempt to sell their homes. If they sell, whew, they've solved their problem. If they aren't able to sell, they're still desperate. But they haven't yet been foreclosed on. You then market to them, probably with direct mail. (Letters or postcards)
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Get On Email Lists Of Property Deals
You have to be careful; they're all promoted as great deals. Not all of them are.

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Network With Mortgage Brokers

When a homeowner is in trouble, one of the first things he/she will attempt to do is refinance the mortgage. Usually the attempt is unsuccessful. Often, the credit is already damaged in some way. And today it's not that easy to refinance, especially if property values have declined. So mortgage brokers are turning down a lot of people who are trying to refinance to avoid foreclosure. Make friends with a broker. Get leads that the broker isn't able to handle.
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Set Up A Website And Promote It

Set up a "We Buy Houses" sort of website. Then promote it with fliers, business cards, on CraigsList, maybe even pay-per-click on Google and Yahoo! It'll cost about $10 for a URL (a web name), and about $5-$10 a month for the site itself.
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One final point: You asked "How do you get an earlier lead on houses in trouble." It's not the houses that are in trouble; it's the owner. That may seem like semantics, but it's not. You focus on the owner, and the owner's motivation.

Those suggestions only scratch the surface. I haven't mentioned real estate investor clubs...frequenting places that people seeking help go to...the use of multiple business cards...the technique of "driving for dollars"...and the list goes on.

But what I've suggested above will work just fine to help you find pre-foreclosures that aren't sold.

Hope that helps.

Keep an eye out in the paper for Trustee sales. That will tell you the homes that are headed to the courthouse steps. Your question has a couple of parts to it that need more details though. If you are looking to buy a house before it goes to foreclosure most likely the property is listed as a short sale and you can't swoop in a buy it for pennies on the dollar from the owner. The bank still has to approve the sale and they aren't giving away the houses. You may find that the best bang for your buck is to keep an eye on properties that are listed as foreclosure and on the market for 30-45 days. At that point banks start lowering the prices to try and get them to move. I have a closing come up next week on a foreclosure that the buyers are getting for 420K that appraised at 460K.