This is just stupid. The old saying that a fool and his money are soon parted is definitely true with these responses. I have tried the realtytrac site. Although I felt that their data was outdated, it was in no way a scam. During the registration, it clearly offers the user with additional services and states that you will be charged after the trial period by these services. Just don't accept these additional services. It's pretty simple if you bother to read what you are agreeing to. People just don't want to take responsibility for their own stupidity.

The question may be old (2007), but the answer never changes.

Do NOT give your Credit Card Number for any "Free Trial" Service.

Because as you have learned, the odds are 100 to 1 that you WILL continue to be charged after you thought you had cancelled the service.

Your recourse at that point is to contact your Credit Card Issuer, and ask for a chargeback or dispute or reversal.

(Years ago I made your mistake - I gave my CC Number to a certain Internet Company that rhymes with "Hey, Oh Hell". I had to cancel the card to stop the billing.)

Wow, the original question was posed in 2007 and it still gets attention today. How interesting is that?

Alright, dont hate me... I have been a local RealtyTrac representative for 3 years. I literally have been contacted by hundreds of people in my area for help with home purchasing so I have a different perspective than many.

Typically, I am contacted by people interested in purchasing a home. Many of these people sign up for the trial period, some sign up for the member service. When a consumer inputs their information into RealtyTracs database, it not only creates a record for RealtyTrac to resource for other "sales opportunities" they want to make to that consumer but it also creates a record that goes out to a local person, like me.

I contact by email ALL of the enrolled people, trial or membership, within 48 hours or less - it is part of my agreement with RealtyTrac and I have exclusive geographical area with RealtyTrac so, I know that it's up to me to get in touch with these people.

In the 3 years that I have represented RealtyTrac locally I have had, and I know some of you are goimg to find this hard to believe, only 1-2 requests per year from the people who sign up to get assistance with getting their cancellations processed. This is based on recieving about 300 enrollments in my area per year.

So, the people who called RealtyTrac directly, did you ever respond to the local representatives attempt to contact and assist you further? If you had, you would have had a powerful ally in your cancellation and hopefully have found a great local Realtor who really understands the local foreclosure market and RealtyTrac.

Many people ask me after they contact me if they need to pay for the RealtyTrac service since I already pay, I am happy to access and share with them the information they are curious about as part of "showing my worth and high level of service" up front. However, some people choose to keep it for extended periods of time.

RealtyTrac is the only aggregator of this type of data on this large of a proportion that I am aware of. I has vendor relationships with some of the biggest companies that serve the internet in the business, Trulia being one of them. While I understand that many people dont find it to be what will serve them well, RealtyTrac does give the consumer what they offer, unlimited access to the data. I just think that the data is not valuable for the average consumer because of the type of data it provides and the usefullness of the data to the average person looking to purchase a single home.

As a consumer myself I really feel for anyone who has tried to get a refund from a big internet company. Overall I find that internet companies are good at taking funds but seem like a deer caught in headlights when it is time to issue a refund. But dont loose hope. In the case of RealtyTrac, ask that local person for assistance. And in the case of my own experience with getting a refund form a big 800 company that sells flowers on a BIG internet web site... after over an hour on the phone and several emails, the company emailed me and said that they were happy to credit my card for $60 and change. That was fun because I only spent about $45 bucks. So, sometimes it ends in a feeling of reward. I took my family to our favorite cheap dinner spot, on them.

Be responsible and cancel in the allowed time. When I signed up it was pretty clear that if I did not cancel they would bill me on a monthly basis until I canceled. How is that a scam? There is so many people ready to call something a scam because they don't follow instructions and get billed. If you can't keep track of a calender you should probably not use it since it automatically bills you.

Read how I dealt with it, a few posts down. I did get a refund. I was just as mean, mad, persistent, and ornery as i have ever been on the phone, and when I got tired of yelling at one guy, asked for different guy. Please file a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission, as I did. Its really easy to do over the phone.
Good luck, USArmywife

Well Rick, why don't you just do that for everyone instead of being fraudulent in your practices. I'm going on every site I know, to the BBB and FTC, the State Dept of Commerce, whatever and whomever else I can find to warn against your company. I tried in earnest to cancel my account over several months and your company has even disputed the one month my bank credited back to me because I had at that point put it in dispute with them. Your company is obviously sleezy or you wouldn't have this number of complaints and the Gina Johnson ((650) 412-0662 hotline. You're a theif. Need to be in prison. Even if you think it's "just"...you're stealing. Maybe we should send you to the middle east and they can cut your hands off for you...Seems appropriate to me. Your company has stolen hundreds of dollars from me...You're a thief. Credit back money when people ask and maybe people will start doing legitimate business with you. Cancellation of an account doesn't go through arbitration dumb behind...but it's going to go through every legal entity I can find to cut down your fraudulent machine!

Good Luck! Cancel your account and put the charge in dispute with your bank. Realty Trac won't begin to cancel you until then. Check out their phone line for all the victims, you won't get the # until you do the dispute! It's 650-412-0662. They will send you a bunch of crap about arbitration and stuff that supposedly was on their site when you signed up (it wasn't when I signed up....and I tried to search through EVERY link. At least yours was just $39.95...I was ripped at a higher rate!)

In Orange County, Florida, I can go to the Property Appraiser's web site, and click on "Property Searches," then click "Record Search," and fill in the name of the street, and see who are the owners of all the homes. If they are owned by a bank, mortgage company, or some similar business, then I can figure that the property is in foreclosure. I can also pull up all the properties that have been sold in that neighborhood by clicking on "Display Similar Sales in Subdivision" while looking at one property listing, which is a little faster. When I see properties that were sold recently for $100, then I can go to that property , and usually that property is owned by a financial institution, as the lender usually buys back the property at an auction for $100. Good luck.

thanks for the info i signed up for the 7 day trial and then cancelled after just 1 day now i have seen charges on my bank account for 39.95 twice. how do i take care of this problem any phone numbers or info you can give me will be greatly appreciated. Thanks Again P. Adams

signed up for a free trial but at a site of another name. I used it for a few hours and found it useless. About 3 days later I sent an email to cancel it.
WELL! I found charges of $49.95 for the last two months on my bank statement for RealtyTrac. I started surfing to find if anyone else had complaints and I found a whole world of them, particularly since Jan 2009. One site said not to hesitate to file a complaint with the Fed. Trade Comission and gave the phone #.
I called RealtyTrac, tried to remain calm and use textbook customer conflict resolution language, but I ended up losing it with the first man, then requested to speak to his supervisor. I did also end up swearing quite profusely at him in the end. You see, they try to trip you up, asking, "Well, what email address did you send the cancellation to? Do you have a confirmation number?" Yes, I did, but it was under a site called ForeClosureStore and they simply said they did not have any idea what I was talking about.
Thankfully I had read up enough to learn that for the past few months, someone has been operating in the 'Foreclosure listings" business, gathering information under several business or website names, and sharing the info. Then of course, when people complained, they simply denied any knowledge of it.
Cool as I usually can be in conflict resolution, I just knew that these two guys were sitting somewhere in a boiler-room or apartment, practicing doublespeak, and showing up with sites for a few days and then disappearing with the info. A lot of folks posted that they have filed cases with several states' Atty Generals, and then of course the FTC. I told the men this, that I knew they were phishing or trading info, that it was a scam, that it was OBVIOUS that I didn't use the site they were billing me for, had never heard of it. Of course they said they had never heard of the site on which I had received a cancellation number. It was meaningless to them.
I was losing it, which of course puts someone in the position of weakness. But I finally begged them, Look, guys, I am a military wife, I am seriously ill, and I have to move my family cross-country in a few weeks. Please, Please do not phish me!."
After 30 or 40 minutes on the phone, with me refusing to back down, refusing to concede that I had in any way shown a desire to have their business services for $49.95 (!!!) per month, insisting on a full refund (I believe the exact final words were, "I want my G...d...money back immediately from you scammers and I am calling the FTC immediately") suddenly...the guys says he will refer my case for review to their refund department and I would receive notification in about 3-5 days.
As soon as I hung up from them, I called the Fed. Trade Commission, where a very nice lady took my complaint and took it very seriously. She said there is a huge rash of scamming like this due to the bad economy. It was as easy as pie to file a complaint over the phone, and I hope everyone who has a problem like this will do so.
Today, on the 3rd day, I received an email saying that I would be getting a full refund. ~whew~
And NEVER will I EVER sign up for anything again under a 'free trial and then we will bill you" kind of deal. Not for anything!! If I can't get it at Wal-Mart ot Sears, I just don't need it.
Good luck to everyone.

We just noticed that we had been charged by RTI Publishing on 5/14/09 for $39.95 and had no clue what it was for until I did a Google search and found this board.. We had signed up for Realty Tracs 7 day free trial, and cancelled within the free trial period, but unknowingly agreed to some sort of subscription. Got a phone number to RTI Publishing 1 800 306 9886 today to cancel. Spoke to Isreal. He said he would refund the $39.95. Also got a phone number to realestatereporter.com 1 800 665-7495 because although we hadn't been charged by them (yet) we saw on this board that there might be charges in the future. Sure enough there was an account set up with them as well so we cancelled that account too.. We definitely feel these are deceptive practices, feels.like we were "had" . Grateful we caught right away to take care of. Will never do business with Realty Trac.

Realtytrac really helped me get a great deal on my first home!!!It actually helped me save a lot more than I expected and my family and I are sooo happy. That's the only reason I'm actually on here to let u know that it worked for me and I hope it can work for you. Definitly money well spent.

I don't know whether RealtyTrac is a scam or not, and if they are not living up to their cancellation agreements, they should be held accountable for it, but lets get real. If you are given seven days to cancel and you cancel on the 8th day....you SHOULD have to pay the fee. For the lady that paid the bill for 6 months and then noticed it on her credit card.......how is that RealtyTrac's fault ? How about taking some personal responsibility. I think they were doing pretty good to offer a refund at all. Now believe me, I have done the same thing myself and ended up paying for services I never used or products I forgot to return, and I kicked MYSELF in the butt for it, not the company. Now I keep a calendar by the computer. When I order something online, I mark the date ordered and the date I have to cancel by (in big red letters) so I won't get caught offguard. Now if you cancel the service, or get billed for services you did not agree to, that is another thing altogether., but forgetting that you ordered something or missing the trial period end date, is NOT a reason to complain.

If you think that the trial period is all you need you are wrong. You sometime have to work leads for months to make something works. What kind of leads are you looking for, owners or bank owned properties?

Don't use them at all! They are scammers! Sadly I have just been double whammied: scammed by them because I forgot to cancel (I also forgot entirely that I had even signed up for this 6 months ago..ugh...expensive lesson) and another internet research library, Highbeam Research....also bad news scammers! Each site I visited to take advantage of the 7 day free trial offer, unaware that I would not receive any followup communication from these companies confirming my membership, and/or financial liability.

For the use of 1-2 hours of Realty Trac's site of foreclosures back in 10/08, because I forgot to cancel my membership, I was charged a total of $299.95. ($49.95 each month which we had unwittingly been paying but I only noticed this month in 4/09 because my husband had handled payment of our credit card bills and thought it was something legit. until I stumbled on the Highbeam charge of $299.95 (for a 1 yr subscription) in the same statement and didn't recognize the companies....oddly, when I called to complain about the charges, the customer service rep offered me a 3 month refund of $149.95 since he could see I had only used the site for such a short time and ' in his words, "in this difficult economy, I don't think it's right that you are charged for something you're not using." Too bad these companies don't have even as much of a conscience as this fellow. I will add to my Highbeam Better Business Bureau complaint by writing one for Realty Trac, and hopefully help more people avoid this trap. You all should too. This is a terrible way to conduct business & dupe people. Highbeam even had the gall to raise their rates by 50%, going from annual subscription fee of $199.95 to $299.95 and they never informed me, but expected payment. I don't believe there is a more apt word for this than extortion.

This is the complaint I filed with the BBB and results: NOTHING. They have had 204 complaints against this co. but still rate it "A-". This company hides behind legal loopholes, smoke and mirrors.

PLEASE FILE A COMPLAINT WITH BBB

http://www.la.bbb.org/ComplaintDetail.aspx?CompanyID=13159967

It is simple and takes 5 minutes

My Complaint Details

Realtytrac.com
1 Venture Plaza,Suite 300
Irvine, CA 92618
Contact: Naderi, Kvon
Phone: (877) 888-8722
Complaint Classification:

Complaint Description - Posted 4/1/2009 3:43:31 PM
After cancelling during "free 7 day" trial period, i have been billed by 2 other affiliated companies, first 39.95 by rti publishing and then an undetermined amount by realestatepromoter.Com, that they emailed me regarding theirattempt to collect, but i had already cancelled the credit card. This is happening to many others as detailed at this web site: http://800notes.Com/phone.Aspx/1-801-705-5325

Complaint Summary: Deceptive business practices.

Resolution Sought: Stop authorizing 3rd party associates to attach payments to customers of their "free 7 day trial". These are clearly deceptive business practices.

Company's Initial Response - Posted 04/09/2009:

RealtyTrac provides two promotional offers to new members during the registration process. One offer involves a one-year subscription to the Foreclosure News Report, an investor magazine. The other involves a 30-day trial subscription to the Real Estate Promoter, an investor website service. William Cole registered for a 7-day free trial of RealtyTrac on 2/19/2009 1:02:32 AM PST. At the time of the registration, there was a 30-day free trial offer from Real Estate Promoter. He accepted this offer, the terms of which clearly state “By clicking CONTINUE, you authorize RealtyTrac to send your name, address, contact and credit card information via secure encryption to Real Estate Promoter for processing. Cancel anytime during your trial period and you will not be charged. If you do not cancel your website within 30 days of accepting this trial offer, your credit card will be billed monthly hosting fee of $39.95 each month until canceled. William Cole was next offered a one-year subscription to the Foreclosure News Report, which he also accepted. The offer page for the Foreclosure News Report clearly states “By clicking CONTINUE you authorize RTI Publishing, Inc. to send you a FREE issue of The Foreclosure News Report. If you do not cancel within 30 days of ordering this issue, you authorize RTI Publishing, Inc. to charge your credit card $39.95 for a one year subscription to The Foreclosure News Report”. Although William Cole cancelled the RealtyTrac account, there was no attempt by him to cancel the 30-day trial subscription to the Foreclosure News Report during the trial period provided. After William Scott contacted RTI Publishing regarding the charge, a refund in the amount of $39.95 was issued by them on 3/24/2009 6:08:18 PM to the same card used to pay for the subscription. Realtytrac has contacted Real Estate Promoter on William Cole’s behalf, and found that his trial with them was canceled when he called their offices on 4/1/2009, and no further billing attempts have been made. All charges have been refunded.

Initial Response Summary: William Cole did not cancel other free trials enrolled in during RealtyTrac trial signup, and was charged per the trial terms. All charges have been refunded.

Consumer's Rebuttal - Posted 04/12/2009
THIS is what their notice says when you agree to join:..."Upon the expiration of the 7 day trial you will be enrolled in a subscription program and be billed $49.95 for 1 month. If you do not wish to be enrolled into a subscription program, simply cancel prior to the expiration of your free trial period and you will not be charged. The subscription will automatically renew every month for $49.95 until you cancel..."Which implies that all you need to do to avoid being charged is cancel during the 7-day trial when in reality they only cancel you from one service of the the THREE services that include RTI and Realestatepromoter.com, Neither of which I agreed to join and both of which charge you on a recurring basis until you cancel. No where do they tell you this and many are caught up in this scam. On the phone when I called to complain, they kept insisting that I must have "accidentally" clicked on something without realizing it. I had to cancel 3 different services to stop them from charging me and get 2 charges reversed weeks after I had already canceled realtytrac.com.

Company's Final Response: Company's Final Response - Posted 04/16/2009
The trial period for RealtyTrac is exclusive of other offers. The terms for the trials of Foreclosure News Report and Real Estate Promoter are clearly stated on separate pages, and can be accepted by clicking “continue”, or declined by clicking “no thanks, continue with registration.

RealtyTrac collects and aggregates foreclosure information and asks subscribers to pay for it; that's legitimate. Charging bogus fees is not legitimate.
I use Bank of America's Bank Americard. They have a free service called ShopSafe. It allows me to create a unique credit card number which is linked to my primary account. The new number is only valid for a limited time and for a limited amount, which I set up upfront. So I can create a new number, give it to realtytrac, let them try and charge it - charges will get denied.
I can't believe NPR keeps quoting them as a source.
Get either a BofA credit card or an American Express - I believe they have a similar service.

Co, Here......http://www.govsales.gov/HTML/INDEX.HTM ......http://publicrecords.onlinesearches.com/Arizona-Foreclosures… ......... http://www.bid4assets.com/ ..............

http://www.biggerpockets.com/bank-reo.html ......... http://www.mortgagenewsdaily.com/wiki/REO_Database_List.asp

There is an "old school" method, it's called the local & regional newspapers. Foreclosures are public records and for the time being, public notice is required to be made. If there are specific areas your interested in start a subscription to the local papers. It might take a bit of trial & error to find which papers have the majority of the postings. There are also usually certain attorney's/companies that handle alot of the volume of the properties. These types of orginizations usually have individual websites for these purposes. See if there are RSS feeds on their sites and coordinate it with your browser or RSS reader.

Below you'll find the direct link to my web page where I put the list of upcoming foreclosures in Massachusetts. Down Phoenix way check out Bloodhound Realty, they're cutting edge when it comes to business ideas & technology. They have a great crew working there.

file a complaint with the BBB like I did. These are deceptive business practices, period and as evidenced by Rick Sharga's post and the complaints here ( http://800notes.com/Phone.aspx/1-801-705-5325/2#pzJVISmWR_QA… ) this company has no intention to stop and are hiding behind legal loop holes. What they are doing is criminal.

don' t have an answer, but i LOVE your question!!! i can feel all the pain and aggravation...that i'm feeling myself (btw) and this made me laugh....

Just give this a try..................http://www.biggerpockets.com/bank-reo.html

I tried the realtytrac free trial because my uncle told me he was a member with them and the site helped him purchase a house. i tried the site and ended it during the trial they did not bill me. So i say cancel during the free trial and you wont get billed.

my best trick if you are just itching to find out what is being offered: use a pre-paid visa/mc that you can load at walmart or 7-11 or something. Load only what they need for the initial period and then leave a -0- balance. Hey they scam us, time for consumers to take control

Or how about just laughing out load when some outfit/person says they will give you something for FREE in exchange for your credit card information?

RealtyTrac is a fraudulent business. They are making money by offering loan services that will rob you of your money. RealtyTrac needs to be stopped as they are preying upon unsuspecting innocent people. RealtyTrac is engaging in illegal practices, posting fake information, skimming money off of loan brokers, and stealing your money for erroneous information, etc. Stay far away from RealtyTrak and never do business with this corrupt and unethical business front.

Reatlytrac is a scam!
I have been a Realtor for more than 24 years!
Realtytrac will share your personal, private & credit card information with companies they consider affiliates!
These so-called affiliates, without your consent, will bill your credit card for services you did not order!
This company must be reported to the BBB!
What happened to personal information? This company tried to make three bogus charges to my credit card account!
Watch-out! You have been forwarned!

DO NOT SIGN UP for RealtyTrac. I made the mistake of doing so and when I did that, I must have also "elected" for memberships with RTI Publishing as well as some other web hosting company. Although I cancelled the RealtyTrac membership within 7 days, I was charged fo the other memberships which I WAS NOT INFORMED of and was not sent confirmations for. RTI charged me $39.95 and the web site hosting (shows up as REPROMOTE) charged me another $44.95. I had to first call the bank to get a phone number and identity of these places so I could call them and complain/cancel. I feel like a total schmuck for signing up in the first place, but BE FOREWARNED. THIS IS A SCAM!!

Ugh I just got off of the phone with a realtytrac agent...wish I had seen this question before I signed up the "free trial" I canceled one business day after my trial ended...tried to get the money back because I'm not using the useless service...was hung up on twice! conveniently when they were transferring me about my refund. Now I have to go through an ordeal trying to get the refund. This is a total scam.

REALTYTRAC. STOP THE COLD CALLING!!

Do not sign up for Realtytrac !!!

They give your phone number out to cold callers. I get calls from cold callers on my phone constantly.
I get both live cold callers and automated, especially from 949-757-1664. Off course with the automated messages there's no option to get yourself of the list or speak to a live person.

I called Realtytrac customer service and complained but it made no difference.

If you are having the same issue call Realtytrac and complain or call the better business bureau.

RealtyTrac just tried to rip me off too. I canceled the free trial membership the same day I signed up for it and did so by email using their own user agreement link for canceling. I've reported and disputed the unauthorized charge to my credit card with my bank and have filed a complaint with the Better Business Bureau. I'm also going to be filing a complaint with the State Attorney General. Please take the time to file a Better Business Bureau complaint if you've been scammed under the "free trial."

yeah. I lost $39.95 for so called free trial,too. RealtyTrac is really a business liar. Do not trust it.

Work with a local realtor that specializes in foreclosures. I can find any information on any home, and can also find homes that are not even on the list yet. I will find the right home at the right price. http://www.yourcarolinadreamhome.com

I too signed up with Realty Trac and they did Scam me allright.

I signed up for a week Trial and promptly cancelled , but I get a bill from RTI Publishing, when I called they said when I signed up for Realty Trac I must have checked some option to select RTI new reports for 39.99 a month. I made them cancel it but I AM DISUGUSTED with the Realty Trac on how they duped me.

BEWARE FOLKS,

I just saw a property on realtytrac with an entered date of 6 days ago. this is the date that realtytrac received the information of the "pre=forclosure". actually, it was bank owned property. how do I know this? We just moved into the property nine days ago! So our property showed up on realtytrac AFTER we had purchased and moved in! what a scam!

I think Realty Trac is a scam. I reluctantly gave them my credit card number in order to try the 7-day free trial, and I cancelled within the trial period. Realty Trac doesn't give much information, and it didn't seem worth it to me.

I got billed about 3 weeks after I cancelled - for 39.95! I have proof that I cancelled. Now I have to waste time calling them to get a refund. Annoying. Don't waste your time with this! Travis

Work with an REO Real Estate Agent instead of Realty Trac. They do that sort of business. It happend to me too.

Lori Souza
The Souza Group
602-432-3296

Canceled my subscription as an AGENT and received an official e-mail dated 9/26/08 stating YOUR FINAL CHARGE IS $0.00 - They just drafted my checking account $119.99 on 10/16/08 and unbelievably rude Collections Department representative hung up on me twice and would not give me his name or the name or number of anyone in Customer Service and then said I would never receive a refund of the unauthorized charge. I am writing to Rick Sharga, Senior VP of RealtyTrac

You must have been signed up for a discounted multi-month program that rolled over automatically at the end of the initial term (we also have some multi-month programs that simply end at the end of the initial term, so they don't roll over at all). Those are simply the contract terms you signed up for initially. Having said that, if you'll get in touch with me, I'll try to arrange a solution to your problem that you're more comfortable with - I'd much rather have you as a happy ex-customer than an unhappy current one.

RealtyTrac is very unethical. I called them back to cancel my subscription and they told me that, I will still be charged the $99 since the cycle rolled over yesterday. Not just charge me for ONE day, but for the 3 months. Not right by my standards!!

Another question people here might be able to help with... Recently a friend want to a RichDad program (total scam) but they did have a cool software package that you can punch in any address, and it will display the morgage on it.. leins.. appraised value (not so accurate) .. lot number etc... Of course my friend canceld RichDad ASAP.. and lost the software use.
Is there any site/way to get this for free.. Rich Dad wanted $1500 for the software, and $50.month.
Again.. its NOT ONLY for foreclosures.. and was accurate, as I looked up all my relatives homes and verified accuracy...

Thanks
Andrew

I am going the other way with this. After looking for a home for 5 months I signed up for Realtytrac. I had a list of homes I wanted to see from a specific area drove by them and loved one. My husband, Realtor I saw it before it even went into the MLS system. My realtor contacted the Realtor for the house and wrote up an offer. Since we were first we got special perks when it did go into the MLS. We now have a house. Realtytrac did work for me.

Try our free web site for properties 10% to 50% under value and read here
http://www.propertyhookup.com/article_detail_page.php?article_id=9

I also just signed up with Realty Trac, reluctantly giving out my credit card number -- and the site immediately "broke" -- I can't use it, it goes into endless loops. I then went through their link to cancel my account at once -- and the link to do so simply went back to the home page!! Yes, folks, this is a scam.

Hi. This is Rick Sharga from RealtyTrac. Just to set the record straight, RealtyTrac doesn't charge anyone's card during the 7-Day Free Trial. After that, the card is charged on a monthly basis until a subscriber cancels his or her account. There are both an 800 number and web-based instructions on how to cancel in the "Contact Us" link on the RealtyTrac homepage.

The honest answer to Home Buyer's question is that there are many other ways to find the foreclosure information you're looking for. If you're simply looking for a house to live in, the easiest way might be to contact a Realtor who specializes in selling bank-owned homes and ask the agent to help you find a property. You can find agents in your area by doing a property search on RealtyTrac, or there's a directory of brokers who specialize in REOs (bank owned homes) on this website: http://reoredbook.com/index.cfm.

If you'd like to find the property yourself, you can sort through the records at the county courthouse. Your county may make some of the records available online as well. Accessing these shouldn't cost you anything. Most states also make it mandatory for lenders to post notices of auction sales in local newspapers. You'll probably have to pay for the paper, but it's almost free.

Services like ours are really intended for people who want more than the basic foreclosure notice. Typically, they're looking for loan information, comparable sales and estimated property values so they can determine if the property represents a good bargain. They want photos and other images and details about the property (beds, baths, square feet) so they can be sure it's the kind of home they're interested in. And they might want an interactive map that shows them where the property is located and if there are other foreclosures in the neighborhood (which may indicate a problem).

It's those kinds of features - plus the convenience factor of being able to search anywhere in the country without leaving your desk - that people pay for. You really can use the site to your heart's content for 7 days absolutely free, but based on what you indicated in your question, you'd probably be best off working with a real estate professional to find what you're looking for.

There's a boatload of free information on foreclosures, state laws, buying strategies and other related information that might be useful to anyone in the market at this link: http://www.realtytrac.com/foreclosure/overview.html. No subscription (or credit card) required.

Good luck with your search!

I agree with one of the other posts, there are plenty of websites where you can find this info for free, not to mention, realtytrac.com just has all the bank owned property that all the investors passed on at the court house steps! if they dont buy it, it goes back to the bank, so your local realtor would have access to the same foreclosed houses.

Don't pay for this information. You can get it all for free. This site has a large selection of foreclosures as well as for sale by owner investment property, and it's free. http://www.rehabahouse.com

I know my area and if you use the map on the realtytrac website I can pretty much figure out which property it is by also toggling the appraisal office in my area. May take longer but beats paying for info. I also go to my appraisal property website and just put in the name of a lender and it shows bank owned property. I did use my credit card for a trial period with realty trac and cancelled in three days, no problems. They called me and wanted me to resign and I said no without finding out what "deal' they were going to make. So I have heard bad things about this company but they are used quite frequently when reports of foreclosure property is on the news. Must be doing something right.

You can call your credit card company and cancel your subscription with them. I know that RealtyStore.com also has the same foreclosure listings service but on their home page it says CANCEL Account with the link: realtystore.com/cancel.do . Hope that helps!

You could sign up using a temporary credit card number - some credit cards let you generate temporary card numbers: http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,32542/article.html# . Great for online purchases when you don't know if you can trust the seller.

At least one article supports your fear of RealtyTrac questionable buisiness ethics: http://www.oregonherald.com/n/special-reports/real_estate/re…