# How do I find foreclosed real estate? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [January 17, 2006, 3:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-i-find-foreclosed-real-estate/340365 "2006-01-17T15:45:52Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![VunderBob](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/839c29/32.png) [@VunderBob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VunderBob)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2006, 3:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-i-find-foreclosed-real-estate/340365/1 "2006-01-17T15:45:52Z")
I know about the mechanics of buying a house in general, but I want to research and perhaps buy a foreclosed property, hoping to find a bargain. When I google for foreclosed properties, all I get are websites that want you to join, with or without ponying up some $$, and having them feed you the information. All of them leave me cold, because I believe they’re leaving me open to spyware and telemarketers. How do I find properties with public domain information? ---
**Author:** ![filmore](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/7993a0/32.png) [@filmore](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/filmore)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2006, 3:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-i-find-foreclosed-real-estate/340365/2 "2006-01-17T15:51:35Z")
Find the website for your county tax assessor. They will usually have a listing of foreclosed properties. ---
**Author:** ![aahala](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/a88e4f/32.png) [@aahala](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aahala)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2006, 4:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-i-find-foreclosed-real-estate/340365/3 "2006-01-17T16:12:05Z")
> [@VunderBob](#): > > I know about the mechanics of buying a house in general, but I want to research and perhaps buy a foreclosed property, hoping to find a bargain. I take it from the above you don’t have wide experience in real estate lending, investing, sales or appraisal. I think I should point out to you the realities of life. If a lender forecloses on a property and is the “winner”(and they most usually are), it generally means no one thought enough of the property to bid. Bargains in foreclosurers for someone without Real Estate experience is a lot like the make money at home by addressing envelopes schemes. ---
**Author:** ![VunderBob](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/839c29/32.png) [@VunderBob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VunderBob)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2006, 4:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-i-find-foreclosed-real-estate/340365/4 "2006-01-17T16:23:43Z")
> [@aahala](#): > > I take it from the above you don’t have wide experience in real estate lending, > investing, sales or appraisal. > > I think I should point out to you the realities of life. If a lender forecloses on a > property and is the “winner”(and they most usually are), it generally means > no one thought enough of the property to bid. Bargains in foreclosurers for > someone without Real Estate experience is a lot like the make money at home > by addressing envelopes schemes. I’m awfully close to dragging you to the pit, Bub. I want a property for my primary residence, and I’d like it to be undervalued so I can put what meager amount of dough that I have into it to make it into what I want and need. Houses on the regular market around these parts are ungodly expensive. ---
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2006, 4:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-i-find-foreclosed-real-estate/340365/5 "2006-01-17T16:55:02Z")
> [@aahala](#): > > If a lender forecloses on a > property and is the “winner”(and they most usually are), it generally means > no one thought enough of the property to bid. Winner? What does this mean? A bank forecloses on property it holds an unpaid mortgage on. What bidding are you referring to? If the borrower defaults on a mortgage, the bank owns the property, there is no bidding required. The bank may subsequently auction the property, which is what the OP is looking for. ---
**Author:** ![aahala](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/a88e4f/32.png) [@aahala](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aahala)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2006, 5:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-i-find-foreclosed-real-estate/340365/6 "2006-01-17T17:34:44Z")
> [@Fear Itself](#): > > Winner? What does this mean? A bank forecloses on property it holds an unpaid mortgage on. What bidding are you referring to? If the borrower defaults on a mortgage, the bank owns the property, there is no bidding required. The bank may subsequently auction the property, which is what the OP is looking for. The foreclosurer laws vary somewhat by state. The foreclosurer often occurs at the courthouse steps – the trustee publicly asks for bids and utters whatever legal verbage to make the aution offocial, then are there any bids? Often, its just a mortgagee employee who bids in the property for whatever the loan payoff and charges are. The “winner” part – the bank is the winner. It’s a pretty universal joke among lenders(they don’t want to be the winner). There’s another foreclosurer procedure in some states, judicial foreclosurer. As my state uses Deeds of Trusts rather than mortgages, I am familiar with one but not the other. (I worked 20+ years in mortgage lending). ---
**Author:** ![Lambo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/ecc23a/32.png) [@Lambo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lambo)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2006, 5:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-i-find-foreclosed-real-estate/340365/7 "2006-01-17T17:50:05Z")
> [@VunderBob](#): > > How do I find properties with public domain information? In my (admittedly small) town (pop. about 5,000), the local paper (which comes out twice a week) carries notices of all the foreclosure auctions that are going to happen in, I think, the next week (the paper is the paper of record for the county, so it’s any foreclosure auction in the county). The particulars of the case are included (who holds the loan, who is in default, the original loan amount, the amount still due, and the legal description of the property, which is the closest they come to giving the address). It seems that all the auctions take place in the sheriff’s office. All this is in the paper, at the end of the classifieds, in the legal section. ---
**Author:** ![aahala](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/a88e4f/32.png) [@aahala](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aahala)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2006, 6:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-i-find-foreclosed-real-estate/340365/8 "2006-01-17T18:11:05Z")
> [@Fear Itself](#): > > Winner? What does this mean? A bank forecloses on property it holds an unpaid mortgage on. What bidding are you referring to? If the borrower defaults on a mortgage, the bank owns the property, there is no bidding required. The bank may subsequently auction the property, which is what the OP is looking for. I speed read your before. My apologies, you deserve a more direct reply. First the borrower defaults. Then the bank starts the foreclosurer process. Then the public auction is held. If the bank is the highest bidder, then(and only then) they own the property. Before that, they are only a lienholder, the borrowers continue to own the property until a high bid is made at the foreclosurer. Once the bank is the owner, then they take bids, auction it off, list it with real estate brokers etc. ---
**Author:** ![welby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/d78d45/32.png) [@welby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/welby)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2006, 6:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-i-find-foreclosed-real-estate/340365/9 "2006-01-17T18:15:19Z")
Typically, if a property is put up for auction by the noteholder, and no one buys it - then you probably don’t want to buy it either. The main reason for this is that it’s unlikely you’ll be able to put a meager amount of dough into it, rather you’ll put a lot of dough into it to fix what’s broken. With that in mind, your county tax assesor is the best place to find the informaiton you want. Depending on your financial situation, it may be better to purchase a weak hous on a good lot and pay to do a little expanding over the years.