Tired of Paying Those High User Fees to Search For Foreclosure and Bank Owned Real Estate?

First of all, I want to say that I am not bashing any of the real estate foreclosure sites that are out there. Many are worth the time and money because they can provide some valuable information. This article, however, is for those of us who are a bit more frugal and don’t mind doing a bit of research and spending some time on what could possibly be a major real estate investment. For those of you who are impatient and demand that your information be delivered immediately, then go find a foreclosure pay site — you can’t miss them, even if you try.

Secondly, I want to say that this information applies only to those real estate listings that are available to the public. After all, the bank or corporation wants you to know about what they have for sale; it widens their potential buyer pool. And I might add, not to disparage the pay site, most of the information about the foreclosed and bank owned homes is already public to some degree. By the phrase “some degree” I mean that the house is most likely listed with a real estate agency and in most cases, that particular agency is part of some sort of Multiple Listing Service.

So the tip I am offering is a simple one: Find out where you would like to look at the bank owned (REO) property and then do a search for local real estate agencies in that area. Most have pretty good websites that allow you to search their entire MLS. Try to find one that allows total access to the MLS — not to just their own personal listings.

As the technology boom widens, many local MLS networks even allow you to tailor your search criteria to produce only those properties that are either bank owned or short sales. For example, here in northwest Arkansas, our MLS has a feature that allows any user (not just agents!) to fine tune the home search for foreclosures. So check out the websites of local real estate agencies. Many times, you will have to click on “advanced search” or “detailed search” or something similar. So it’s a bit more work but hey, it’s worth it!

Now, let’s say you get to one of these pay or register-only sites that offers the REO searches but that does not give out addresses. Okay – here is what you can do: take a look at the price and the picture. Open a new tab or window and go find another local real estate website. Now do a search only for that specific price. Punch in a few more distinguishing characteristics as well (like 5 bedrooms — something out of the ordinary about that house) on an advanced search and wallah! Scroll down to the one with the same or similar picture. You now should have the complete listing details, including the address and public remarks. Remember, each different site only give a piece of the information, so just open a few different ones that each offer their portion of the puzzle.

Bonus Tip: most of you may know this already but this may help some folks: after you get an address, punch it into Google Maps(tm); it can be navigated to by using the ‘maps’ link in the upper left hand corner of the Google search page. They do not have all areas mapped yet but it is a darn useful tool if they have the area that you are interested in. Using this, you can literally zoom down to any street and walk up and down it and the detail is amazing. Yes, you can even see that bank owned house.

by Michael T Carey