I recently went to the courthouse to bid on a foreclosure property in my area (florida), only to arrive and find that it had been cancelled at the last minute. I’m aware this is common, and in this case it was not due to bankruptcy.
What I would like to know is if it is advisable to try to contact the owner and try to purchase the house before the auction is rescheduled, or should I try to contact the lender?
Since the property has not been bought back by the lender at auction, it is not REO yet, so I believe the owner would be the person to contact, but I wonder if that is a futile attempt at this point. Any opinions on this?
Many times an auction that is canceled or rescheduled is not only because bankruptcy, but because the bank is reaching or attempting to reach some sort of resolution with the homeowner; could be a short sale, loan mod, Repayment plan, or even a regular sale and many other reasons. I bring this up because many times in these cases there is already a buyer or a resolution for the bank and that is the reason that the bank is postponing the the sale date and if this is so then there is no place for you to enter the transaction.
The banks files with sale dates that do not have a buyer or some other sort of resolution being performed will not usually be postponed so you do not have to worry about those unless there is some sort of bank or attorney error.
If an auction is postponed due to bankruptcy then I think contacting the homeowners could be a good bet.
TIP: Look up lists of NOD’s and do some drive by’s to profile the homes, you can check if the homes are listed and if so approach the agents and if not listed approach the homeowners. Every agent with a home listed that has a sale date is just begging for an offer if they do not have one already.
There is a chance you can find some appetizing transactions.
I agree. Send a letter, door knock, put a for sale sign out front with your phone number on it. Whatever you need to do to get in touch with the owners.
Wouldn’t putting a for sale sign with your number on it get you in trouble. You are effectively selling a house that you have no listing contract on and no contract on…therefore no rights to.
Hmmm?
I have read elsewhere, even on this forum, that you cannot market a house that you do not have an contractual interest in. Which is why I asked about marketing to build a buyers list using a fake for sale ad.
Where did you read that… What you asked on another forum was “Can I begin marketing for buyers even though I do not have a house for sale?”
I clearly answered you with “As a Realtor marketing fake property is a violation of the ethics code of conduct… As an individual I am not certain there is a law against it… Probably is somewhere… Although I am thinking we have enough trouble with violent criminals to spend tax dollars hunting down real estate investors looking to build a buyers list…”
Putting a for sale sign in the yard of a home you need owner information on is an easy way to find the owner.
With that said I think you should always find the reason not to do something before you do it…
I run an entire course on tracking ways to get in direct verbal contact with the owners, using techniques that investigators use daily. My students get light years beyond the people who mail or go knocking on doors.
If you are having difficulty with the foreclosure auctions being cancelled in Fl…try going to some of the County Tax Deed sales…these will never be cancelled
the initial list with amount of properties to be sold will be minimized as some are redeemed by the property owners before the sale…but the sale will never be cancelled.
So just go and look at several properties in case some are redeemed right before the sale.
Here is the benefit…all the mortgages liens will always be completely wiped out…you can purchase the properties usually for much less at tax sale.
Hope this helps gives you a different option to purchase distressed properties for less.