Is there a way to find out how to check or find out where to find homeowners before they go into default? If so, who would know this information?
I am assuming that you mean homeowners that may be late on a payment or two (or have some other problem that selling their home could solve), am I correct?
Well, unlike the courthouse or legal section of the paper, there’s no central area to effectively find this out. If there was, my mentor would have me digging through it at this very second :-X.
So you will need these people to come to you (or rather, call you). This is where your marketing plan comes in. Doing little classified ads, shopper inserts, plugging your farm area, signs if that is appropriate in your area (although I don’t find it practical when there are 50 different “I buy houses” signs stapled to one very unhappy tree), etc.
Also, I know my mentor has relationships with alot of bankruptcy lenders and mortgage people, so if they foresee a problem or a homeowner contacts his/her broker (which they do sometimes when they see themselves running into a problem), they often refer them to him. They are not supposed to tell my mentor who the people are because that is in violation of privacy but he does get calls. Of course he’s been doing this since 1982 so in 24 years you’re bound to make a few friends. I’m sure though that it would be good to get to know at least a few of the BK attys, lenders and mortgage folks in your area and more importantly let them get to know you. Don’t forget Realtors too (and let them know you will list with them if you buy the property). Start attending different functions, meetings and events that they attend. Create such events if there aren’t any in your area or just starting taking them out for lunch. Make up lots of brochures or (cheaper) one-sheeters that highlight what you can do for their clients. Sweeten it somehow–offer to refer business to them whenever possible and maybe come up with some other immediate yet ethical incentive (cash, gift certificate, gas card–YES).
All of these things should lead to a stream of referrals. You will need to work it constantly at first and after you start seeing real results you will still need to work it on a regular basis.
Another thing that is kind of tedious (believe me I KNOW) is to check the court dockets. In my county I am able to see who is being sued, the legal reason, the amount, the progress of the case and the outcome. I search each week to see who the city, county and state departments are suing. I make notes of the people being sued for very large and why they are being sued, then I look those people’s names up as defendants. Usually they are being sued by quite a few entities. Then I go to the recorder’s website and put in their name as Grantor/Grantee to see what comes up. I am usually able to get the property ID number, which I can use to look up their tax and mailing addresses. It is tedious but it really doesn’t take long as long as you have a system and your connection is fast, and if you stay on top of it, you get some homeowners and landlords in serious trouble and open to any type of help. My mentor gets a ‘decent’ (his word) response to the letters we send to them. I plan to use it in my dealings when I get a grunt to work for me–oops I mean a mentee to learn from me LOL.
HTH
How many days into default should you wait to contact the potential seller?
Will they be as motivated to get rid of the property when they are 1 day into default versus 60 days into default?