How to Find Foreclosure Homes in Charlotte and Nationwide
If you are investing in foreclosure homes, you need a reliable way to find those homes. There are many ways to find foreclosure homes. Here are just a few:
Listing Services
One of the more popular ways to find homes in foreclosure is through a listing service. These services gather their leads many different ways, and often employ people full-time to search the courthouse records in many cities nationwide, including Charlotte, NC. Searching records at your local courthouse can be very time consuming, so these companies provide a valuable service by minimizing your time there.
One of the best services to find foreclosure homes is Foreclosure Free Search. In fact, they offer a free 7-day trial so you can see for yourself the quality of their results before you commit to their service. No strings, no contracts, no hassles. Click Here to find out more about the free trial and to get sample listings of actual foreclosures in your area.
Search the Courthouse Records
You do not need a service to find foreclosure homes. You can go down to your local courthouse and search the records yourself for no charge. Usually, someone who works in that department will show you how to look up the records for yourself, both manually, and on their computer system (if your particular courthouse is computerized).
Some counties even list their foreclosures on the Internet. More and more areas are doing this, and eventually you will be able to find them through your courthouse's website. Ask your local courthouse if they offer their records to the public online.
The downside of going to the courthouse or even looking through the records online to find foreclosure homes is that it is still very time consuming. The upside is that you may find an opportunity that was missed by a listing service for whatever reason. The best solution is probably to start with a listing service, and then supplement those leads with an occasional trip to the courthouse. This will minimize your time at the courthouse looking for foreclosures, but will probably give you the most leads.
You may find that your foreclosure homes listing service is pretty accurate and up-to-date, saving you a lot of time down at the courthouse.
Advertising
Another way to find foreclosure homes is to advertise in your area. You can put up signs, place classifieds and display ads, hand out cards and brochures, and any other way you can think of to let people know that you buy properties in distress. You will get many calls from homeowners who are behind on their payments, and foreclosure is imminent.
Sometimes you can find a way to buy their house BEFORE it goes into foreclosure (also known as "pre-foreclosure"), but if you can't help them in time before the actual foreclosure date, you will be one of the first to know about that property.
