Foreclosure is to shut out, to bar, to extinguish a mortgagor’s right of redeeming a mortgaged estate. It is a termination of all rights of the homeowner covered by a mortgage. Foreclosures occur when payments aren’t made on a loan that is secured by real estate, and the lender takes the real estate because those payments have not been made.
In the event that payments are not being made on a loan secured by real estate, lenders will often initiate default proceedings when the third payment is missed. The home owner during this time still has possession and the right to sell or refinance the real estate. These properties is usually be called a pre-foreclosure property by many investors. Since lenders cannot release information about their distressed loans due to privacy concerns, and homeowners often do not want to publicize their situation, you need a creative and alternate way to find these properties, along with owner contact information. That source of information is your county recorder.
All documents regarding real estate transactions are recorded and filed by the county recorder. And you can access and search these because they are public documents. Most properties in default are identified by the initial foreclosure document, which in most states, will either be a Notice of Default or a Lis Pendens. A Notice of Default, or NOD, is used in non-judicial states, while the Lis Pendens is used in judicial states. Because a judicial foreclosure is a court proceeding, you may have to search court records for the Lis Pendens instead of the recorder’s office. Local procedures vary throughout the Unites States. Be made aware that all Lis Pendens are not loan defaults, Lis Pendens means there is a legal action pending, and many Lis Pendens will not be anything of interest to you.
In reality, you won’t be able to find your target properties by garnering a list of all the NOD’s or Lis Pendens recorded that week where you’ll be given the list, with names, addresses and phone numbers along with other information you might want. It doesn’t work that way. However, many county recorders have established searchable websites, you can do something similar. Use the online recorders site to find properties by searching for those document types. This way you will be able to get a list of owner names and document numbers. If you can’t view the actual documents online, you’ll then have to physically go to the recorder’s office with your list, search by owner name or document number, and look at the document (Notice of Default, or Lis Pendens) which will reference the original loan, the property address and the default amount.
Learn more about finding, contacting owners and purchasing foreclosures in Florida and the secrets to foreclosure, pre-foreclosure, and short sales investing from the expert.
