Question - What is "The Foreclosure Reporter" ?
Answer - The Foreclosure Reporter is a "subscription based" data service that we provide to investors. Once a week, after we have gathered detailed information on every new foreclosure, we email our findings out to our subscribers.
Q - Why have you made this service available?
A - Because the information is not readily available to the general public. You cannot get it thru any realtor or the Multiple Listing Service.
Q - Why is this information not available thru realtors?
A - Because only about 5 - 10 % of all foreclosures go thru the court system far enough to be listed "For Sale" under a Court Order or as a Judicial Sale.
Q - Why is that?
A - Foreclosure is a not a "one step process". Many people believe that as soon as a house goes into foreclosure it is listed "For Sale" with a realtor but this is not so. Foreclosure is a process that can take anywhere from one to six months and is some cases even longer. The property will only be listed for sale, under a court order, towards the very end of the process. Until this happens the general public will not be aware of the situation.
The home owner may advertise the house for sale themselves or they may list the property with a realtor but they won't advertise their financial situation.
Typically realtors will only find out about foreclosures once they have been listed on the Multiple Listing Service. Again, only about 5% of all foreclosures ever get listed as a Judicial Sale. If you doubt this ask a realtor to search for foreclosures for you, on the MLS, every day and we will compare results at the end of the month.
Many realtors run ads in the classified's advertising 100's of foreclosures, motivated sellers, etc. Phone them up and ask them to provide you with 100 foreclosures, my bet is they won't be able to provide you with this kind of list. Ask them how many foreclosures took place in their city in the last month, my bet is they can't tell you, or be able to prove it to you, or provide the information to you.
Q - Why do we have to pay for the information, realtors don't charge for their information?
A - Realtors advertise their information, to you the buyer for free, because they want you and other realtors to find out about their listing, so somebody will buy their clients house. The information you see on the MLS is not there for free though, its just not you who paying for it, the seller is paying by way of a commission to their agent.
We charge for our information because its something that is not readily available. It takes a lot of manpower and research effort, at a large cost, to gather and compile the information we provide to investors like yourself.
Q - Investors in the United States don't have to pay much to get information on foreclosures why do we in Canada.
Its true they don't, they can simply buy a weekly or monthly periodical newspaper containing all of the required data but in Canada we can't.
The main similarity between the foreclosure system in the States and Canada is the information on foreclosures is considered to be "public information".
The main difference is that, in Canada, the information is not published.
So , in order for us to obtain the information for you, we have to do a great deal of research
Q - What is the difference between a foreclosure and a pre-foreclosure?
A - There is no such thing as a pre-foreclosure in this country, it is simply a term many people use incorrectly. Many people believe that the stage prior to the completion of a foreclosure is pre-foreclosure but its not. Foreclosure is a process that takes time and you are either "in" foreclosure or you are not.
Once the foreclosure process is finalized the property is no longer "in foreclosure". The property has either been sold and all the arrears paid or it has become a bank owned property. (Once the bank has title to the property it can't be in foreclosure because they wouldn't be foreclosing on themselves).
Q - Do I need to know a lot about foreclosure law, or law in general, to purchase a house out of foreclosure?
A - No, you don't need to know anything about foreclosure law when you're trying to purchase a house out of foreclosure. In most cases its very simple, after you have written up the contract (Offer to Purchase), your lawyer should be able to handle everything for you. Please remember ….. foreclosure is just a financial state that the home owner is in, it doesn't really mean that much as far as your purchase goes. It doesn't complicate things for you.
Basically they are just behind on a few payments and that's the end of it. To put it bluntly …. don't get all twisted up and stressed out by the fact the house is in foreclosure. Just treat the purchase as you would any other deal where you are buying the property directly from the home owner.
You don't have to deal with the bank, the banks lawyer, the courts, or anybody else…… just the home owner. The only difference is that this home owner should be a little more motivated than your standard seller, making the deal a whole lot better for you.
All you have to remember to do, once you have the offer to purchase accepted by the seller, is to inform your lawyer that the property is in foreclosure. Your lawyer will then contact the banks lawyer and have them put a hold on the foreclosure process. Giving you enough time to finalize the purchase transaction. Its that simple.
Q - What's the best way to approach these people?
A - As you would any motivated seller?????
There are various ways: either by phone, knocking on the door (which I don't advise), or by mail (my favorite). The mail system is the easy because you can delegate the letter stuffing and stamp licking to somebody else. All you have to worry about is writing the letter in the first place.
A simple "I am interested in buying houses in your area" kind of letter is the easiest to start with. With time and practice you will be able to write a better, heart warming type of letter that more people will respond to.
Q - How do "you" contact the home owners who are in foreclosure?
A - The only way I contact this group of motivated home owners is by mail. You can try phoning them or knocking on the door but I find the simplest method is by mail. I simply write a polite letter indicating I'm interested in buying revenue properties in their area and if they are interested in selling to please call me. Its not complicated at all.
Q - What do I say to the home owner when they phone me?
A - Just treat them as you would any other seller you speak with. Just act as if they are returning your call, a call you would have made to any other "For Sale By Owner" seller.
Q - How often will you send me new information on foreclosures?
A - Subscribers to "The Foreclosure Reporter" receive information every Tuesday afternoon, like clockwork. We are continually doing research on houses that go into foreclosure. Once we have all the data for a particular week we email it out to our clients.
Q - Is the information repeated or is new information every week?
A - The information released every week is on "new" foreclosure files.
Q - What information is included every week and how does it come?
A - The information will come to you as an Excel File in an email. Included in this spread sheet is the following:
- Name of the people included in the legal action.
- Street address of the property. (Possibly the corporate address of the owner, in the case of an investment property).
- Legal description of the property.
- Name of the bank or lender who is foreclosing.
- Name of the lawyer who is acting on behalf of the lender.
- Lawyer's phone number.
- Current amount owing (typically including arrears).
- Original mortgage amount.
- Original mortgage date.
- Current interest rate.
- Current payment amount, if available.
- Payment frequency, if available.
- Maturity date, if available.
- Miscellaneous notes if any.
Click Here
For an example of The Foreclosure
Reporter.
(The web page that you are being linked to contains the exact financial data on
every foreclosure that was registered in a time period and city as
indicated. In this example the names and addresses have been falsified but all other information is real.)
Click Here
For current Foreclosure Statistics.
