Beginning in April 2007, I started researching and crunching data related to foreclosures in Los Angeles County.  Back in 2007, the idea was to buy homes at auction to fix and flip.  Happily, I avoided buying any homes at that time because I was outbid on every home I was interested in.  But my experience over the last 22 months has allowed me to compile a solid list of resources for finding and analyzing foreclosures in California.

My research led me to several data providers and to several websites that provide better data and more information than others.  Below, I describe my usual method for analyzing an opportunity, and include the sites I utilized regularly.

Basic Principles

I highly recommend Ward’s site, ForeclosureForum, for getting a basic understanding (or even a more advanced education) of the foreclosure process and the various stages of foreclosure.  This is where I started learning.

From there, I began to explore the sites providing data.

Data Providers

There are several data providers for foreclosure data in California.  The best one by far is ForeclosureRadar.com.  It is a web 2.0 site with an easy interface and timely data (updated daily).  My search criteria included zip codes, type of property, auction/reo, lot size, square feet, date of loan, amount of published bid, etc.  The variables searchable are many, and you must find what works for you.  But FR is a great value at roughly $50/month.

Other data providers include:

County Records Research – A solid provider, but more  expensive and less useful interface. One option to improve this source is to use CRRPro software, but the end result is still inferior in my opinin to FR.

RETRAN – I used this site prior to finding FR.  It has good data, but is less user-friendly.  Still, it is a good option, albeit a bit pricey.

I do not recommend (and will not link to) realtytrac.com or foreclosure.com, or any of the other sites that seem to rank well in google.  I don’t know why anyone would find these sites useful, especially considering that they are (probably) getting their data from one of the above sites, and generally are inferior in every way to the sites linked above.

Researching a Property

There are many sites that provide details about a specific property when you type in an address.  I have used Trulia, LALife, Zillow and Movoto to start my quest for more details.  I prefer LALife because I could get APN numbers, detailed information on square footage, lot size, comps in the neighborhood, sales history, and the birdseye view showing me the neighborhood and the state of the house as of the date on the satellite photo.

I also usually pull up the address on Google, and see what the first few listings are.  If there is anything about the home, the owner, or any other related information, I pull it up.  Otherwise, Iclick through to the map on Google Maps.

You may have your own preference for those sites.  But I do recommend LALife, especially if you haven’t seen it before AND you are interested in property in LA County.

Once I have seen the detailed information, I then go to government sites.  The links here are particular to LA County, but you can probably find similar links for your county.  For parcel information, go here.  For property tax information, go here (accept the terms and search using the APN).

After verifying that you are interested in the property, you can contact a title company to get a report verifying lien priority and title information, or you can research it yourself.  I went to the county building in Norwalk to do the research myself when I started.  But that was time consuming and tedious.  However, I highly recommend that you do this at first AND pay for a title report from a reputable title company.  By researching the title by hand (searching by name(s)), you learn a great deal about the foreclosure process that you really should know!

At this stage, you know enough about the property that it looks promising.  But now you need to put eyes on it.  Did it burn down?  Is it a crack house?  Is it well-maintained?  Is it occupied?

Go see the place and find out.  There is no excuse for not looking.  It is amazing what you will learn by going out and looking at the property.  If you plan to buy at auction, you have to go see the property before you go to bid.  Period.

[. . . to be continued in part II. .  .]

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