How to Find Foreclosure Listings

There are many listings of home foreclosures available, but you can avoid paying high prices for lists if you know where to look.

Step 1: Contact a county tax department Contact a county or city's tax department for free lists of foreclosure auctions in the area. Lists include dates, times, and locations of the auctions.
TIP: Buyer beware -- foreclosure auction properties are bought with cash up front, and are typically bought sight unseen without title insurance.
Step 2: Contact bank REO departments Contact bank REO, or real estate owned, departments for bank-owned property information. The Mortgage News Daily website, at mortgagenewsdaily.com, offers links to major bank REO departments.
Step 3: Go to the REO Network website Go to the REO Network website, at reonetwork.com. Search their database for brokers, agents, or vendors in your area who work with bank-owned foreclosures.
Step 4: Search the HomeSales.gov database Search the HomeSales.gov database for government-owned foreclosures. Housing and Urban Development, or HUD, and the Veterans Administration websites also offer foreclosure listings. With a little research you can find residential or commercial property on the cheap from a wide variety of sources.
FACT: Former baseball superstar Jose Canseco lost his $2.5 million home to foreclosure in 2008.