While there are many different ways to find good deals on investment properties in today’s market, one of the best ways to get the best deals on real estate is to try to get a pre-foreclosure.  If you aren’t already familiar with pre-foreclosures, they are great because they can benefit both the buyer and the seller, and if you are a real estate investor, you can purchase a property, at a low price, for a great deal, while avoiding competition as you would once the bank owns the home.

A property is in pre-foreclosure, when the home has a mortgage that is in default.  Usually this means, the owner has missed three or more payments and the bank has started the legal process of taking back the home.  You can sweep in and take the home off the seller’s hands before they have to deal with the foreclosure process.

This can be some pretty personal information, which means the average seller isn’t going to be advertising that their home is in pre-foreclosure. However, there are still ways that you can find pre-foreclosures and come in and make a great offer on a great property all for a low price.

• Visit the local courthouse and look through files of pre-foreclosure legal filings. From there, you can make a list of potential homes.
• Look at the local newspaper to gather information on potential pre-foreclosures. There are also some home search sites that will list pre-foreclosure information since it is public record.
• After you have a list of potential pre-foreclosure information, start looking up info on the property you are considering. You want to look at the location, the value of the home, the mortgage information and how much you think you can get it for in order to make the deal worth it.
• Find a way to contact the owner. You can dig into public records, Google them or even go to the house. While it can seem intrusive, many times, owners are more open to a deal then you may think as it also benefits them as a foreclosure will go on their record and make it difficult for them to ever buy a house in the future.
• You can then start negotiating with the owner. As the investor, you will want to try to find the perfect price to make the owner happy and make you some money.

A pre-foreclosure can be a great way for you to get a property at a low price, no matter what your end goal with that home may be.  Just keep these tips in mind as you start to look for pre-foreclosures as they may just lead you to the home you have been looking for.