Making the Most of California Foreclosure Listings

Get the best real estate buys utilizing foreclosure property listings in California
By Jennifer Ehlenfeldt, Freelance Writer California foreclosures are easily found online when you search for retail, commercial, warehouse or other business property. The beauty of foreclosures is, of course, that you can buy a choice piece of property at much less than market value. When doing online foreclosure searches, look for specific types of properties in several areas, or pick one area and keep your property type open. Then you can search for foreclosure-only listings to find the best deals.

Making the most of California foreclosure listings is even easier when you find deals on businesses or homes in pre-foreclosure status. Use bank or national foreclosure listing databases that list properties in or near foreclosure, and search the U.S. Housing and Urban Development listings for HUD owned homes. When looking for foreclosure property, you should:

1. Find California foreclosures that are in their early stages. Even better, look for pre-foreclosures first.

2. Search bank or government-owned foreclosed properties in California for deals you may not expect. While they tend to be the higher priced foreclosure listings, you may be able to find a property at a good price.

3. Keep your eyes open for auction listings. These foreclosed properties in California sometimes sell for considerably less than assessed value.

Start online by searching California foreclosure listings

Find a good online list of property foreclosures in California by first looking at what the website offers. The better foreclosure listings will include property values, sales data, loan information, local property comparisons, mapping features, photographs and e-mail notification of future foreclosures in the area in which you are interested in buying property.
Try:  Use the All Foreclosure website to search for foreclosure listings in specific cities in California. Use the free search at CA-Foreclosures.com to find a bank and government California foreclosure listing including businesses, office buildings, commercial, industrial and retail properties.

Find listings for bank-owned foreclosures in California

Bank, government-owned and real estate owned (REO) foreclosures may not save you as much, but if you find the right California foreclosure property, you may be able to get it for a lot less than a piece of property that isn't in foreclosure.
Try:  Search the U.S. Housing and Urban Development (HUD)recommended government foreclosure listings in California at PEMCO Northern California or PEMCO Southern California to find government owned foreclosure properties in the state.

Search California foreclosed property listings for auction properties

Find out about foreclosure listings before everyone else sees them by keeping tabs on listings at your local courthouse. Look for auction listings of homes in foreclosure, or better yet, find listings for homes in pre-foreclosure. The earlier you catch a property in the foreclosure process, the better deal you'll get.
Try:  Search the CalHomeAuctions.com site for upcoming auctions for homes and businesses. Register at the Real Estate Disposition Corporation to get updates of newly listed California property auctions.

• Foreclosure listings vary from one website to another. Be wary of paying for a subscription to a foreclosure website until you've actually tried it out. Most offer a free trial period. Use it to make sure the listings for foreclosure properties in California include information you need to make an informed decision.