San Diego Housing Bubble News and Analysis

I use foreclosureradar.com. I have never paid for the service. Instead I use the free search function. I find that foreclosureradar gives enough free detail to identify the actual address if you cross reference the data using ziprealty (or maybe some other site) satellite view.

Go to foreclosureradar.com and search by zip. It lists the property street name and shows a fairly accurate location on the map. Look at the number of bedrooms and baths and square footage and then go look at the satellite view on ziprealty that corresponds to the area. Zoom in until you see the lot lines and addresses. Click on the individual lot numbers until you see the matching square footage, bedrooms, and baths. Bingo. Now you know the address.

I haven't tried to figure out the best way to get the auction dates and times for free as I'm not yet interested in attending auctions. I would think you could physically go to the county recorder's office, look up the loan originator in the public records and contact the company for more detail. But by the time you put that level of effort into it you'd probably rather just sign up for the $50 a month service.

Foreclosureradar seems to update their data frequently. I'm still debating whether I should check out the auction process. Properties have been so upside down that the opening bids at Trustee Sales weren't worth it. I've heard maybe that is changing though (the opening bid amount, not the underwater part).

Hope this helps.

Someone posted this on SDL:

Preforeclosurenetwork. Lots of good info for free. I checked it and it seems accurate.

What do you hope to accomplish with a foreclosure service?

I like RealtyTrac. They have a nice interactive map that you can search with, free of charge. The only thing you won't get is addresses and other details. You have to pay for those. But what good will it do you to find an REO on one of these services? If you can track down the bank that owns the REO, you will be told that all properties that are actually for sale are listed in the MLS with an agent. Unfortuanately this is a very small percentage of the massive REO inventory, you will find.

The banks are not selling, so knowing which bank owns it is not of much use. It is a good idea for everyone interested in catching a knife or enriching a realtor to spend some time looking at the REO situation. Don't just look at your area of interest, look at the whole state, then AZ and NV and then decide if we are anywhere near a bottom.

wow, you see what people owe on these loans and the amount of loan they took out, so crazy

You see what people owe and think what they heck were they thinking? Then remember that they bought w/the intention of flipping, b/c after all, real estate is just expected to continue to go up forever.

Then you think, why would they do a loan mod and continue to owe so much when it's worth a fraction of the loan amount. Even if they get a fixed lower rate.

Then you think, what if they lose a job, which is very likely, since our unemployment continues to rise.

So I guess the answer is, you don't pay your mortgage, you live there for free for a year+, you lose your job and collect unemployment for 2+ years.

I'm sufficiently disgusted now.