I am sorry but I am not sure what list you are referring to. My bad.
You may want to go to a website called fidelityasap.com. They have a search engine that may be a little bit useful to see what trustee sales are scheduled. For instance if you type in CA and San Diego County you will see alot of the upcoming sales. Now the site tries to mark down what are postponed and what are not but it is a free resource so you get what you pay for.
I think you may want to do a few dry runs. That is, find some properties that you are interested that are coming up for sale. Note what they are in default for, and then watch to see what they sell for.
I think there was an earlier post on this thread that properties will not sell for below the loan amount or the opening bid but I do not think that is accurate. I think you can get away with a deal, you just need the cash.
Gina who posted on this thread made very very accurate statements. If you do end up going for a serious purchase bring all increments. That is, suppose your budget is 300k. Then you want to bring the following incremental checks, 150k, 75k, 37.5k, 18.75k …. etc. This will allow you to have an exact amount of money all the way up to 300k. I know that sounds stupid but it is a failsafe.
As far as finding out about a home, yes if it is a foreclosure then it is pretty much impossible to get into. However… if you are tracking it prior to foreclosure then nothing is stopping you from driving to the home and checking it out. Can you even knock on the door and politely offer to look around? Yes. Will the owners or tenants most likely not let you in? Yes. Can you offer them money to let you bring an inspector over? Yes… Also you can contact a title company and have them run a preliminary title report and perform a search for all liens. There is alot that can be done.
As you can see the trustee sale is part of the process but for the buyer who REALLY is serious about this and wants to have a go at saving some big money, it can happen and it can be done right but take it slow and dry run some homes.
