Pre-Foreclosure investing can be very lucrative if you seriously dedicate your self in locating people right before or after their notice of defaults have been filed. Pre-Foreclosure investing is also referred to as a short sale, where the bank accepts a purchase price less than what is owned on the property. Banks don’t want to have foreclosure property on their hands. What this can mean for you is a huge real estate investing opportunity by creating instant equity where there was none before.

Why is pre-foreclosure investing so lucrative? Well, With the mortgage crisis in full swing, homes are going into foreclosure left and right all across the country. The prediction of pre-foreclosures and foreclosed upon homes in  2008 is 5 million.  5 million people will either lose their homes or come close to losing their homes in 2008 and the numbers will increase throughout 2009. It will get much worse before it gets better.

All these pre-foreclosure or short sale properties offer you a great investment opportunity. You can scout and buy homes in pre-foreclosure, buy them at deep discounts and then keep them as income producing rental investments, or you can purchase pre-foreclosed properties and flip them, renovating and selling for a profit. The time has never been better to use the real estate market to your advantage. I was recently sent a copy of an outstanding pre-foreclosure and foreclosure book by a real estate expert by the name of Jarad Severe. His book, Unlock The Hidden Wealth in Pre-Foreclosures: is a goldmine for anyone interested in the pre-foreclosure business, from novice to pro.

As a quick and authoritative reference, the book explains all the elements of the pre-foreclosure process and reveals everything you should keep in mind as you deal with pre-foreclosure properties. In my opinion this is the only pre-foreclosure book that answers every question from beginning to end about working and investing in pre-foreclosures, covering such topics as:

• Finding Pre-Foreclosure properties to buy
• How you can receive big discounts from Banks
• Buying pre-foreclosures at .50 Cents on the Dollar
• Solving Homeowner questions and problems during the deal
• Tax and legal issues

Written by a real estate expert with over twenty years experience making money in the pre-foreclosure real estate market, Unlock The Hidden Wealth In Pre-Foreclosurees, is the ultimate reference for anyone interested in the nich pre-forelcousre or short sale real estate market.

Foreclosure Search - Free

Searching for free foreclosure listings or for Bank owned or REO Properties? We’ve searched and scoured the web to find banks that post REO properties on their sites. We’ve assembled other sites that also compile REOs to aid in your search. This might be the easiest way to find and acquire foreclosures. Once a foreclosed property is an REO, its title is usually clean. You DO NOT need to pay to access any of these sites!

AmSouth Bank Bank Of America Beal Bank BB&T Citibank Compass Bank Countrywide Home Loans Downey Savings Fannie Mae FDIC Fidelity National Financial First National Bank of Alaska First Preston Freddie Mac Fremont Investment & Loan GMAC GRP Financial (Sallie Mae) HMB Home Loan Bank HSBC HSBC Commercial HUD Indy Mac Bank Integrated Asset Services JP Morgan Chase Bank Kennedy Funding Kentucky Housing Corporation Keystone Asset Management Lenders Asset Management Lexington State Bank M&T Bank Mortgage Lenders Network National Bank of Arizona New South Federal Savings Bank Ocwen Financial PNC Bank People’s Bank Premiere Asset Services (Wells Fargo) Private Financial Services (Bank of OK) Regions Bank REO Nationwide REO Trans Security National Small Business Administration (SBA) Texas State Bank T R.E.O U.S. Department of Agriculture U.S. Government Home Sales Unity Bank US Bank Virginia Housing Development Wells Fargo Commercial Western Bank Wilshire Credit Corp. Zions Bank Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation

Foreclosures for free is a possibility if you sign up with one of the online foreclosure search sites that offer 7 day free online searches whereupon your can cancel your subscription if you choose to. Sites such as Realtytrac offer free 7day trial and free email alert of any foreclosure and notice of defaults within your specific or general location.

Founded in 1996, RealtyTrac is the fastest growing online real estate marketplace — named the 53rd fastest growing private company in the 2006 Inc. 500 and the 52nd fastest growing North American technology company in the 2006 Deloitte Technology Fast 500. The company’s mission is to make it easier for consumers, investors and real estate professionals to locate, evaluate, buy and sell properties. RealtyTrac is the only major real estate website to feature foreclosure, auction, bank-owned, for-sale-by-owner, resale, MLS and new construction properties.

RealtyTrac is also the leading online marketplace for foreclosure properties and publishes the country’s largest, most comprehensive foreclosure database, with over 800,000 default, auction and bank-owned homes from across the country. RealtyTrac collects and aggregates foreclosure data from nearly 2,500 counties, covering more than 94 percent of U.S. households, appends the data with estimated property values, comparable sales, loan history, tax lien and bankruptcy records, trustee and lender information and property details and updates the entire database twice daily.

RealtyTrac has been chosen to supply foreclosure data and services to MSN Real Estate, Yahoo! Real Estate, HomeGain.com, Homes.com, Earthlink, Cox.com, Living Choices, The Wall Street Journal’s Real Estate Journal, Primedia, and many other specialized real estate and local news websites.

RealtyTrac publishes a monthly U.S. Foreclosure Market Report, which is the most widely quoted foreclosure trend report in the country, having been featured in stories on The CBS Evening News, ABC World News, NBC Nightly News, Money, Time, FOX News, CNN, CNBC, MSNBC, The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune, San Francisco Chronicle, The Denver Post and dozens of other national, regional and local broadcast, print and online news outlets. The company also publishes a quarterly and annual recap of foreclosures, and a quarterly report that ranks the top 100 metropolitan areas by their foreclosure rates.

Uncovering Hidden Information for the Mass Market
Historically, about 1 percent of all first and second mortgages have gone into foreclosure. This represents many thousands of properties and millions of dollars every year. Traditionally, information about foreclosure properties has been available only two ways:

• Expensive specialized data sources
• The time-consuming and hit-or-miss process of sifting through default filings in newspapers, legal books or at courthouse trustee sales

RealtyTrac has “democratized” this formerly hidden information that had once been available to only a select group of industry insiders. The company believes that by exposing more properties to more interested potential buyers, it can create win/win/win scenarios — homeowners in default can avoid a devastating foreclosure, home buyers and investors can acquire a property below market value, and the lender can avoid the expense and trouble of a foreclosure proceeding.

RealtyTrac provides resources that home seekers, investors and real estate professionals need to locate, evaluate, buy and sell properties, often below market value.  The suite of data evaluation and productivity tools includes:

• Property valuations — algorithms that provide estimated property values and value ranges
• Foreclosure sales data — the company tracks sales of properties in all three stages of foreclosures and includes the sales date and sales price to give users valuable market information
• Comparable property sales — up to 15 sales records of adjacent properties, along with a map of the property locations to help customers determine a fair market value for the property they’re interested in
• Loan information — history of loans on properties to help users determine the financial encumbrance on a home
• Interactive mapping — an integrated search tool that allows users to locate all types of properties within a dynamic mapping interface.
• MLS association — shows properties currently listed in the area surrounding a property of interest to give users a sense of the community, and an idea of current market pricing
• Lien and bankruptcy data — allows potential buyers to find out if the purchase process could be complicated by hidden financial or legal issues
• Photographs — over 10 percent of properties have photographs — and Microsoft’s Virtual Earth™ mapping technology provides aerial photos of many of the other properties (most foreclosure sites don’t provide any photos)
• FREE daily e-mail notifications — notifies  members the moment a property that fits their specifications enters the RealtyTrac database
• Postcard service — allows members to send notifications of interest directly to the homeowners in default
• Data download — allows members to quickly evaluate, sort and track properties en masse and to create mail merge lists for large-scale mailings.

To help users learn about the foreclosure market and successfully purchase properties, RealtyTrac also provides a number of industry-leading resources:

• A national network of over 5,000 real estate professionals to assist users
• A national network of mortgage providers
• A foreclosure resource center with information about the process and capsule reviews of foreclosure laws in all 50 states
• Educational materials from leading foreclosure investment authors
• A monthly newsletter with tips on using the site and on foreclosure investment strategies