13 Best Ways How to Find Foreclosures to Get a List of Bank-Owned Properties in Connecticut (Free & Paid Methods)
This guide will teach you how to find repossessed properties and homes going through the pre-foreclosure process.
We’ll discuss the right connections to make to secure deals like these, as well as what resources you can utilize both on and offline.
My name is Bob Vieira. As the founder and owner of Universal Short Sales, the country’s fastest-growing short sale processing company, I’ve compiled a wealth of knowledge for you.
Keep reading to learn more.
PropTech Platforms
Real Estate Bees
Real Estate Bees (REB) is an online platform designed for industry professionals looking to take their real estate business to the next level. It provides access to robust tech stack, statistical data, comprehensive informational resources, and much more.
This includes pre-foreclosure and REO leads for real estate agents, investors, and wholesalers. All the leads are strictly generated via inbound marketing channels unlike data scraping, aggregation, and other outbound methods used by most other platforms.
Delinquent property owners from all over the US utilize the REB platform to find reputable Connecticut home buyer companies who’d be interested in acquiring their distressed property — so they are highly motivated.
As a user of the platform, you can get access to these distressed properties, submitted by other industry professionals, absolutely FREE! You simply need to sign up to DealAlert, which is an advanced, yet free, property matching engine developed by Real Estate Bees.
In addition, you can also access distressed properties, submitted directly by property owners, by purchasing distressed seller leads through our advanced pay per lead real estate marketplace.
Other Platforms
You can also find distressed property leads, including pre-foreclosures and repossessed homes, via other property investor software.
These real estate investor lead sources can also be integrated with your real estate investor CRM software.
Refer to Real Estate Bees’ compilation of the best real estate wholesaling tools to make it easier for you to choose the ideal software for your business needs.
When searching for foreclosed homes, pre-foreclosures, and leads on different motivated seller types, try any of the following tools:
The following software is designed to help you find pre-foreclosure property leads:
Foreclosure.com
When talking about finding foreclosures online, among the top REO search engines you should check out is Foreclosure.com.
It’s very popular among real estate investors because it’s so easy to use, whether you need to find foreclosed properties or pre-foreclosures.
I personally love its interactive property map feature. It shows you the entire country, and you simply click on the state you prefer to search foreclosures by address.
You get access to Foreclosure.com when you avail of a monthly subscription. The most popular package costs around $40 per month.
Foreclosure.com is only one online marketplace where you can find cheap foreclosed homes for sale. Let’s look at a few others next.
Auction.com
You will find more than enough investment opportunities when you visit the largest real estate auction platform in the country — Auction.com.
It’s not just one of the best places to find foreclosures but also a great resource to score pre-foreclosure and real estate short sale deals.
More than its vast collection of real estate assets, Auction.com stands out as one of the best websites to find foreclosures, because there’s no monthly membership fee to get access.
You simply bid on a property, and if you win, you’ll pay a buyer’s premium in addition to the price of the property.
While it’s a great place to find distressed property leads, you have to exercise caution when bidding on properties.
Using online auction platforms to find distressed properties won’t allow you to do thorough real estate investment due diligence, so be careful when placing your bids.
Zillow
Zillow is another online marketplace you should add to your list of resources for getting a foreclosed home.
Every house hunter in the country knows this site. It is no doubt the most popular brand on this list.
Most users visit Zillow for property to buy in Connecticut to call home. But many investors use the site as well for finding properties to wholesale, flip, or use as a rental.
When figuring out how to find foreclosures in Connecticut on Zillow, start with the city or county where you’re searching for properties.
From there, additional filters will narrow down results. You can search by foreclosures, pre-foreclosures, or even auctions.
Next on our list is a familiar resource when you want to know how to look up foreclosures. Let’s find out what it is.
Connecticut Multiple Listing Services (MLS)
It’s also possible to get REO listings from an MLS or multiple listing service.
Though each MLS in Connecticut is a little different, they will all allow you to search for local foreclosure and pre-foreclosure listings.
All you have to do is locate the “My Search” tab. From there, you can filter results through the dropdown menu.
To find foreclosures on MLS, select foreclosures, pre-foreclosures, or short sales from that menu. You can also further narrow down results by property features you want.
For example, if you’re looking for single family houses for sale in Connecticut with four bedrooms and two baths, you will be able to refine your search.
Note that you will need an active real estate license to access the MLS. If you don’t have one, you can ask a licensed agent to help you for a fee.
It’s actually the easiest when a foreclosure is formally listed on the MLS for sale with an experienced listing agent.
Connecticut Real Estate Wholesalers
Using a property wholesaler in Connecticut is another way to look for foreclosed homes. They work to find off-market deals inventors are interested in.
Many real estate investors in Connecticut prefer to find wholesale homes because the wholesaler does all the searching and negotiation for them.
This can save a huge amount of time and let you concentrate on renovating or managing your properties rather than hunting for motivated sellers, qualifying them, and conducting further negotiations before signing a contract.
After a wholesaler finds a distressed seller, they get their house contract as a buyer. But rather than buy the property, they will offer their purchase rights to you at a fee.
So, for example, if I have a property under contract as a wholesaler for $120,000 and I find an investor willing to pay $140,000, I’ll assign the contract to them.
At closing, the investor would then pay the homeowner $120,000 for the home and $20,000 to me as an assignment fee.
If you are an investor building a lead generation process for your flipping or rental business, you will surely have leads that you can’t use yourself.
Instead of throwing them away, you can also wholesale these properties to other investors.
Learn more about this process by checking out the guide on how to get into wholesaling real estate. Also, review the rules of wholesaling houses in Connecticut.
When working with a professional wholesaler who knows how to get motivated sellers on autopilot, you get a list of foreclosures in your area to choose from.
This is a great lead source if you’re looking to find cheap properties to flip and advance your house flipping career.
Real estate wholesalers are an invaluable asset to investors on the lookout to find foreclosure deals.
Our constant presence on the ground and active search for such properties give us deep, real-time insight into the market.
Not to mention, we’ve really honed our skills when it comes to identifying foreclosure better than other real estate professionals.
But the value of wholesalers, when it comes to foreclosure deals, doesn’t stop there.
We bring a unique blend of negotiation expertise, ensuring favorable terms for investors, and lead vetting, which helps in risk mitigation.
By partnering with a real estate wholesaler, investors not only gain access to a diverse range of foreclosure deals.
They also benefit from an acquisition process that’s been perfected, ensuring both time and financial efficiency.
Connecticut Real Estate Agents
Connecting with a Connecticut real estate agent is yet another way to get a foreclosed homes list.
REO, which stands for Real Estate-Owned, means properties that have gone through the foreclosure process.
The bank has already repossessed the home and passes the listing on to an agent to get it put on REO property search and sold.
REO investment realtors in Connecticut typically have multiple foreclosure listings at any given time, and they know investors typically look for these deals.
So if you’re out to find REO properties, make sure you have REO agents on your list of vendors.
As part of any successful realtor’s business, we know where to go and what contacts to reach out to with specific requests.
We can reach out to our real estate attorneys who handle short sales and foreclosures, search across multiple websites such as HUD, auction websites, judicial auctions, and are experienced in selling foreclosed homes to our buyers.
Each one can be a little different because each bank is different, but it only helps lend the best advice and guidance.
Connecticut Foreclosure Attorneys
Foreclosure attorneys in Connecticut can help you find leads, too, even though they don’t actively work with properties once they’re listed.
Instead, they work closely with mortgage servicers and Connecticut lending companies to ensure they don’t get sued by homeowners.
Foreclosure attorneys can, however, forward you distressed property leads.
They may pass a lead along if working with you could avoid a foreclosure from happening, or they may share information in exchange for a referral fee.
Either way, building relationships with foreclosure attorneys and short sale lawyers in Connecticut can help you find repossessed houses for sale.
Connecticut Short Sale Processors
When looking for distressed properties, specifically pre-foreclosure deals, it’s essential to establish strong relationships with short sale processing companies in Connecticut.
This is because short sale processors can save you so much time and energy in addition to providing you with deals.
They navigate and facilitate the entire real estate short sale process from A to Z. This saves you from dealing with the complicated and lengthy procedure of buying a short sale property on your own.
Even better, they can also bring leads to you. Often, short sale processors are the first to whom home sellers reach out directly because of what short sale negotiators do for the seller.
With a good relationship in place, the short sale processor will then bring the deal to you, allowing you to get an amazing property at a reasonable fee.
Connecticut Real Estate Lenders
If you wonder how to get foreclosure listings from banks directly, all you have to do is reach out and call.
It never hurts to contact a lender, introduce yourself, and let them know you’re calling to find distressed real estate to buy for cash.
They may be very willing to give you a list of repossessed properties. They might also say they can’t help you, which is less likely since once a bank forecloses on a property, they want to sell it fast.
Start with small, localized banks in your community and do a little research to find an appropriate number to call.
With smaller companies, it shouldn’t take that much effort to get a manager on the phone who is in charge of repo homes. It’s more complicated when a company is large, but still doable.
Connecticut Courthouses
It’s not as frequently used, but you can also find foreclosed houses through the local county courthouse.
You can go to the county’s website to get wholesale real estate leads or visit the courthouse office in person where public records are stored. Either approach should enable you to get a foreclosed homes list for free.
Next, compile a list of lis pendens. These are properties where the homeowner has fallen behind on mortgage payments, and the Connecticut loan servicer has put a fist lien on the house.
You should also look up properties with tax liens nearing a sheriff auction sale — those are amazing opportunities as well.
After you get a list of foreclosures from the courthouse, verify homeowner information via real estate skip tracing.
This helps you find motivated sellers’ phone numbers, emails, and more to ensure you’re able to contact them.
Check out this list of the best skip tracing services for real estate investors to get started.
And I have two more ways for you to find foreclosures in your area for free!
In our state, real estate investors can access public records related to foreclosures and pre-foreclosures at the local county courthouses.
Each county’s clerk of court maintains these records, and they’re available for public review. Specifically, you can search for notices of default or lis pendens, which indicate the start of the foreclosure process.
Connecticut’s online land records portal provides access to property data, though it may not be as real time as the courthouse records.
Investors should keep in mind that this method can be time-consuming and super competitive because many other savvy investors are combing through these same records.
There’s a risk of encountering properties with complex legal issues or hidden liens.
They can search through each individual town or get a record of back taxes and most likely, those behind on taxes are behind on mortgages if they have them.
Bank Websites
To find out about foreclosures online quickly, you can always go directly to a bank’s website.
Not all of them will be able to pull a long list of foreclosures, or even let you do a free search of bank-owned repossessed homes for sale.
However, the larger mortgage servicers like Bank of America and Wells Fargo should yield the most results.
On their sites, you should find bank-owned properties for free, and pretty easily. Just find the section for this on the site. Filter your search by location to see bank foreclosures in Connecticut.
And here is the last tip on finding foreclosed houses in your area!
HUD Foreclosures
The majority of foreclosures you see online will have a government-based mortgage from HUD. This is why hudhomestore.gov is a great way for finding foreclosed homes for sale for free.
You can search HUD foreclosures directly from the homepage of the website and get free motivated seller leads.
In the special field for foreclosed home search, write your county, zip code, city, or state. You’ll get onto another page showing you search results.
Then, to find HUD foreclosed homes matching your criteria, you have filters for sorting the results by price, size, and other features.
Free and quick — a great tool to use when you only begin flipping houses and don’t want to pay for leads.
Survey of Industry Experts
Which of the following resources do you use to find foreclosed and pre-foreclosed properties in Connecticut?
Which of the following real estate professionals can be the best source of foreclosure deals for an investor in Connecticut?
Get Expert Training to Find Upcoming Foreclosures Like a Pro
My name’s Bob Vieira. I’m the founder and owner of Universal Short Sales.
As the country’s fastest-growing short sale processing company, we know a lot about where to find opportunities for distressed properties, and we’re sharing that information with you.
In addition to what you’ve just read, I’m also giving away my Pre-Foreclosure Fast Lane course. Through this class, you will gain knowledge on:
- Short Sale and Pre-Foreclosure Fundamentals
- Lead Generation
- How to Monetize Pre-Foreclosures and Short Sales
Apart from these topics, I will also share my 12-step system on how we complete short sales here at Universal Short Sales.
This course is for free — my gift to you. Boost your knowledge now!
What Is the Primary Pitfall to Watch Out for When Investing in Foreclosures in Connecticut?
In Connecticut, one of the primary pitfalls when investing in foreclosures is the state’s judicial foreclosure process.
Unlike some states where the foreclosure process can be relatively quick, Connecticut requires that foreclosures go through the court system.
This can lead to longer timelines, sometimes lasting up to a year or longer. Yes, I’ve seen that firsthand.
This longer process can tie up capital for investors and diminish returns, especially if the market shifts, unfavorably during this waiting period.
It’s really important to be aware of any hidden liens or obstacles related to the property. It’s not uncommon for foreclosed homes to have secondary liens, and failure to identify them can result in unforeseen financial obligations for the investor.
A thorough title search and working closely with experienced real estate wholesalers can mitigate these risks and ensure a more secure investment.
You want to make sure they are being sold after the bank’s formal foreclosure process with clear title and no outstanding liens.
You also need to pay attention to a buyer’s premium some foreclosure platforms make you pay, which can be an additional cost. I’ve seen up to 15% of the purchase price.
Bob Vieira is the Founder and Managing Partner of Universal Short Sales, LLC. While serving clients as a licensed Realtor, he realized there was a need for a knowledgeable company, specializing in the short sale sector. Bob is an industry expert with a passion for guiding homeowners through the short sale process.
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