13 Best Ways How to Find Foreclosures to Get a List of Bank-Owned Properties in South Carolina (Free & Paid Methods)
Through this guide, you’ll find out the secrets to discovering foreclosure and pre-foreclosure deals.
We’ll explore the power of personal connections and tap into readily available offline and online resources.
I’m Bob Vieira, the brains behind Universal Short Sales, the nation’s leading short sale processing company.
Ready to uncover exclusive deals? Let’s get started!
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 home buyer companies in South Carolina 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 motivated seller leads through our advanced real estate lead marketplace.
Other Platforms
Beyond Real Estate Bees, a realm of diverse real estate investment software apps and real estate investor lead generation systems awaits.
These platforms specialize in sourcing distressed property leads, encompassing pre-foreclosures and repossessed real estate.
The majority of these software tools effortlessly integrate with widely utilized real estate investor relations CRM systems.
Real Estate Bees’ editorial team has thoroughly assessed the leading real estate wholesaling tools, providing you with the knowledge to make well-informed decisions.
Here is a compilation of tools making you proficient in discovering pre-foreclosures, foreclosed homes, and a variety of other motivated seller types:
Additionally, the following tools are specifically handy for locating pre-foreclosure properties:
Foreclosure.com
One of the widely recognized platforms investors use to find foreclosed properties and pre-foreclosures is Foreclosure.com.
It’s among the renowned REO search engines in the real estate domain, boasting widespread popularity, a name that rings familiar to many.
Its membership options vary, with the most prevalent subscription costing around 40 USD per month.
There are two notable aspects that I find valuable about this particular platform. Firstly, its exceptional user-friendliness; signing up quickly grants access to a comprehensive list of leads.
It’s a breeze to navigate, even for individuals who don’t use the Internet too often.
Secondly, Foreclosure.com offers a map enabling users to search foreclosures by address.
This functionality organizes data neatly, listing foreclosures by state across the United States. It’s a highly intuitive and organized tool for finding foreclosures online.
Moving forward, let’s explore another digital marketplace renowned for its offering regarding where to find cheap foreclosed homes for sale.
Auction.com
Auction.com is positioned as the foremost real estate auction platform nationwide.
It is recognized for its extensive reach and size, rendering it as one of the best places to find foreclosures, real estate short sale deals, and many other asset types.
The absence of monthly membership fees is a convenient feature that positions Auction.com among the best websites to find foreclosures.
Instead, users place bids on properties, with a buyer’s premium payable to Auction.com upon winning a bid. This forms the foundation of their revenue structure.
However, caution is advised when participating in property auctions. Not every auction provides the chance to carry out a thorough real estate due diligence checklist, so it’s crucial to proceed with care.
Zillow
The most popular platform we’ll discuss is Zillow. It is a globally recognized brand, and it works great when it comes to how to look up foreclosures.
Zillow is widely utilized by investors searching where to find houses to wholesale or flip.
While Zillow’s renown primarily stems from its comprehensive database of South Carolina property listings for homeowners and renters, it also presents great functionality for getting a foreclosed home as an investor.
When exploring how to find foreclosures in South Carolina on Zillow, you simply access the interface, input the desired city or county, and apply filters effortlessly.
By utilizing the dropdown menu, you can directly select “foreclosures”, “pre-foreclosures”, or even delve into auction listings.
This ease of use makes Zillow a valuable resource for identifying foreclosure properties.
It’s the highest ROI in terms of time to find a deal and potential upside. However, in a strong sellers’ market, it certainly becomes harder to find deals through these sources.
South Carolina Multiple Listing Services (MLS)
The Multiple Listing Service (MLS) stands as an exceptional avenue for investors to get REO listings. However, the entry necessitates holding a valid real estate license.
Alternatively, engaging a real estate agent to navigate the MLS for foreclosure listings is a viable option, albeit at a fee.
Each South Carolina MLS operates differently, boasting slightly varying interfaces.
Despite these variations, they all serve searchers of local pre-foreclosure and foreclosure listings in the same way.
You log in and navigate to the “Search” tab. From there, a dropdown menu emerges.
Users can select options like foreclosures, pre-foreclosures, or short sales from this dropdown menu. That’s how you can find foreclosures on MLS.
Don’t forget to refine the search criteria to match your preferences. For instance, choose South Carolina houses for sale with two bedrooms if it’s important to you, to avoid sifting through properties you aren’t interested in.
They are ones I already subscribe to and there are no other fees. If looking for foreclosures were my main source of business, I may use some of the other resources.
South Carolina Real Estate Wholesalers
A powerful strategy that investors can use to look for foreclosed homes involves teaming up with skilled South Carolina property wholesalers.
These experts find motivated sellers to present real estate investors in South Carolina with discounted investment property opportunities.
The allure of finding wholesale properties lies in wholesalers’ ability to expertly handle the entire search and negotiation process, sparing investors a lot of time.
Their distinctive approach is based on signing a purchase contract with a motivated seller and establishing what is referred to as equitable interest.
At closing, a wholesaler doesn’t close on the house but assigns this right to an investor who actually purchases the property.
Consider this scenario: A wholesaler secures a property under contract at $100,000, confident that you or another investor will buy it for $120,000.
While closing the deal with the distressed home seller at the agreed-upon price of $100,000, the wholesaler transfers their purchasing rights to you so that you acquire the property.
At the same time, you pay a $20,000 assignment fee to the wholesaler.
If you are venturing into a house flipping career and aiming to establish professional networks, wholesalers serve as invaluable partners.
They possess the ability to get you a list of foreclosures in your area as they consistently generate motivated seller leads.
This way, you can focus on fixing and flipping, reducing the effort spent on finding fix and flip properties to the minimum.
If you are a beginner, you may want to consider starting with wholesaling houses yourself. This strategy requires lower initial investment and is easier than others in many ways.
To delve deeper into this approach, explore the guide on how to start wholesaling houses with no money.
You can also acquaint yourself with regulations governing wholesaling real estate in South Carolina.
South Carolina Real Estate Agents
Connecting with REO agents also presents a valuable opportunity to get a foreclosed homes list. REO, short for Real Estate Owned, refers to foreclosed properties.
Banks, fundamentally in the business of managing notes, prefer not to spend much resources on managing real estate assets.
Following the foreclosure of a property, lenders commonly entrust it to an REO agent whose task is to sell the property rather quickly.
Real estate agents in South Carolina who work for lenders often handle a variety of such listings waiting for a buyer. It’s them who list those houses on Zillow and other REO property search engines.
Building a connection with an REO investor-friendly real estate agent in South Carolina can yield significant advantages.
This way you can find REO properties before they become publicly available to other investors.
In my experience, real estate agents who specialize in investment properties are the best source of foreclosure deals. I’ve purchased 4 foreclosures with the help of an agent.
These listings were on the MLS, and could have been found on various real estate websites, but I believe 3/4 of them were emailed to me by an agent.
Real estate agents are only part of how investors learn about foreclosures. Investors have to be good at their research on how each county handles foreclosures.
South Carolina Foreclosure Attorneys
A foreclosure lawyer in South Carolina is a legal expert serving lenders and homeowners.
They play a crucial role in protecting lenders in South Carolina from potential legal challenges and losses during foreclosure proceedings. You want to connect with them to get referrals.
Ask them if they need a cash house buyer who would be able to purchase pre-foreclosure or foreclosed houses.
Perhaps, this will help some of their clients avoid litigations, positioning the lawyer as a professional who managed to find a simple solution to their problem.
Otherwise, ask South Carolina short sale lawyers if they can send you deals at a referral fee or in exchange for another benefit that you could probably offer them.
Connecting with attorneys is not as easy as with wholesalers or agents, However, if you manage to build such relationships, this will further enhance your ability to find repossessed houses for sale.
South Carolina Short Sale Processors
For real estate investors concentrating on distressed properties, especially pre-foreclosure opportunities, building a strong connection with short sale negotiators in South Carolina (also called short sale processing companies) is crucial.
A short sale negotiator manages the short selling process from start to completion, normally representing home sellers. You can delve deeper into what short sale negotiators do for the seller.
Buying a short sale home is a time-consuming and complex endeavor, often stretching over several months.
So if your short sale is processed professionally, you can be sure the deal won’t be delayed for an unreasonable term.
And the main benefit of partnering with a short sale processor is that they will refer pre-foreclosure properties to you once they get the business of a new distressed homeowner.
Normally, short sale processing companies charge buyers and not sellers. But oftentimes, short sale properties are worth paying the fee.
South Carolina Real Estate Lenders
You may wonder if you can just contact lenders and ask them for repossessed homes they are trying to sell. Yes, you can.
Research local lenders’ phone numbers, call them, and introduce yourself as an investor seeking where to find distressed properties to buy fast and for cash.
Express interest in obtaining a list of foreclosed homes and houses with a notice of default.
Banks are eager to provide you with a list of repossessed properties because they are always trying to dispose of real estate assets: property management and sales is not the business they want to do — lending is.
Smaller, localized banks generally stand out as ideal targets for accessing repo homes. They offer greater accessibility to people you want to reach.
Typically, one to two calls can lead directly to a credit union manager or another responsible employee who can consult you.
You can explore further insights on how to get REO listings from banks.
South Carolina Courthouses
Trying to find foreclosed houses through the local county courthouse often represents an untapped opportunity for investors. It offers access to deals with minimal competition.
To get wholesale real estate leads via this avenue, one can either physically visit the courthouse or leverage its website, if available.
The courthouse in your county may be called something else. But in essence, it’s the place where public records are kept and where you get a foreclosed homes list for free.
The initial step involves compiling a lis pendens list. Lis pendens is a notice that a homeowner lags behind on mortgage payments.
It also grants the respective South Carolina loan servicer a primary claim on the property in the form of a first lien position.
Likewise, for investors who look up properties with tax liens heading towards a sheriff auction sale, the courthouse serves as the primary information hub.
Once you get a list of foreclosures from the courthouse, you will probably see that not all leads have correct contact details. You can easily fix this by doing real estate skip tracing.
The best skip tracing services for real estate investors will swiftly provide contact details such as phone numbers, emails, and social media profiles of homeowners, aiding investors in their pursuit to find motivated sellers.
Coming up is another way to find foreclosures in your area for free!
Our local county has a section on the website about foreclosures.
Since the law mandates the homeowner getting foreclosed on has to be advertised in the newspaper, the local paper has a section as well.
All records in the Register of Deeds office are public records for each county and are available online.
Bank Websites
One more highly effective method to find out about foreclosures is simply visiting websites of mortgage lenders.
Not every bank boasts a robust website with a free search feature offering a list of bank-owned repossessed homes for sale. Larger companies will more likely have it.
On websites of such companies as Wells Fargo and Bank of America, you can find bank-owned properties for free. If you can’t see any suitable bank foreclosures in South Carolina now, check later.
Moving forward, let’s delve into the last recommendation provided in this extensive guide on where to find foreclosed homes.
HUD Foreclosures
Here’s an additional method of finding foreclosed homes for sale for free without hefty marketing expenses. It is especially beneficial for those just starting a home flipping business.
A substantial part of foreclosed property listings originates from federally supported mortgages managed by HUD.
Access these properties directly through HUD’s official website at hudhomestore.gov and search HUD foreclosures right there.
Like with any other property search engine, you can refine your foreclosed home search based on desired property types and features.
The search criteria extend to various parameters such as county, city, state, and zip code.
To find HUD foreclosed homes that match your criteria, also specify the number of bedrooms and bathrooms as well as other features.
This was the last strategy to find foreclosures. But I also have another extensive resource that will help you become a real expert on how to find motivated sellers for free. Read on!
Survey of Industry Experts
Which of the following resources do you use to find foreclosed and pre-foreclosed properties in South Carolina?
Which of the following real estate professionals can be the best source of foreclosure deals for an investor in South Carolina?
Get Expert Training to Find Upcoming Foreclosures Like a Pro
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What Is the Primary Pitfall to Watch Out for When Investing in Foreclosures in South Carolina?
One common issue in South Carolina has to do with outdated plumbing: Quest or Polybutylene plumbing, which was banned in the 90s.
This type of plumbing often fails within 20-30 years. You 100% need to get the home inspected and prepare to replace plumbing if you discover Quest piping.
Another common issue is mold in crawl spaces, given the high humidity levels in the South.
Once you get the rhythm down as to when the sales are held, the requirements of paying for them, etc., there aren’t many pitfalls.
If the foreclosure gets to a point where it is listed for sale by an agent, buyers are able to get inside and see what they are bidding on.
If they are sold at the foreclosure sale by the county, it is pretty much an unknown.
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About the author
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.