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Once you've decided to start investing in foreclosures, you still have one big step left to handle. You must find the right foreclosure listings. There are numerous sources of foreclosure listings and I find it helpful to divide the sources into two broad categories: government foreclosures and bank foreclosures.

Within the category of government foreclosures you can consider quite a many different sources. These include va foreclosures from the Department of Veterans Affairs, hud foreclosures from the Department of Housing and Urban Development, the Office of Property Disposal at the General Services Administration, the Department of Treasury, the Small Business Administration, the Department of Agriculture (USDA), the Marshals Service, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) and also Fannie Mae.

Regarding bank owned homes, often, banks will have REO lists on their Internet page, and you can even find these banks on the Internet as well. Asset management companies also often list bank owned homes. They work to assist lenders to get rid of assets, and so they often have REO properties for banks that are their customers on their Internet page.

Looking at pre-foreclosure listings as an alternative source for one's investments is very important. A decent understanding of the foreclosure process is necessary to be able to capitalize on this option. At different stages of the foreclosure process, notices are recorded with the County Clerk. This enables one to access public records and to easily locate properties that are heading towards foreclosure. Once the property of interest has been located, the owners of the said property can be approached for inquiries about acquisition of the property prior to foreclosure.

When a bank or mortgage company forecloses on a property, they have to make the process public by printing a Notice of Sale in the town paper. By hunting through the relevant sections of your local paper, you can find these notices pretty easily. Make sure that you know exactly what you're looking at with any property that you buy at a trustee sale, though. These properties are often marketed just as they are, and may need extensive repairs or remodeling.

It could be well worth your while familiarizing yourself with the county website for your target market to see what resources they offer online for researching foreclosures in that market. This could be useful whether you are interested in acquiring properties via pre-foreclosure or at foreclosure auctions on the county courthouse steps.

The best strategy is to use multiple resources in searching for foreclosure listings rather than subscribing to one database. The most successful investors utilize several different listings in multiple categories. For instance, to maximize your options, it is best to include the inventories of several banks, asset managers, government departments, and the country clerk in your review. Diversifying your search in this way will give you a great advantage compared to other investors.

At some point, you may have made the decision to begin foreclosure investing, but you haven't yet started since you don't yet have foreclosure listings. Two key groups of listings include government foreclosures and REO properties. It is useful to think in terms of two groups as there are numerous ways to identify properties. Explore several sources as opposed to one database. If you expand to include the listings of a few banks, asset managers and government agencies and the county clerk you will have a more varied range of listings to chose from. And this will give you an edge over others.