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So, now that you have made the decision that the place to invest is in foreclosed properties, you have one more thing to do. You have to locate the appropriate foreclosure homes. There are lots of places to start your search for this kind of property, and I have 2 very general classifications: government foreclosures and bank owned property.

There are many different sources when thinking about government foreclosures. A few of the available sources of information include: va foreclosures within the Department of Veterans Affairs, hud foreclosures from the Department of Housing and Urban Development, the Department of the Treasury, the Small Business Administration, the Marshals Services, the USDA (Department of Agriculture), the FDIC (Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation) and Fannie Mae.

Regarding bank owned property, 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 property. 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.

It is also very important to look at pre-foreclosure homes as a possible source for your investments. To be able to capitalize on this option you really need to have a decent understanding of the foreclosure process. But at various stages of the process notices are recorded with the County Clerk and these public records may be searched by anyone which gives you the possibility of locating properties that are heading towards foreclosure. You can then approach the owners about acquiring the property prior to foreclosure and help them out of a sticky situation.

As a part of the foreclosure process the Notice of Sale must be made public by publishing it in the newspaper. If you search the Public Notices section of local newspapers and business journals you will find notices for trustee sales. It may be better to be aware of properties before they have reached this stage of the foreclosure process as you need to be very thorough with your research if you buy at trustee sales. Since the properties are sold "as-is, where-is" you need to exercise some caution.

It could be worth your time to research the county website to learn about your target market. Look for resources that are available to research foreclosures in the market. This can help you if you are interested in buying pre-foreclosure homes or foreclosures at a county auction.

The best strategy is to use multiple resources in searching for foreclosure homes 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 properties. 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.