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At a recent Turning the Key meeting, Sheila was approached not once, or twice, but four times by four different people asking where they could find quality pre-foreclosure leads.I, too, found myself chatting on Facebook with someone the other day who was familiar with our events, and ForeclosuresMass as a company, but was also asked where they could find foreclosure data.
Both Sheila and I were shocked that ForeclosuresMass.com, the company we started in 2003 to help investors find out about foreclosures before they start, had grown so much to the point that investors knew about our events, but had no idea that at our core, we were the company behind the most accurate and up to date foreclosure data in Massachusetts, routinely cited and interviewed by the Boston Business Journal, Boston Globe, Worcester Business Journal, New England Cable News, WBIX, National Public Radio, PBS, and more.
Sitting there dumbfounded, we had to figure out how it was that we'd
come so far, become so well known, and offered so much more than "just foreclosure data", yet left local real estate investors wondering where they could find foreclosure leads.
It is for that reason that I felt compelled - no, obligated - to share with you what is at the core of our business and the center of ForeclosuresMass membership: Massachusetts Foreclosure Data.
Where NOT to Get Foreclosure Data
In 2002, Sheila and I started pursuing foreclosures for investments, and quickly found that getting foreclosure data was difficult, and when you did get the data it was either expensive, inaccurate, out of date or incomplete.
For starters, you could look for auction notices in the newspaper, but not all properties go to auction, and only foreclosures that didn't get resolved end up at auction, so it's not a complete picture, it requires scanning multiple newspapers and the data is well past fresh.
Taking it one step further, you can check the registry, but that not all foreclosures are recorded at the registry. It costs money to record the foreclosure, and only when it's absolutely neccessary do the banks have their attorney's file the notice at the registry. Again, at this point, the data is old, and the numbers are incomplete.
You can also wait until after the auction, and after the bank has taken back the property and check for MLS listings or online listings of bank owned or REO ("Real Estate Owned" properties. Since this is so far down the process, and so far after the pre-foreclosure, registry filing and auction, you're getting an even smaller snapshot of foreclosed properties, and they're months - or YEARS - old at this point.
You can also go online to a national "free" foreclosure site, but when you're that big, where do you get the data from? ... The sources above, which means your data is old, inaccurate, out-of-date AND incomplete. But hey, you get what you pay for, right?
Problem Solved: Getting the Foreclosure Data at the START of the Process
All of this led to Sheila and I getting pretty frustrated, interviewing countless other investors, stumbling onto a gold mine. We discovering how to get the pre-foreclosure data directly from the courts, at the START of the foreclosure process. In this way, we are able to account for 100% of the foreclosures started at the very beginning of the process, when it's still a pre-foreclosure.
The only problem is that we needed staff to physically obtain the information from the courts, and the information isn't digital, costs money to obtain and involves a rather labor intensive process to research and track.
We started getting the data for ourselves, offsetting the high costs with investing, but we quickly found other investors saying "hey, that's great data, can I get access to it, too?" and so we launched ForeclosuresMass.com.
You Asked for it and We Delivered
Before we had even finished getting the site online, we had customers giving us credit card numbers asking when they'd be able to activate their account and access their foreclosure data for viewing and download.
Once we launched, new local investors and real estate professionals were signing up in droves to get access to locally obtained, digital, complete and accurate MA foreclosure leads.
And that, in a nutshell, is how we came to launch ForeclosuresMass.com, offer complete, accurate and up-to-date foreclosure data to our members and become the #1 most cited source for foreclosure data in the state.
So if you're still wondering where to get Massachusetts pre-foreclosure data, now you have not just your answer but the whole story, too.
It is for that reason that I felt compelled - no, obligated - to share with you what is at the core of our business and the center of ForeclosuresMass membership: Massachusetts Foreclosure Data.
Where NOT to Get Foreclosure Data
In 2002, Sheila and I started pursuing foreclosures for investments, and quickly found that getting foreclosure data was difficult, and when you did get the data it was either expensive, inaccurate, out of date or incomplete.
For starters, you could look for auction notices in the newspaper, but not all properties go to auction, and only foreclosures that didn't get resolved end up at auction, so it's not a complete picture, it requires scanning multiple newspapers and the data is well past fresh.
Taking it one step further, you can check the registry, but that not all foreclosures are recorded at the registry. It costs money to record the foreclosure, and only when it's absolutely neccessary do the banks have their attorney's file the notice at the registry. Again, at this point, the data is old, and the numbers are incomplete.
You can also wait until after the auction, and after the bank has taken back the property and check for MLS listings or online listings of bank owned or REO ("Real Estate Owned" properties. Since this is so far down the process, and so far after the pre-foreclosure, registry filing and auction, you're getting an even smaller snapshot of foreclosed properties, and they're months - or YEARS - old at this point.
You can also go online to a national "free" foreclosure site, but when you're that big, where do you get the data from? ... The sources above, which means your data is old, inaccurate, out-of-date AND incomplete. But hey, you get what you pay for, right?
Problem Solved: Getting the Foreclosure Data at the START of the Process
All of this led to Sheila and I getting pretty frustrated, interviewing countless other investors, stumbling onto a gold mine. We discovering how to get the pre-foreclosure data directly from the courts, at the START of the foreclosure process. In this way, we are able to account for 100% of the foreclosures started at the very beginning of the process, when it's still a pre-foreclosure.
The only problem is that we needed staff to physically obtain the information from the courts, and the information isn't digital, costs money to obtain and involves a rather labor intensive process to research and track.
We started getting the data for ourselves, offsetting the high costs with investing, but we quickly found other investors saying "hey, that's great data, can I get access to it, too?" and so we launched ForeclosuresMass.com.
You Asked for it and We Delivered
Before we had even finished getting the site online, we had customers giving us credit card numbers asking when they'd be able to activate their account and access their foreclosure data for viewing and download.
Once we launched, new local investors and real estate professionals were signing up in droves to get access to locally obtained, digital, complete and accurate MA foreclosure leads.
And that, in a nutshell, is how we came to launch ForeclosuresMass.com, offer complete, accurate and up-to-date foreclosure data to our members and become the #1 most cited source for foreclosure data in the state.
So if you're still wondering where to get Massachusetts pre-foreclosure data, now you have not just your answer but the whole story, too.
If you're not already a member, and want to gain access to Massachusetts Pre-Foreclosure Data, visit our website, and sign in as a visitor to learn more about membership, which includes not just foreclosure data, but ongoing education, interviews with successful investors, members only discounts, and much more. Learn more at:
http://www.ForeclosuresMass.com/account/
Great article, Jeremy!
It is amazing how you can get so caught up in the day to day that you forget the excitement of when you first discovered the "mother load" of resources. Today we are so used to having access to the freshest most complete data available that we forget what a pivotal discovery this was back in 2002 and how it launched our careers as investors. I'll never forget the numerous times we went door knocking and had the person tell us they were behind but not in foreclosure yet. We had the data before they even got the notice from the court! Amazing!
Thanks Jeremy and thanks to the folks I spoke to last week at Turning the Key for reminding me about what is great about ForeclosuresMass and what I have been taking for granted.
Happy Investing!
Sheila