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• How to Find Abandoned Homes To Invest Or Flip

  Abandoned houses are good indicators of stale or depreciating market areas — in fact, they show a trend of long-term depreciation for that area and this is a good place to be if you want to find good deals and hopefully try and increase area values at the same time.  Recognizing abandoned houses is not always an easy task, but with some training and a bit of due-diligence, you can find some great buys!  Knowing the visual tell signs of a abandoned house is one part of getting the deal, but knowing how to find out if it is in fact abandoned is another monster of a task in itself.

  There are many ways to find out about abandoned homes and finding the way that works best for you may not always work for someone else.  You may be great at research, but not so good at visually picking out a dilapidated house that has been sitting there vacant for a while.  Whatever your method may be, knowing what to look for visually and how to research it will help you quickly determine if the target property is abandoned or not.

  Researching a property for current owners and knowing their status is the best avenue for determining if a property has been abandoned or just poorly managed.  Knowing the difference will ultimately save you time and money and can help you quickly move on to properties that are abandoned rather than spending too much time studying a property that was only neglected.  One of the best ways to track down a property owner is to check with your local tax appraiser and get the current mailing address of the owner.  Write the owner and enquire about something regarding the property that would most certainly invoke a response — we want to hear from them and by enticing them to respond, we can find out if they are still informed that they own the target property.

  If an owner does not respond, there are other methods to try and find the owner and/or find out more about the status of the property.  At the local courthouse, there should be a county clerk that can provide you with information regarding any current liens and encumbrances on the property; take the time to get to know the clerks, as they will be your friends in helping you locate information about a property and its public records.  The mortgage company addresses, owners current address, title company that did previous title research, and even current and prior liens will all be accessible to you at the court house, free of charge — use this resource wisely.

  Along with public record research, private companies offer information on abandoned properties for a nominal fee.  Whether you are secure in your belief of a properties status or are entrenched in multiple purchases a month, this may be a good avenue for you to use.  It allows instant access to property data and typically will provide information about a property that is not easily researched at your courthouse.  Two such sites that offers this access are netronline and searchsystems, which provide public data for a fee. 

  You can also research your local tax appraisers website to find some public data which may provide you the information you need to get started.  As an example, the website for San Antonio property searches is:  www.bcad.org.  Another way to research property is to physically walk the neighborhood and ask about the owner.  Some residents are well informed of local activity and may be able to help you.  If you cannot find a owner via this route, you may again need to refer to private firms that can attain your needed information or approach a local official or department to do this for you.

  Taxes are one thing we all must pay, so sometimes this can be added to our arsenal in determining not only who owns a property, but also who has the right to it.  If the city has a tax lien on the target property, we may need to speak to the county tax office about how to purchase this abandoned residence — or we may need to see if it is a IRS or Federal tax lien that is outstanding, in which case it will most likely go to auction, unless you can find the owner, bring the taxes current (along with any other liens) and then put the property under contract for purchase.  In any case involving taxes, it is best to work with the county or federal government that holds a tax lien against a property before trying to secure a contract on a property with the owner.  In some cases, a property may have passed the redemption period and will then only be purchased by making a offer to the party that has foreclosed on the property.

  Another place to research for abandoned houses is by searching for condemned property.  Contact your local courthouse to ask them where to get a monthly listing of condemned houses and also a list of houses that do not meet building codes for that county.  You will be surprised at how many houses will show up on this list and may be help you find your next flip or investment.  Keep in mind that some condemned houses are still privately owned, so just because it may be in violation or condemned does not mean you can buy it from the city or at a auction.  Do your research.  Understanding how to tell if a house is condemned, abandoned or out of code is important to finding and purchasing that property.

  Not all condemned property is easy to identify — sometimes there can be fire damage, water damage, mold, or even bio-hazards that could be the condemning factor.  In this case, it may not always be the type of investment you are looking for, but if you are looking for tell signs when driving a neighborhood, there are still plenty of indicators that could help you.  Driving neighborhoods and one of the best ways to identify abandoned houses and can also lead you to find other property that you may be interested in, not to mention that it helps you learn the neighborhoods. 

  Pay attention to things that most people take for granted and you will see that there is more to a house than what is typically noticed.  For example, most people put out their trash on specific days and the same goes with retrieving weekly or monthly newsletters for a specific subdivision.  What if you paid attention to who was putting out their trash in the mornings and what houses never put out trash, this might indicate a house that has been vacant for a long period of time.  Or if the subdivision gets a weekly or monthly newsletter and you start to see a build-up at a certain house, this may mean that no one lives there and hasn’t for a long time.

  Lawn care and the lack of, dilapidation and major cosmetic problems that have not been addressed, or signs all over the property from people trying to mow, fix, or buy this house will all be signs that the house may have been vacant for a extended period.  This is what we want to concentrate on and try to teach ourselves to identify on a regular basis — you will be surprised at how well you can quickly find abandoned and condemned houses after you have practiced searching for a while.