To get a list of foreclosures, start with the free government portals (HUDHomeStore.gov, Fannie Mae’s HomePath, and Freddie Mac’s HomeSteps), then add county court records for early-stage filings, newspaper legal notices for upcoming auctions, individual bank REO pages for post-auction homes, and paid third-party aggregators like Auction.com if you want everything in one search. Each source catches properties at a different point in the foreclosure timeline, so the right one depends on whether you want a pre-foreclosure lead, an auction opportunity, or a bank-owned home you can finance normally.
Free Government Foreclosure Portals
Several federal agencies sell homes they’ve taken back through mortgage defaults, and each runs its own searchable site. HUD, the Department of Veterans Affairs, the FDIC, and USDA Rural Development all post listings online.1U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). Homes for Sale The two government-sponsored enterprises add more inventory: Fannie Mae lists its properties on HomePath.com, Freddie Mac on HomeSteps.com.
HUDHomeStore.gov is the official portal for HUD-owned single-family homes. You can search by state, county, or zip code and filter by price, bedrooms, and property type. One rule catches investors off guard: HUD gives owner-occupant buyers an exclusive 30-day bidding window on new listings before investor offers are accepted. Every bid on a HUD home has to come through a real estate broker registered with HUD who holds an active NAID (Name and Address Identification) number, and you can find one through the “Find a Broker” tool on the site.
HomePath and HomeSteps work the same way. Browse by location, save searches, and set email alerts for new listings. You can search both without an account, though registering unlocks the notifications.
These portals are usually the cleanest starting point. The properties have already cleared the messy stages of foreclosure, title is in the agency’s name, and you’re buying from a motivated institutional seller rather than bidding against a crowd at a courthouse.
County Court Records and Lis Pendens Filings
If you want to find foreclosures before they reach any portal, county court records are where to look. In judicial foreclosure states, lenders have to file a lawsuit to foreclose, and that lawsuit is public. The key document is a lis pendens, a formal notice recorded with the county that flags a pending legal action against a property. Once filed, it clouds the title and signals the property is in legal limbo.
Most county clerk offices now offer online portals where you can search lis pendens filings and foreclosure cases by owner name, parcel number, or case number. Quality varies. Some counties have real-time databases; others still send you to a courthouse terminal. A quick call to the clerk’s office will tell you what’s available online and what isn’t.
Foreclosure type matters here. In judicial states, you’ll find case filings in the court system. In states that allow non-judicial foreclosure, lenders can proceed without court involvement when the mortgage or deed of trust includes a power-of-sale clause.2Cornell Law School. Non-Judicial Foreclosure Those foreclosures don’t generate court filings, so published legal notices become your main source.
Published Legal Notices for Upcoming Auctions
Before any foreclosure auction, the lender has to publish a notice of sale. Rules vary by state, but the pattern is the same: publication in a newspaper of general circulation in the county, running for a set number of weeks before the sale date. These appear in the “Legal Notices” or “Public Notices” section and include the property address, the date and time of the auction, and the location where bidding takes place.
Many newspapers post their legal notices online now, and some counties maintain dedicated legal notice sites that pull all published foreclosure sales into one place. Checking these regularly gives you a view of upcoming auctions that may not have shown up anywhere else yet. Cross-referencing a notice with the county court docket lets you confirm the foreclosure is still on and hasn’t been postponed or dismissed.
Bank REO Listings
When a property doesn’t sell at auction, it reverts to the foreclosing lender and becomes Real Estate Owned. Most large banks run dedicated REO sections on their websites with interactive maps, photos, asking prices, and contact details for the listing agent or asset manager.
REO is also the one foreclosure category where normal mortgage financing is realistic. The bank owns the property outright and can work with a standard closing timeline, so you don’t need cash or a hard-money loan the way you would at auction. Banks update REO pages on different schedules; weekly is a reasonable cadence. One search tactic worth using: sort or filter by days on market. A property that’s been sitting for months points to a bank that’s increasingly willing to negotiate on price.
Third-Party Foreclosure Aggregators
Several private platforms pull foreclosure data from courts, agencies, and lenders into a single search. Auction.com is the largest online marketplace specifically for foreclosure and bank-owned auctions, and many of its listings don’t appear on the MLS. You can create a free account, browse by location, and bid online. Other well-known aggregators include RealtyTrac (now part of ATTOM Data Solutions) and Foreclosure.com, which compile pre-foreclosure, auction, and REO listings nationwide.
Free tiers usually let you search and view basic property details. Paid subscriptions unlock extras like estimated equity, comparable sales, and historical foreclosure activity by neighborhood. Whether it’s worth paying depends on volume. Casual buyers can usually get by with the free government portals and bank REO pages. Investors screening dozens of properties a week across multiple counties often find the aggregation and analytics worth the fee.
What to Check Before You Buy From Any List
Finding the listing is the easy part. What you actually need to know before putting money down depends on where the property sits in the timeline.
Surviving Liens
A foreclosure sale by a first mortgage holder wipes out junior liens like second mortgages and judgment liens. Liens senior to the foreclosing mortgage survive and become the buyer’s problem. The usual survivors are unpaid property taxes and municipal assessments for water, sewer, and code violation fines. If the IRS has a tax lien on the property, the federal government has the right to redeem the property within 120 days after the sale, or the state law redemption period, whichever is longer.3Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 26 USC 7425 – Discharge of Liens HOA assessment liens can also complicate things in about 25 states that give them “super-priority” ahead of the first mortgage for a limited amount of unpaid dues. A preliminary title search before bidding at auction is not optional.4Fannie Mae. Allowable Title Search Costs REO titles tend to be cleaner because the lender has already dealt with most lien issues, but you should still order a title search and buy title insurance.
Statutory Redemption Periods
In some states, the former homeowner can reclaim the property after the foreclosure sale by paying the full purchase price plus costs. Redemption periods range from as short as 10 days to as long as two years, with about 25 states offering no post-sale redemption right at all.5Justia. Foreclosure Laws and Procedures 50-State Survey In states with active redemption periods, the former owner sometimes keeps the right to occupy the property while deciding whether to redeem. That means you could win the auction and still not take possession for months, with your money tied up in a property you can’t renovate, rent, or resell. REO purchases generally don’t carry this risk, because the redemption window has already run by the time the bank lists.
Auction Cash Requirements
Courthouse auctions require money in hand. Deposits typically run 5 to 20 percent of your bid, payable immediately in certified funds. Personal checks are never accepted. The balance is usually due within 1 to 30 days depending on the jurisdiction. Online auction platforms generally want a 5 to 10 percent deposit before bidding opens and final payment within 24 to 72 hours of winning. Traditional mortgage financing almost never fits those timelines, which is why auction buyers typically use cash, hard-money loans, or lines of credit and refinance later.
Property Condition
Foreclosed homes have often been vacant for months, and former owners had little reason to maintain a property they were losing. At a courthouse auction, you’re usually buying sight unseen with no right to inspect. REO offers more protection: banks sell as-is and are generally exempt from the standard seller disclosures individual owners must provide, but most will allow an inspection contingency in the purchase contract. Always request one, and build estimated repair costs into every offer before the asking price starts looking like a bargain.