•    Newspaper – the local newspaper that covers your county and any nearby county has special days in which they list foreclosures.  In these listings they give you the county, property address, bank name, borrower’s name and amount owed.  It then gives you the time and date in which the sheriff’s sale will have the auction of the home.

The only issue with this is sometimes the owner of the property came up with ways to redeem the property. Maybe they sold it or they may have came up with the amount they owed the bank that started the foreclosure process in the first place. They could have even made some type of payment agreement with the bank.  Whatever the reason, the newspaper does not give you this information.

•    County Clerk’s Office – the county clerk’s office doesn’t technically give you free government foreclosure listings because you have to pay for each copy.  However, after you have gotten your feet wet and learned how to get connections, you can have your “connect” inside the office get you the list for free or damn near free.

I have connections with my local county clerk’s office where I pay them only $50 for a list of 3000 lis pendens. A lis penden is when the bank has just began its foreclosure process (pending lawsuit) and has filed it with the courts. Each copy usually costs from $5.00 to $40.00 depending on your county and how many pages.

•    Internet – the internet is probably the best place to find free government foreclosure listings, especially if you are going out of area.  This is because most sites keep their records updated and with just a click of a button, you can find out foreclosures in any area in America.

Foreclosure.com not only keeps their records updated, but they also email you a free list of foreclosures in your area.
To figure out which method is the best method for you, you should try them all. I would of course start with the newspaper then go to the internet. Familiarize yourself with the process first and then head to the clerk’s office.

Once you get a good understanding of it all, you will find yourself stacked with hundreds or thousands of free government foreclosure listings.