Posted by Tom-FL on April 03, 2004 at 16:20:49:
I didn’t say there were no programs or services out there. Just no legal ones. Bottom line is that it is not legal to share private banking information without being presented a valid court order.
Now after the legal requirements of public notification are met, and this varies from state to state, then all bets are off.
Here in FL, courthouse records are public (unless sealed), so as soon as one gets filed, the public can see it. That’s you and everyone else who cares to look.
I have seen many many ads claiming they can get me this info before anyone else, even before it’s published in the paper. Beating the paper ain’t hard. They have to file it before they can publish it because the published notice has to have the case number on it. As a result, the publication lags filing by several days.
Now, since my county has public access via web to the recorder’s office, I can get the filings within a few minutes of them being scanned downtown. In fact, I can get the film of the Lis Pendens probably while the rep is still standing at the counter waiting to pay the recording fee.
The problem is that the county setup is what I’d call “user hostile”. It’s very cumbersome to get the data out of there and cross reference it so that it’s meaningful. In light of this, I use two services, both of which gloat that they get me the info before anyone else. Well two weeks after filing ain’t before anyone else.
The reason I use them is that they do all the work. They find the property address for me, the balance, the tax value, last payment date, plaintiff attorney, and about 8 or ten other things not on the raw courthouse data. See, I get the data the same time THEY get it. They couldn’t possibly get it before the county recorder.
There are a few ways I know to get the inside track, and all of them involve breach of confidentiality. Most involve working for a bank or the banks contractors. My favorite is to set yourself up as a Mortgage Field Representative. This is an independant contractor that does (among other things) occupancy checks. When the money stops coming in, the bank needs to verify that the house is not vacant, or the insurance will be canceled and the bank is not covered if something happens. You can work for as many banks as you can handle since you are independant. Basically, the bank or Mortgage Co tells you who isn’t paying long before anyone else knows, so you can go see if the place is occupied, and maybe just happen to snap off a few pics or look inside and do a ballpark repair estimate. The pay is not good at all, but you might have an inside track. Problem is if you ever got found out, your inside track would be history.