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Once you've decided to start investing in foreclosures, you still have one big step left to handle. You must find the right foreclosure listings. There are numerous sources of foreclosure listings and I find it helpful to divide the sources into two broad categories: government foreclosures and bank owned homes.

There are a number of sources you might consult to learn more about government foreclosures. The Department of Veterans Affairs is one starting point, as is the Department of Housing and Urban Development. You might also look into the General Services Administration and see if the Office of Property Disposal has any listings. Other resources include the Treasury, Small Business Administration and Agricultural Departments, law enforcement sources such as the Marshals Service, and banking sources such as Fannie Mae and the FDIC.

With respect to bank owned property you will find many banks have their REO listings on their websites and can even find directories of the banks that do online. Otherwise you can find many bank REO properties via asset management companies. It is their job to help lenders dispose of such assets and many asset managers list the REO properties of the banks they work for on their own website.

A good investment possibility is homes that are currently in pre-foreclosure situations. Public notices are available at the County Clerk which can be searched by anyone and will be registered at various stages of the foreclosure process. This allows you to find properties that are on their way to foreclosure and you the owners may be willing to sell in order to avoid foreclosure. Keep in mind that in order to make this type of investment you must have a good understanding of how foreclosures work.

As is required, the Notice of Sale of a foreclosed property must me published in the newspaper. You will find notices for trustee sales in the Public Notices section of the local newspaper. It is important to be thorough with your research when you buy at trustee sales, therefore it may be better to be aware of properties before they reach the public notice stage of the foreclosure process. Exercise caution as properties are sold "as is-where is".

A good use of your time is to get familiar with the website in the area that is the focus of your search, in order to see what is available in the way of foreclosure research. This data is of use if you want to get the land before the actual foreclosure, or if you prefer to bid at a foreclosure auction.

As you may notice there various sources of foreclosure listings and I recommend that you explore several sources as opposed to only using one foreclosure database. If you expand to include the listings of a few banks, asset managers and government agencies as well as the county clerk you will have a more varied range of listings to chose from. And this will give you an edge over investors competing with you for properties.

At some point, you may have made the decision to begin dabbling in foreclosure investing, but you haven't yet started since you don't yet have foreclosures. Two key groups of listings include government foreclosures and bank foreclosures, and it is useful to think in terms of these two groups, as there are numerous ways to identify foreclosures. A good investment possibility is homes that are currently in pre-foreclosure situations. A step in any foreclosure is that a Notice of Sale has to be placed in the local paper. Look for trustee sales in the section where public notices are in local publications and magazines.