Often, buyers ask us - "I see a property listed online as a pre-foreclosure. Is it for sale? Can we go see it?"

In short, third party real estate websites pre-foreclosures are a dead end for most home buyers. They are not, and may never be for sale in the near future.

Considering the source, third party online real estate websites generate their revenue by selling potential buyer and seller contacts to real estate agents. Their priority is to generate activity on their site, not necessarily to help you identify homes for sale.

Pre-foreclosures is another set of data compiled to engage users. However, this list of properties are pulled from public records where a house is usually in the initial stages of a foreclosure. The owner has likely missed tax or mortgage payments, and a lien holder has filed with the courts to indicate the potential start of the foreclosure process. This filing starts a grace period for the property owner to catch-up, which many often find a way to do.

Even if the property owner is not able to make things right, the property goes into foreclosure, a process that usually takes several months to years. It's not uncommon for a property to take well over a year or two to go from foreclosure to being listed and available for public sale.