ForeclosureRadar.com Tutorial: ForeclosureRadar is the most powerful foreclosure search tool available on the market today. And now, exclusively on the iphone, it s available anytime, anywhere. in the palm of your hand. This tutorial will guide throw the many features available in the app. Use ForeclosureRadar App to: Discover and research foreclosures on the go and gain a competitive edge in your business Launching ForeclosureRadar from your iphone takes you immediately to the app s login menu. Fill out your user name and password and the app will remember you -- do this once, and you won t have to do it again. Now you ve logged in to your ForeclosureRadar account, you ll arrive at the app s Home Screen (see Figure 1). You ll find four options on the Home Screen: 1. Nearby Foreclosures 2. Search Foreclosures 3. Daily Auction Schedule, and 4. View My Saved Properties We ll cover each of these options individually, starting with Nearby Foreclosures. Tapping on Nearby Foreclosures, brings you to the Map View and activates the phone s GPS. After a brief moment, your exact location will be displayed on the map (through the glowing blue dot) followed quickly by all the nearby foreclosure properties from our database. Foreclosures are displayed in one of three stages: preforeclosure, auction or bank-owned. Figure 1 - Home Screen 1
Each is displayed with a color pin, just like in ForeclosureRadar s web-based app (see Figure 2). If you want to see surrounding foreclosures, simply drag the map with your finger and the map will update with the new results. You can also use the iphone s pinch gesture, to zoom in and out on the map as well. If you are using the app while on a WiFi connection you can view up to 200 foreclosures in the app. If you are on a 3G network connection, you can view up to 75 foreclosures. The total number of foreclosures being displayed at any time is always visible in the lower right corner. Along the app s lower tab bar you ll see several display options. By default, you will land on Map View. Tapping Aerial View will refresh the screen with aerial satellite imagery. Tapping on List View returns a more traditional list view. Figure 2 - Map View Tapping on any of the foreclosure icons will return the details page for that foreclosure (see Figure 3). Available details include the foreclosure s Status, Owner s name and address, Value and Equity, Financial Analysis, summary of the foreclosure notice, stored Photos and Notes and the Transaction History. The app will default to the Foreclosure Summary for the Notice that is associated with the current property status. By tapping the Notice number you can choose to see the summary on other foreclosure notices associated with that property You ll also see a section for your Photos and Notes. The ForeclosureRadar app automatically syncs up with your account on ForeclosureRadar.com. So anything you do on your phone will be instantly saved for quick retrieval on your desktop or by others on your team if you have a team account. Similarly, updates on your desktop will appear in your iphone app when refreshed. Figure 3 - Listings Details Page 2
Now that we ve covered the basics of finding Nearby Foreclosures, lets look at doing a more specific search in another area. You can go back to the main screen by tapping the Menu button. To do a search in a different location, or using additional criteria, tap on Search Foreclosures link. Here you ll see the list of search options available to you in the app (see Figure 4). Start with the location to search either a city or zip code. Next you may want to filter the results by Foreclosure Stage. You can choose whether or not to display properties in the Preforeclosure, Auction, or Bank Owned stages. Simply slide the switch to Off to filter out those properties. Finally, you can choose to refine your search by property type, beds, baths, square footage, estimated value and sales date. Just tap on any of the criteria to set the range. Figure 4 - Search Foreclosures Hit the Search button to execute the query. Note, at any time if you d like to change any of the search criteria from the map or list views, you can tap on Options in the upper right corner. If you re an auction investor, having ForeclosureRadar on the courthouse steps is a significant competitive advantage. In seconds, you can pull up the Daily Auction Schedule on your phone and see which properties are going to auction that day. Let s tap on Daily Auction Schedule from the main screen. Now you ll find the auction search tool (see Figure 5). First choose a county from the list. Then pick the day you re interested in. The app defaults to today s date - but you can change this to any Sale Date you want. Tap Search to show the list of properties. These are all the homes scheduled for sale today (see Figure 6). As with the Foreclosure Search display, tapping on any of the properties in the list will display the full property detail page. Figure 5 - Auction search tool 3
If you are in a large county, or have slow cellular data connection you may want to filter your results to include only the ones you need. For example you can turn on or off any of the foreclosure stages. Let s say we only want to see the properties that are still going to sale at the auction today. Turn off the Postponed, Cancelled, Sold to 3rd and Sold to Bank switches and tap the Search button. This way you can know which properties are still scheduled for sale while the auction is happening. You can also filter the auction schedule by the properties you ve already identified as being investment targets by Saved, Status or Tags. You can choose whether it s a Saved property (Yes or No) or whether its status has been set with Ready to Bid or perhaps if it s a property that s been tagged with your name. Figure 6 - Daily Auction Schedule These last three filters will allow you to focus on your targets while on the courthouse steps; where focus is critical. You ll be able to quickly review only the properties you re interested in and eliminate those clunky binders and reams of paper. As an investor you know that things move fast at the auction. Once you have your list of properties scheduled for sale, you can quickly find the property as it is called by the auctioneer. Simply begin to type in the street number or street name in the search box at the top of the screen and your list will be instantly narrowed to the target property (see Figure 7). Tap the property and the details page opens with all your information on that property including photos and notes. The last option on the app s main screen is going to save you tons of time as well. If you re working as part of a team, or if you ve otherwise identified your properties for Interest, Status, Tags or saved photos using the ForeclosureRadar, View My Saved Properties is a way to get to your saved properties fast.. Figure 7 - Refining auction results 4
Tap on the link and you have the option to pull up your list of saved properties by interest level (number of stars), status, tag or whether or not it has photos attached. Let s say one of your team members is responsible for field inspections of the properties going to auction. Their role is to photograph the property and report on its condition. Using the ForeclosureRadar app, they can access the list of target properties that they still need to inspect -- quickly and easily. Simply tap on My Saved Properties (see Figure 8). Set Status to Inspect Property and set Has Photos to No. Hit Search. Now they immediately have a list of target properties to inspect and photograph. Remember, their notes and photos will be saved in the app as well, so this information will become immediately available in your ForeclosureRadar account online and can been viewed by you or others on your team, even the bidder at the courthouse steps, for those with team accounts. Figure 8 - View My Saved Properties The ForeclosureRadar iphone app is a truly revolutionary way to discover and research foreclosures and gain a competitive edge in your business. ForeclosureRadar has always let you work smarter, not harder. Now you can do that from anywhere. 5