Individual property photos are now available for almost every foreclosure property listed on RealtyTrac thanks to a wedding of the company's national foreclosure database with Microsoft Virtual Earth technology. Neighborhood-wide Virtual Earth photos have been available on RealtyTrac since September, but the new photos — dubbed "Rooftop Views" — feature zoomed in and cropped images centered on the subject property.

The Rooftop Views include up to four photos of each property, taken from multiple directions. Thumbnail versions of the photos are displayed on search results pages, and larger versions appear on each property's detail page. The photos allow users to get a good sense of a property's layout, condition and neighbors, all key factors in determining value.

RealtyTrac is the only online real estate site to provide such consistent and close-up photos of foreclosure properties nationwide. The new Rooftop Views represent a huge step forward in convenience for foreclosure buyers and investors, who in the past were forced to accept lack of property photos as an unfortunate fact of life.

Many foreclosure investors consider MERS a four-letter word. That’s because when they see MERS —  or its expanded manifestation, Mortgage Electronic Registration System — listed as the lender for a property, it often means extra work finding contact information for the actual lender who is foreclosing.

MERS is a system used by many in the finance industry to track loans and the lenders in charge of servicing those loans — including any foreclosure proceedings — without all the paperwork.

Foreclosure documents often list MERS as the lender even though it is not able to answer any questions about the property, let alone entertain offers from interested buyers or investors. But a new online search is allowing anyone to lift the MERS veil and find names and contact numbers for the “real” lenders. This new search, which was created by MERS, is available on the MERS website or directly from any MERS-registered property listed on RealtyTrac.

To access the search from RealtyTrac, users can click on the “Mortgage Electronic Registration System” hyperlink in the Contact area of the property details page. Clicking on that hyperlink will open a new window that allows them to search for the current lender using the property address.

As promised in our Flying Foreclosure Photos post a few weeks ago, we’re continuing to improve the mapping and aerial photo technology on our website. We just rolled out the next phase, featuring a powerful and flexible marketplace map for properties listed on RealtyTrac — including pre-foreclosures, auctions, bank-owned homes, for sale by owner homes and resale homes.

Along with a road map, satellite view and birds-eye view of the subject property and neighborhood, this mapping application identifies and provides a brief description of other properties in the area that are listed on RealtyTrac. This should be helpful for getting a sense of the local market conditions — based on factors such as number of foreclosures and asking prices of resale homes — and it will help you identify other area properties that might be of interest.

Here’s a quick overview of the new mapping features (click on image to enlarge):

1 Access map from property details

2 Road map

3 Satellite view

4 Birds-eye view

5 Browse the marketplace

Search RealtyTrac and try out the new mapping features and let us know what you think.

Inc. magazine this month published its annual list of the nation's 500 fastest-growing private companies, and we're happy to announce that RealtyTrac was number 53 on the list, which ranks businesses based on revenue growth from 2002 to 2005.

We'd like to extend a heartfelt "thank you" to our members, who are the primary reason that RealtyTrac is the only foreclosure data provider on the list. By their willingness to trust us with some of their hard-earned money and by spreading the word about our service, our members have cast de facto votes for RealtyTrac as the best value in the foreclosure data marketplace.

Our success is grounded in listening carefully to our customers and implementing improvements based on their feedback, and we don't want to depart from that as we grow. This blog was created in part to be a place where members and others can easily and openly provide us with feedback about what works and what doesn't work on RealtyTrac. Feel free to comment on the blog or send us an e-mail with any feedback or questions to editor@foreclosurepulse.com.

RealtyTrac integrated Microsoft Virtual Earth technology into its member website this week, allowing subscribers to view aerial and “birds-eye” photos of properties listed on the website (see sample below).

This powerful technology should prove especially helpful for those searching for pre-foreclosure and foreclosure properties because those properties usually don’t include a curbside photograph (something that has long been a stumbling block for buyers and investors). But now even those properties can be viewed from quite close range and from several different overhead angles.

In addition, RealtyTrac identifies up to 15 comparable sales on the maps for the pre-foreclosure and foreclosure properties. The visual representation of comps helps to quickly see how those properties compare to the subject property in terms of location, square footage and even appearance of the property.

We’re proud to provide this new product to our members, but we realize that it’s most likely not perfect as-is. Although we’ve tested it thoroughly, we’re guessing that our members will find a few bugs that we didn’t catch. And although we racked our brains to come up with the best product possible, we’re hoping that members will give us feedback on how we can improve it. So give us that feedback by commenting on this blog or sending us an e-mail at editor@foreclosurepulse.com.

Based on member requests, RealtyTrac has updated its postcard process to give you more choice and flexibility when sending postcards to homeowners in pre-foreclosure. The new postcard system features a broader selection of postcards, plus the ability to send and schedule multiple postcards in sequence. In addition to these improvements, RealtyTrac members can now track all scheduled and sent postcards in one place.

Here’s a synopsis of the new postcard features:

•    12 new pre-written postcards to choose from or customize.
•    The option to send multiple postcards to a homeowner.
•    Scheduling feature to send postcards over a given time period.
•    A new "save favorites" feature to expedite the setup process. 
•    Tracking feature showing all scheduled and sent postcards.

This new postcard process will allow members to create effective direct mail campaigns rather than simply sending a single postcard and hoping for the best. But it doesn’t eliminate the follow-up or leg work involved in buying pre-foreclosure. Before you send postcards to a homeowner in foreclosure, it’s always a good idea to do some research to make sure that the property is still in foreclosure and that the investment potential justifies making contact with the owner in the first place.

Learn more about RealtyTrac's new and improved postcard system, and good luck with your search!

RealtyTrac members have been asking for property search functionality that allows them to find all properties in a given area that are scheduled for foreclosure auction on a certain date or within a certain date range, and we're happy to announce that functionality is now here.

If you're logged in as a RealtyTrac member, you can search and sort your search results by auction date using our Advanced Search -- available by clicking the "Advanced Search" link on My RealtyTrac or by clicking the "Search" tab on any page when you're logged in.

Scroll to the bottom of the advanced search page and select "Auction Date" in the Sort by dropdown box. Use the preset date range or enter your own date range and click “Begin Search.” The search results page will display auction properties sorted by their auction dates, with the most recent auction date first, and the auction dates will be displayed on the search results page.

If an auction date is in the past, the search results page will prompt you to call the trustee to find out if the property actually sold at auction or if the auction was canceled or postponed to a new date.

We hope you enjoy this new feature, which should allow you to search for and find foreclosure auction properties more efficiently. Let us know if it works well for you or if you have any questions or suggestions.