Pre-Foreclosure
Pre-foreclosure is the period after a lender records a formal notice of the borrower's default — a Notice of Default or lis pendens, depending on the state — but before the property is sold at foreclosure auction. During this window the owner still holds title and can sell.
Why the window matters
An owner in pre-foreclosure has a deadline and shrinking options: reinstate the loan, refinance, sell, or lose the property at auction. A sale — often to an investor, sometimes a standard listing — can preserve the owner's remaining equity and credit. That makes pre-foreclosure lists high-response but also high-sensitivity: these are people in financial distress, and the effective (and decent) approach leads with options, not pressure.
Where the data comes from
Default filings are public record, recorded at the county — that's why every lead vendor sells "pre-foreclosure leads." The list's value is freshness: the window can be as short as a few months, and states differ enormously (judicial states like Florida run through courts and move slowly; non-judicial states like Texas can move in weeks).
Related but different
Tax delinquency is a different distress track (unpaid property taxes, not mortgage default), and REO means the auction already happened and the bank owns it — too late for a pre-foreclosure conversation.