On Saturday, the Seattle PI hyped pre-forclosures:

A good place to find these cash-flush speculators is at foreclosure auctions, according to longtime Tampa, Fla., property investor Tom Lucier, author of “The Pre-Foreclosure Property Investor’s Kit.” But by the time a property reaches the auction block, it’s probably worthless as a short-term investment. The trick is to find the distressed property in pre-foreclosure.

Pre-foreclosure is that period of time between when the lender files a foreclosure lawsuit or notice of default in the public records and the date the property is to be sold at public auction or trustee’s sale.