My First Auction

I woke up today not feeling the best.  My allergies seemed to have gotten the best of me.  After dropping my son off at school, my intention was to call out of work, take my allergy medicine and take a nap.  After calling out and taking my allergy medicine, I started reading the paper.  I came across the legal notice section and saw some scheduled foreclosure home auctions.  I have been to tax sales, but never the foreclosure home auctions.  I had a hour before the start of a particular auction that happen to be a property in my neighborhood.  I didn't know the person, but I decided I would go and witness the sale.

I went to the court house and literally there were seven people sitting on the steps of the court house with their list, pen and pad and cell phones.  I walked up, with my pen and pad (I had wrote down some info on the homes I was interested in) as I was curious as to how much each would sell for. 

Each auction was announced, "this is the 1:23pm auction for [insert address]" and he would read the legal mojo.  He would then ask someone on his cell phone what is the opening bid.  He would then share that with the group and then he would begin he auctioneer song..."225, 225 do I hear 226, 226, 227...anybody want it for 227".  Those bidding were on their cell phones discussing with partners, I assume on how high they should bid.  It was obvious that these investors come to these auctions often as their was a small group who greeted each other, even the auctioneer, when they arrived.  In bidding, one lady made a comment to me, "she's only bidding on it because she knows I want it".  Then, the other lady said, "Sue, do you really want this property?"  The lady who made the comment to me didn't reply.  She ["Sue"] ended up winning the property at a higher cost than she anticipated.  I overheard "Sue" tell someone that the other lady ran the price up so she wouldn't be able to bid high on a property that everyone else seem to want [it was in a very nice community].  Alot of the auctions had no bidders, at least not at the court house and the auctioneer would make a statement, "sold to note holder" or "back to the bank".

Prior to going to the auction, I researched some of the properties online and there value and some were really nice looking homes and some deals were definitely available.  The only problem is alot of times you don't know what the inside presents.  Also, as one of the ladies commented, she likes to bid on the vacant properties because she doesn't like going through the eviction process.  It definitely was interesting and I'm glad I attended.  BTW, the property in my neighborhood was cancelled, seems they got the money prior to the sell...happy for them.  Some were not so fortunate.