Courthouse Auction - No Bids?!?

[Rob Findlay]

My business partner and I are completely new to RE investing and decided to attend an auction on the Courthouse steps this morning. We had no plans to bid, just wanted to observe for our own education. Everyone there stuck around for the last property, which was a 1900 sq ft home, built in 2004, assessed at $210k in a nice neighborhood, at auction due to unpaid HOA fees. We figured this was the property everyone was waiting for and that there would be some heavy bidding action. Starting bid was $11,640 and out of 30 bidders, NOBODY bid on it. What am I missing here? Another lien that would have been the responsibility of the buyer? Existing mortgage balance? What did everyone else know that we didn't know?