IRS.gov Property sale Question

[Tom Scott]

A house just popped up in my farm area that is being sold at IRA auction next month. In order to bid, I need a cashiers check for 20% of my bid amount on site the day of the auction with the remainder to be paid within 30 days. If I plan to finance the purchase how would I go about getting the cashiers check to bid on the day of the auction? I have pretty good idea of ARV based on comps in the area and I can estimate the rehab with a cushion since the open house isn't until the day of the auction. With all this I can obviously come up with my maximum possible bid amount, but if I don't want to pony up the cash for a bid deposit how would I get a cashiers check? Would a hard money lender possibly issue a check for 20% of my max bid amount? If I was outbid, I would simply return the check and if I won I would have 30 days to either find alternate financing or get another check from the hard money lender.

I do probably have enough cash for the 20% down but I would need to take a 401K loan to get it so I'd rather bid with borrowed cash and take the 401K loan once I knew I had the deal wrapped up. Thoughts? Is it possible? 

Tom

[Wayne Brooks]

No, no onw will lend a deposit, it's not secured.  More importantly, if the IRS is foreclosing a lien, you don't normally get clear title, just the owner's "interest" (equity) in the property.  The IRS is just like any other lien holder....first in time-first in line.  By the way, is this the one with the pink mud room and the green pool?  Looks in rough shape.  It's not my area, so I'm not a bidder.