How to know the Max Bids before the foreclosure auction

[Tony Nguyen]

Hey guys,

I was wondering if anyone knows how I would be able to get the max bid amounts for properties going to foreclosure auction before the auction sale date? As of now, I find out by going to the auction everyday and It's a war having to go through due diligence of 100 properties just to buy 1. Knowing the max bid up front would save so much time!

Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thank you everybody.

:D

[Sam M.]

I assume you mean the opening bid? If the foreclosure attorney has a website it will be posted there. If not you usually have to call the attorney's office and ask them if they have an opening bid.

[Tony Nguyen]

Sam - thank you for you correction! Yes, opening bid is what I meant. I will give that a shot. Thank you for your advice.

[Steve Babiak]

"Maximum bid" is based on the value of the property, from comps or however you choose to derive that value. Obviously, you will need to deduct for repair estimates and "safety margins" plus other expenses you will encounter.

"Minimum bid" = "opening bid" or "Starting bid". Sam gave a good reply - make phone calls before the sale. Sometimes, you can also arrive at the sale early and ask the attorneys or trustees what the opening bids will be on properties that you find attractive.

[Sam M.]

If you are new to buying at trustee sales I recommend studying a bit and learning how to conduct due diligence with regard to lien position, IRS liens, property taxes, title issues etc. You can get yourself into trouble real quick if you see an opening bid of 80k on a 250k property but fail to realize it is a second position lien and there is a 200k first position lien in place.

[Jimmy H.]

Sam,

Great points and very true, but I believe you are referencing your experiences from tax deed states. Tax lien states where you purchase the lien typically do not run into the 10's of thousands but rather are dictated by the amount of property tax owed, typically less than a few grand. A little bit different situation, but still being well aware of title history and lien seniority are critical. Definitely not something to jump into blindly.

[Tony Nguyen]

Thanks for all the replies.

Steve - your break down is appreciated. I was actually in fact inquiring about Max Bids. Here in Central FL, all opening bids start at $100, but the max is going to be all different based on the lender. That is where I'm getting stuck. We do the research on ALL properties that fit our perimeters, but rarely bid b/c most of the max bids are higher than what we want to pay. With that being said, if we knew the max bids ahead of time, we would save much time with the due diligence process.

Sam - Thank you for the advice. We were warned about this initially and definitely do our homework to the best of our knowledge. I've heard of those nightmares and hope I don't have to go through anything close to that!

Jimmy - Thank you for your input. With tax liens here our my area, an opening bid of the tax deed sale is what is owed in taxes, but it runs up to as high as someone wants to pay. Sometimes deals are stolen there and of course there are those times where people like to pay 101% of market value =)

[Steve Babiak]

Here's a couple of links for learning about buying foreclosures:

http://www.biggerpockets.com/forums/41/topics/32392-buying-at-foreclosure-is-easy-

http://www.biggerpockets.com/forums/41/topics/43830-tutorial-for-buying-at-foreclosure-auctions

edit: almost forgot this good one:
http://www.biggerpockets.com/forums/41/topics/47830-bought-my-first-foreclosure-yesterday-despite-bp-advice-c-

Jimmy,

I don't know where you're coming from with that last post, but to me Sam has given the OP good instructions.

[Sam M.]

So in your area a "max bid" is the lender's "max bid"....Makes sense.
Here the opening bid is the lender's max bid. They do not start any lower.

Steve- I was going to dig those up but was too lazy :)

[Rich Weese]

Tony- I'm in ft myers and attempting to buy at auction. 2 months ago, Lee county went online. Some of the properties show the max bid, but most don't. You just click onkine for the date you want. Many lenders don't list max at all, and some list it JUST before their property comes up for bid. It has been real nice since going online. Good luck Tony. Rich

[Tony Nguyen]

Steve - great links, I will take some time and let all those soak in.

Sam - yes sir. max bid is the lenders max =)

Rich - I'm a fan! Thanks for replying. I heard about Lee County going online. That's great b/c here in Orange County, I'm paying a 3rd party about $125 per month for the info. If it goes online here, it should be much easier. Since it's not online at this point, do you have any recommendations as to how I can get the max bids ahead of time? Maybe not even all, just some would be nice.

[Rich Weese]

I'd have to just agree with previous posts. I don't know an easy way for you. Rich

[Tony Nguyen]

Thank you everyone for your time. What I'll be doing is contacting the attorneys before hand to request for the max bid information and arriving early to the auctions to ask the plaintiffs if they have max bid info for any properties I'm interested in.

Thanks again!

[Steve Babiak]

It appears that what they call in FL "max bid", in PA they call "upset price". In either case, it's what you must bid to in order to out-bid the bank's bid.

The terminology seems to vary as much as the state rules for these foreclosure sales.

[Bryan Ellis]

PA is going to vary by county. In Chester County the attorneys are fairly open with their upset price (and usually announce it at the sale if not in advance). Montgomery is split, some attorneys will give the upset and others will not.

I'm not sure why an attorney wouldn't publicize their upset price-its just saves everyone time.

[Tony Nguyen]

Hi everyone - I wanted to give you a quick follow up about what I did.

I called 5 law offices in the morning and asked them about 5 different properties that were going to auction at the end of this week. They all gave me practically the same answer - "the bank is our client and the max bid is confidential." With that being said, I could not get the info I was looking for (the max bids). Any thoughts? Otherwise - gotta keep digging!

[Peter Stanley]

any luck with this? I am running into the same issue. 

[Michael Brian david]

alot of great info here! i think many things have changed since going online!