First courthouse auction

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My first experience on the courthouse steps was a bust. No one was there. I asked the county clerk what the deal was and she said they were held between 11-4 at the whim of the lawyer selling the property, other than that she didn't know anything else. That didn't sound quite right, sit for five hours and wait for someone to show up, crazy. The day wasn't a total bust; I did meet a local broker who, like me, was there to learn. We exchanged info and have kept in contact.

Yesterday I went to another in the other county I operate in. I arrive to find a guy set up with a computer and printer, good. He was happy to see me since I was the first to arrive, sadly not there to bid. Another gentleman arrived about 30 mins later, I thought great, I get to meet another investor but not so quick, he's the auctioneer. So eleven o'clock arrives and the three of us begin the auction, right, no bidders present but as part of the legal process they have to go through the motions.

Two properties were auctioned and it was interesting to watch it go down. It turned out to be an excellent adventure, being the only one there, the auctioneer and auction rep spent a considerable amount of time BS'ing with me about how the process works.

During the auction the auctioneer kept bidding on behalf of the beneficiary so I asked what that was all about. The beneficiary, the bank, has to purchase the property in order to gain title from the foreclosee. So the auctioneer told me to always listen for an odd bid from the beneficiary to indicate their top bid, the loan balance. For example, one of the homes started at 30k, moved up to 35K, then 40K, then 42,920 and that's where it was sold to the beneficiary. The auctioneer told me it would have been mine for 42,921.

Turns out these guys are from auction.com and have recently started running the auctions in my two counties and were trying to make it a better experience. They said the auction the previous week had been canceled at the last minute. All in all it was a great experience.

Question, what are some techniques for learning the banks position in a property prior to it hitting the auction block?

Cheers