Sheriff Foreclosure Sale - Hudson County, NJ

[Olga Shkolnikova]

Has anyone here gone to Hudson County Sheriff Sales?  I am very interested in what to expect. We want to try and buy a property on an auction.  We have experience with multifamily houses (had to do couple of evictions and renovations afterwords);  we own several properties. We want to buy the next property on an auction and fully renovate. Please share your experience and any information. 

[John Errico]

I've been to a few, though have never purchased anything there, just sort of witnessed what happens. In general, you'll need to register at the sale (and usually there's a line of people registering) and give them a certified check, though I don't recall the amount (you also need to have a certified check for 20% of the purchase price of whatever properties you buy). You can get more info here: http://www.hudsoncountysheriff.com/#!foreclosure-s... and they have a link to the list of properties that are up for sale, although they'll give you an updated list once you get there. You can also call them and ask more specific questions about what if any requirements you may need (again, I've never registered to bid, just sat there and listened). If you bid more than you can "afford" they'll invalidate your bid, and you have to be quick to bid since the whole process basically happens as fast as possible (the judge and etc definitely do not want to be there). I've seen the judge snap at foreign buyers who, for example, were struggling figuring out what their next bid would be.

In general, a fair number of properties didn't sell (as in, no one bid), or for whatever reason were postponed or didn't happen despite being on the list. The properties that did sell were sort of like 80/20: 80% went to two or three bidders, who seemed very experienced, and the other 20% went to an array of people who were there. (This is also based on my experience at the end of 2015, I haven't been in 2016 yet).

Sorry don't have much more to add, but I'd bet that others on BP have actually purchased properties there. If may be worth your while to just go and sit and see what happens one time before you actually bid.