Won Auction, can I reassign the winning bid to someone else

[Craig Gilliam]

I won the high bid on a foreclosure auction at my local courthouse this week, and now have a message from someone interested in the property. Since I only paid down payment at courthouse wondering if I could reassign the bid to this person, basically sale it before I do my financing for more than won the bid for.

[Jeff Kehl]

@Craig Gilliam I think no one is jumping in on this one because you're essentially asking a legal question which is very specific to South Carolina law and no one including me is going to offer you legal advice :)

You need to fulfill your obligation under the foreclosure law and follow through on purchase of the property.

However, if you've got someone interested there is probably a good way to structure it. For instance they could be the lender to you and a purchaser all in one contract.

Best to find a local attorney fast. But also keep in mind your potential buyer may not be real and you need to  be prepared to close on the property yourself in the event they don't work out.

[Lamont A.]

Hey Craig

I have done the reassignment before. My situation was a little bit different tho. I was bidding for a colleague that couldn't make the sale and in my county all i needed to do was produce a ratified reassignment document to the courts so they could make the changes to the buyers information related to that particular property. It wouldn't hurt to call the master in equity office and find out directly from them how they like to handle reassignments. 

Good Luck.

[Ned Carey]

@Craig Gilliam barring anything quirky about SC law, it would depend on what the contract that you signed says.  Most contracts have language that they are not assignable. If they want to pay enough more you can always double close.

[Craig Gilliam]

thanks for the input all. Turns out the foreclosure has a renter that didn't know the home was being sold until about a week ago. They want to purchase the home. So looks like I'll either purchase then sell to them or let them rent remainder of year then sell as that may help me not pay capital gains this year. 

[Brandon Barnes]

For the future though you can assign foreclosure properties won at auction. I have purchased a few and have also done one myself. As long as you fulfill paying the balance of the bid won in the time frame you should be good to go.

[Troy Gandee]

@Craig Gilliam As @Brandon Barnes said, I'm almost certain that you can assign the contract. The bank doesn't really care as long as their note is satisfied. I'm sure there are some that prohibit assignments, but in that case, you can always do a double close and find transactional funding. Getting a bridge loan is much easier than fix and flip loans. However, they will take a bite out of your profit, but it's better than letting the deal fall apart.