Sheriff sale in mercer county, NJ

[Chaits J.]

Hi All,

I am regular sale buyer until now and looking to purchase our first property in a sheriff sale next week. This is in Mercer county, NJ. I went to 3-4 auctions and got a high level zist of how the whole process works. One thing i am not able to figure out is " How do they determine opening bid amount" ? Is there any way we get to know what the opening bid amount is before the auction ?

I saw some properties with a judicial amount of 200K but with an opening bid of 9K and eventually getting sold for 25K. So Judiciary amount that's shown on sheriff sale list doesn't have any significance ? Any help from experts is highly appreciated as this question has been bothering me and am not able to find a solid answer.

Thanks again for that help you guys provide on this great forum.