Sheriff Sale Vocabulary Help

[Richard Mercurio]

HI BP, I am a newbie interested in investing at sheriff sales, and I have went to a few in my area, Somerset County, NJ to see what happens.  

3 questions- 

1- Can someone help me understand the difference between judgement amount posted in the paper and then the total judgement amount announced by the sheriff, and then the total amount the banks rep says they will bid up to.  Is that what the just the bank is owed?  It seems most sales there is no one interested in, so the banks rep buys house for the min $1000, but in a few sales, the investors start at the bank rep max bid number, and bid up the price for a while, but never come close to the judgement amount announced by the sheriff.  Why is there a judgement amount if investors seem to buy the house for much lower than the judgement amount?

2- In many cases, there are multiple defendants listed. If you win the house below the total judgement amount announced by the sheriff, are any of these defendants getting paid, and by who, is the winning bidder actually paying out more than the winning bid amount?

3- Also, the sheriff web site recommends you run a title search, but at $300-500 each, are these investors all spending $300-500 each before they decide to bid?

[Sam Shueh]

You need a partner one searches the deficiencies while bidding is going on. One has the have all the proposed auctioned homes pre-viewed at least from outside and estimated repaired cost and valuation.  The auctioneers jump around often to bid on the homes you know nothing about. 

It is also people watching event like an entertainment.  The professional bidders often know each other. You do your home work and watch them see what prices are fetched.  If you see these familiar faces laugh at a new face  bidding. It is often a lemon. If you think you know the reason these pros pass the bidding  you are then ready. The bulk bidders will buy more volume some at loss. You need to be discrete and cautious.