How to read Sheriff's Foreclosure Sales...

[Drew Heilig]

Hi all,

I recently discovered biggerpockets.com and have been tearing through the web site reading anything and everything--what an amazing resource. I'm not an investor at this point, but I've been thinking of taking the plunge lately and have even contacted a realtor I know to tour some local listings (sfr's). I'm seeing a few properties that I think are decent buys, but nothing that knocks my socks off.

I have now begun looking through my county sheriff's web page to investigate foreclosure auctions and recent sales, but I'm a bit confused as to what I'm finding. The county conducts auctions every Tuesday and Thursday, and as I look back at last week's results, I see nearly every listing as the plaintiff bid and the winning bid being the same...in other words, someone is just buying the property at the price listed by the plaintiff (bank). When I then look up these properties, I'm not really seeing many that are 'deals' at all...in fact, most of them are selling for the average prices in their respective neighborhoods. Moreover, every single property has a sold price, implying that they ALL sold at the minimum of the bank's initial price (and a few went higher). How is this possible?

If anyone has some experience with this process, please explain if you don't mind. If it clarifies things, here is the link: http://apps01.lakecountyil.gov/sheriff/foreclosure/Default.aspx

Thanks in advance for any help.

Drew