Sheriff's Auction - wazzz going on???

[Callum K.]

So I went to my first sheriff's auction last week and I was amazed to see the banks buying their own properties. I get that they do not want to just give away repo'ed homes at a huge discount and in turn just "buy" them back but I had to laugh when these bank reps (Attorney's) placed rather strange bids. Did they really need to go down to the penny?

Okay, so my questions were this:

1) Some of these bids placed were so high and so defined that the property NEVER sold for anywhere close to the bid. How do these banks/attorney's derive these amounts?
2) If they bid it out completely, what is the process for the homes after the auction? Do the banks just put the home up with a realtor?

Moderators: I didn't see a subject for Sheriff Auctions. If there is no subject would it be advantageous to add a group labeled Auctions that might be able to include Sheriff Auctions as well as other RE auctions?