Are the sheriff sale listings really accurate?

[Ty Wesley]

Posted: 10/08/2010 at 04:24PM
0 votes
Hey everyone!! And thanks in advance for any and all advice.
I'm a guy from Philadelphia that is interested in investing some hard earned dollars into the South Jersey area in the near future. I recently discovered the sheriff sale listings for burlington county and camden county. I see plenty of judgements that are affordable for me (15 to 20k) but when I google the property's address and see the curb view of it, the house compared to the judgement amount always seems to good to be true. Can someone explain how such beautiful looking homes can be sold off for so cheap? Are there usually large debts attached to the deed that they don't show on the list, or is the judgement on the website usually accurate when you go to the actual sale?

[Bryan Balk]

Could be 2nd mortgages, could be large liens could be unpaid taxes the house could no longer even be there. There are very many reasons. Just because there is a judgment of X doesn't mean that the opening bid on the property is going to be X. Go to the auction a few times try and talk to some of the investors there. Surprisingly most are very friendly.