I was also there yesterday. Learned a lot for sure. I bid on several properties but unfortunately was unable to win any. It's very competitive. I checked the results and out of 726 properties only 68 were sold to the public, that's less then 10%. The rest were postponed, stayed, or bought by the bank. It seems to me that in order to be successful at the sheriffs sale, at least in Philadelphia, you need to go often and be very familiar with many neighborhoods throughout the city so that you feel competent bidding on more properties. Another thing I noticed is that many of the sale prices were not much better than what can sometimes be found on the MLS. Especially if you adjust for the added risk when buying without inspecting the inside of the property. A few people got steals but for the most part bidders were willing to pay more than I expected.
