Has anyone bought home on auction?

[kelleyrn2000]

The timing isn't right for us to buy a new house (just refinanced and cut back on my hours for a bit). But, there is a house that I really like (on the outside), in a neighborhood I really like, and I know a couple people on the street. It doesn't have a for sale sign, but I did read a notice in the paper that it will be up for auction in a few weeks. The home isn't open for inspection.

Does anyone have any idea how much under typical price a home on auction would sell for? What if the prior owner hadn't paid taxes....do you have to pay their real estate taxes that were behind? The home is in a nice area, and typical asking prices of neighboring houses seem to be around 330-350K.

If dh's FIL ends up buying the house down the road, I forsee myself selling next year, and I wouldn't be totally opposed to buying a house on auction.

 

[happily single]

I'm not 100% sure, but if the house hasn't been foreclosed on yet, you could show up at the foreclosure, with a certified check, the amount would be in the foreclosure notice, and bid on the house. But, I think you would have to proceed with the sale even if the house failed a home inspection. If HUD owned the mortgage then you could bid directly through the HUD website.

Finally, evenutally a realtor will put the house on the market. Price typically depends on how much the owner owed on the original mortgaeg.

 

[jsmith]

My sister in law and her SO purchased a forclosure at auction-it was in the north metro pheonix area so you mileage may vary-the orginal price the home (new construction) had been undter contract for was 721,000. It was the buyer couldnt get financing and it was forclosed from the builder-orginal construction was in 2005. They placed their bid-for 290,000 in June of 08 and it was accepted. Final cost of the home-with fees and costs imposed by the bank was 318,000 and it was November of 08 before they closed-and then they had to have some mold abatement and other stuff done since it had always been vacant-they didnt occupy until Feb of 09-so its a very long process.

 

[NCRedding]

Foreclosures vary from state to state, but in NC, the initial opening bid in a foreclosure is determined by a number of things: the current payoff of the mortgage, inlcluding late fees, interest, etc; the fees associated with the foreclosure fees including the filing fees, publication costs, attorney fees, etc. In NC, this information isn't available that much in advance. It is usually announced at the start of the foreclosure sale, though if you are interested, you can usually call the trustee who is selling the property in advance to get some idea of the opening bid.

If you are truly interested in making a bid, be sure to get a title search done in advance so that you know all the potential issues. I have a client who didn't, and bought a house at an auction sale. She didn't know that she was buying the sale from the equity line holder, not the first lien mortgage holder, so she took the house subject to a first mortgage.