Friday’s auction was interesting…

Last Friday morning I went to the home auction at 1125 Dewitt, Ellsworth put on by Williams & Williams. I’ll admit this was the first home auction that I’ve gone to, I’ve been to some farm land auctions but this was my first house auction. I wasn’t there for any reason than pure nosiness – I wanted to see how the auction process works, what the house would bring and who would get the winning bid.

The auction was scheduled for 8am with the house open for viewing 2 hours prior. Since I’d seen the house before I showed up about 10 minutes before 8am and went inside. There were about 10 people there for the auction, including myself and another Realtor. There were 3 people from Williams & Williams – one who signed people up for their bidder numbers, one who was the speaker & auctioneer and one who pulled bids in person and also was on the phone with their online bidding company.

They started right about 8 am with a lengthy set of announcements including all of the disclaimers for the sellers and for the Williams & Williams, how the process would go, that the house was being sold “as is, where is”, about the phone bidders, about down payments, etc. Once the actual bidding started it was a pretty quick deal! There was one phone bidder and two bidders in person, the rest of us just stood there and watched. All in all the auction part only took 3-5 minutes. They did say that the winning bid of $61,000 would have to be approved by the sellers but it was implied it was going to be a done deal.

Now like I said I’d seen the house before… you see I had a client very interested in the house & they even made an offer on it… a good offer. An offer much higher than the price it sold for at auction. The foreclosure company who owns the property had failed to tell the listing Realtor that they had decided to send the house to auction. The house is in pretty good shape for being a foreclosure but it is in dire need of a roof right away. Once the house went to “auction” it was only to be sold “as is” and there would be no repairs or allowances given. So, once it had been sent to “auction” my buyers could no longer get financing for the house since every lender would require the roof be replaced prior to them lending money to my buyers to purchase the home.

I’m very happy for the gentleman that got the winning bid. He plans to keep the home & he got a great deal. I’m happy that my buyers found another home that we currently have under contract. I’m still not a fan of trying to buy a foreclosed home. I’m continually amazed and disappointed by the companies that manage the sales of foreclosed homes.

If you are still not convinced that foreclosures can be heart-breakers and you are still interested in buying one… send me an email to iowaforeclosuredeals@gmail.com and I’ll get you a FREE list of foreclosures & short-sale properties that are currently available. You’ll also get new listings hot off the press the same day they are listed!