Court House Steps
When Buying On The Court House Steps The Trustee Requires Either Cashiers Check Or Cash. What I’m Confused About Is If I’m Bidding On A Property, Obviously I Do Not Know What The Property Will Sell For Prior To Sale, So How Will The Cashiers Check Route Work. It Makes Scene To Get Cashiers Check For One Dollar Over Opening Bid (Which I Know What That Is Prior To Sell), Then Carry The Rest I Cash If Anyone Tries To Out Bid.
PS - Went To Sale Today And Three People Showed Auctioneer Proof Of Funds, Then Auctioneer Sold To Highest Bidder (Which Was $100 Over Opening Bid), I Say No “Real” Bidding Take Place, Is It Typical That A Person Only Has One Chance To Put In A Bid
What Gives :-?
If you're will to pay 100K for the property, bring 100K worth of checks, you might mix up the face values that you can get a closer number.
Or just get a refund from the trustee
As for the only 1 bid, perhaps het was the only one that had that amount of money?
All that I have been to have the going.. going... gone. cry.
Well,
I just came back from the court house this morning to watch and learn, so I will tell you what I observed and learned after talking to one of the bidders afterwards. (I only go to network with buyers as I'm looking to flip properties more than buy foreclosures.)
The buyer came with 1 cashier's check for the maximum they were *willing to spend* for the item they were bidding on. In this case, say 110K. Had they been able to get the house for 98K, they would have received a refund check in the mail in a couple of weeks. The buyer told me this single check methodology was his way of keeping from spending more than he had determined the property was worth in a bidding frenzy. I thought that was good advice!
Today, the bidding started at 69K, and went up in $100 increments until it sold at 110,100K. It was 20 minutes of sheer boredom to me, but probably frustrating to the bidders.
HTH,
Robert
[addsig]
This may be more trouble than it's worth, but try this on for size...with multiple checks increasing value geometrically you'll always have the exact amount no matter when bidding stops (kind of what cjmazur was talking about).
First, determine your minimum bid increment. That is, what's the least amount you'll up the price?
Second, determine your maximum bid price. Calculate half of that amount.
Lastly, cut multiple checks beginning with your minimum bid increment amount and then each successive check doubled in amount until you reach half of your maximum bid price (or just over).
Example...let's say your min. bid increment will be $500 and your maximum on the property you're interested in will be $122,000 (half of this is $61,000).
You cut the following checks...
#1 = $500
#2 = $1000
#3 = $2000
#4 = $4000
#5 = $8000
#6 = $16000
#7 = $32000
#8 = $64000
That's eight checks that add up to a grand total of $127,500. Just a bit more than enough to cover your $122K max.
Now, let's say you win the bidding at $109,500. Pull out the largest check you can without going over your bid amount, then the next largest that added up still won't exceed the total and so on. In this example, you'll turn in check numbers 8, 7, 5, 4, 2, and 1 = $64000 + $32000 + $8000 + $4000 + $1000 + $500 = exactly $109,500.
Check on what the local definition of "cash" is. Here we have until 3pm to come back with a cashiers check, sounds like it is something similar there since you said they showed proof of funds, to me that means a letter from the bank, not the actual money.
As for the bidding, it's possible the bidders know each other and have developed a policy of not outbidding eachother. I won't even bid on a realtor handled REO if I know someone else is after it, unless of course I find out they ever tried to bid over me. Play nice children and take turns, everyone will have more fun.