Home foreclosure auctions and Sheriff Sale court house tour with Foreclosure.com

Posted on By Ricky at 23 March, 2009, 2:00 am

Home foreclosure auctions and Sheriff Sale court house tour with Foreclosure.com
Practice what you preach. That’s the motto here at Foreclosure.com because it is impossible to run the most successful distressed real estate Web site on the Internet without everyone at every level having a firm understanding of the foreclosure process from the bottom up. So it’s Thursday morning and instead of braving the commute south to our [...]

Practice what you preach.

That’s the motto here at Foreclosure.com because it is impossible to run the most successful distressed real estate Web site on the Internet without everyone at every level having a firm understanding of the foreclosure process from the bottom up.

So it’s Thursday morning and instead of braving the commute south to our corporate headquarters in Boca Raton, Fla., I am headed east for the weekly “class trip” to the Palm Beach County Court House in West Palm Beach to provide Foreclosure.com staff members with a refresher course on the auction process.

It’s company policy that we offer this type of activity annually to introduce some of our new employees to the actual experience, as well as keep the topic fresh on the minds of our more experienced team members. From customer service to human resources to programming, all personnel types from every department at Foreclosure.com are invited to participate in the weekly excursions.

Let’s quickly take you through a typical day for us at the court house.

We try to keep the group size manageable so we don’t disturb the file room while going through the latest lis pendens filings. While checking in we are asked to leave a driver’s license in exchange to review the files, which is always amazing because of the sheer amount of paperwork that is involved.

As we sift through various files, I will take the class through the process of identifying the subject property, which takes a few page flips to pinpoint actual address and not the legal description of the property. This is a bit cumbersome, but it makes everyone appreciate what we are able to do at Foreclosure.com, distilling all the important information and presenting it in an easy-to-read, understandable and accessible format.

In short, most people just don’t realize how complicated and time consuming this process can be if they have to do it on their own manually.

After we give everyone a chance to review a file and try to find all the data that we report on our site, we take a few minutes and review a few of the files actually going to auction on this particular Thursday. As you would expect, the files are thicker because of the additional court filings for each foreclosure.

When we finish with the files we head downstairs into the cafeteria where the Sheriff Sale is already taking place. It’s real easy to tell who the area investors are, taking over one corner of the room with their eight-inch thick binders full of possible purchases.

In addition, there are usually several bank and lender representatives on hand in suits who are there to protect there assets — these representatives will typically place the minimum bids required on the homes to ensure that opportunistic investor’s don’t walk away with properties for pennies.

In fact, most sales these days go back to the bank … but not all them.

There is excitement in the room as a couple of the seasoned investors who are at the Sheriff Sale every week bid on properties every so often. These are calculated offers that the investors have spent weeks researching. And if the bids get too high, the investors usually back off right away and begin to feverishly search their notes for the next possible gem.

Of course, it’s common to also see former homeowners in the room to observe the proceedings — sometimes it’s just out of curiosity and for others it’s because they are there to stop the sale. In fact, just last week a homeowner was successful, delaying the sale because a motion had been filed to rescue the home.

We’re seeing more of this lately, actually, because more and more sales are being canceled as banks are inundated with short sales and bankruptcies.

All in all the foreclosure court house auction experience is unique and one that you must see with your own eyes to truly understand and appreciate. It changes from week-to-week, which is among the many reasons we encourage our employees to check-in from time to time.

As the auction winds down, the class is dismissed and we all head back to the office with a better and renewed understanding of the process and the value we provide folks like you on a national basis. And we’ll do it all over again next week.

And so, too, should you.

To check out upcoming foreclosure auction sales in your area visit Foreclosure.com today right here.