Sheriff's Sales
There are a variety of auctions and auction scenarios for you to explore. An auction takes place every business day in every city throughout the country. These sales, called sheriff's sales or judicial sales, are foreclosure sales of real estate whose owners have become delinquent.
After a property owner has been delinquent on the mortgage, the lender and circuit court of the county notify the owner of his right to redeem himself by making the mortgage payments to the lender with any penalties or interest. If the owner does not pay, then he is considered to be in default of the loan, and the property will go to a sheriff's or judicial sale. These sales, which take place in municipal buildings or title company's offices, are conducted by order of the circuit court. In cases of a sheriff's sale, a buyer is obligated in most cases to bring a cashier's check or a certified check to the auction sale for 10 percent of the price of the property that she will be acquiring. So, if a property will be offered at $80,000 but you know that you'll bid to $100,000, you're going to need to have a cashier's or certified check for $10,000 with you.
Full payment will need to be made to the sheriff within twenty-four hours after the sale. Usually the sale also needs to be confirmed in front of a judge within the next two to four weeks, thus giving the defendant (that is, the owner who defaulted on the loan) in the case one last chance for self-redemption.
Do not bid at a sheriff's sale without having an attorney or another qualified individual give you all of the information you need regarding the potential liability you will assume by being the successful bidder of the sale.
You won't own the property or get a deed to the real estate until after the date of the sheriff's sale and the judge's confirmation of the sale.
At a sheriff's sale, you are buying real estate as is, oftentimes without seeing it and sometimes subject to liens on the title of the real estate. You need to know how to adequately inspect the title as well as the property and make sure that, by winning a property in a sheriff's sale, you're not assuming obligations to pay many years of back real-estate taxes, mechanic liens, or any other obligations that might go with the real estate.
