Sunday Viewing Of Foreclosed Houses

Posted in Foreclosure, January 23rd, 2008 |

About 100 houses in Orange county were open to public viewing on Sunday before being auctioned next month. An Irvine based company is conducting the auction. Wilfredo Lanz of Irvine is interested in a two storey house (27 Oroville) that has been priced at $959,000. The bidding will start with $449,000. Lanz is willing to go up to $7000,000 because it is more spacious than the one in which he currently resides.

Orange County is seeing record number of foreclosures. In December 644 houses were foreclosed – the second highest monthly total since 1998. Due to paucity of buyers most of the foreclosed houses were taken back by the lenders during the weekly trustee sales in Placenta and Santa Ana. Unable to sell these in the open market the lenders are seeking to auction them with the help of professionals.

A different kind of marketing strategy is undertaken to attract buyers says Joe Joffrion from the auction company, Real Estate Disposition Corporation, that has five auctions scheduled to be held in South California. TV commercials are run and insertions made in newspapers. The property listings are also given on the website of the company.

For buyers the auctions offers better options than a trustee sale. In the case of the latter the winning bidder has to pay the entire amount immediately. But Real Estate Disposition expects the winners to place 5% of the bid price and allows for the financing of the rest. The company adds to the amount settled another 5% - this will be the final figure that has to be paid. Another condition is that the sellers are not obliged to accept low bids. There is a reserve price on each unit that is kept secret from the bidders. If the price does not go above it then the sale is withheld. The financing has to be arranged or planned before the auction by taking the help of Countrywide Home Loans. The latter is approved by the auctioneers. At the auction the buyers have to show a cashier’s cheque of $5,000. For the balance a personal cheque will suffice.
Sunday morning saw traffic slowing down with many turning up to view 27 Oroville. It was the same picture at other places where different houses were being inspected. The buyers are quickly calculating the repairing costs and other incidental expenses before committing themselves on the day of the auction.