Foreclosure Education

How To Pay For a Property At a Foreclosure Auction

 

Question: I want to buy a property at a King County Foreclosure Auction. Do I need cash to buy a property at a foreclosure auction in Washington State?

Answer: YES! In fact the cash must be in the form of a cahiers check or good old American greenbacks. I have actually seen people show up at auction with a metal suitcase handcuffed to their wrist! Cash on the barrel they call it. Purchasing properties at a foreclosure auction is indeed the most aggressive way one can obtain a property. In fact, you cannot even qualify to bid on a property until you first “flash your cash” as it’s called to the crier. Personal checks are NOT acceptable and neither is any amount less than the minimum opening bid. Other then bringing straight greenbacks the Foreclosure Guy recommended way to successfully pay for a property at foreclosure auction is to find out what the minimum opening bid is on the property and the morning of the foreclosure auction get a cashier’s check from your bank made out to YOUR name OR the name of the trustee for the exact amount of the opening bid plus $1. Or, if you’re like me you can give the $1 in straight cash when you win and get a chuckle out of everyone there. If you plan on bidding higher than the minimum bid bring some “change” of several increments of cahiers checks up to the amount you are willing to bid to. For example, say there is a property you are interested in at the Bellevue Foreclosure Auction you found on my free foreclosure list with an opening bid of $250,000 being handled by Northwest Trustee and you were willing to bid up to $300,000. What you would need to do is get one cashier’s check made out to “your name OR Northwest Trustee” for $250,001 and then I would suggest getting three $10,000 checks and 2 $5,000 checks made out the same way in case you were bid up. If you do not have exact change and have to overpay then the trustee will mail you the difference back within about a week. This is why I suggest bringing smaller checks so they are not holding very much of your money for very long. If you are using REIF Foreclosure Auction Buying Services much of this can be eliminated with our in house Foreclosure Auction Financing.