The Agony Of Foreclosure Auctions

An auction is going on full swing. The Smiths have come with their toddler son and 7-year-old daughter to see who would buy their Loganville house. Their interest was to find out how long they could stay on before finally shifting. A rare bone disease of their first-born had made it impossible to balance medical expenses with mortgage repayments. Foreclosure was unavoidable. Today they are only hoping that their children will not see personal belongings being thrown out onto the road but they will get time to hole in somewhere.

Last Tuesday about 6,800 properties in 13 counties of Atlanta metro region went into auction. It was a 49% rise as compared to the same time in the previous year. The auctioneer was impersonal and called out from sheets but each number had behind it harrowing tales of illness, job loss and divorce. About half the units went up for bidding. Some were set aside temporarily as house owners tried to work out things with lenders or filed last minute bankruptcies. The lenders too were a harassed lot with so many numbers in their kitty. Few manage to sell their properties. The foreclosure steamroller advances crushes all and sundry with robot like precision.

In another courthouse in Fulton there are seven criers reading out names in alphabetical order simultaneously. One auction firm handled 596 units from Fulton alone. The lenders usually fail to sell it and have to wait for the next chance suffering greater losses. Most of the houses have hardly any equity left. Those units being foreclosed are from sub-prime loans taken in 2005.

The investors are cautious. They are looking for steals and not deals. They want to make sure that after scraping off the weed and moss there is something worthwhile left in the units they were investing. Some prefer to buy houses near their own place of residence. Investors are expected to make 100% payment and clinch the deal. Stovall and his sister Sarah have been buying low from auctions and selling high within 60 days at the most, after touching up and repairs. But now the market is so low that they are having second thoughts before bidding because it takes twice as long to sell these units off.

Mothers and brothers are all pitching in to try and help their loved ones from the dreaded foreclosure.