Sheriff Sales/Auctions

[StacyB]

Question, I heard on the Today Show this morning that there are two types of foreclosure auctions. A reserve auction and an absolute auction.

In a reserve auction, apparently the bank can still set the price at the lowest amount they are willing to accept, but in an absolute auction any bid wins the house.

My question is are the auctions listed under the Sheriff Sale tab absolute or reserve?

Thx.

[joejoyce]

I understand that in NJ it is highest bidder at or above the lender's set amount ! Can anyone give me an answer to this ! How can I purchase a pre-auction property ? Joe !

[SniffNY]

New Jersey practices vary by county. In Bergen County for example, a representative for the bank states the amount that the bank will bid up to. So if the representative says he will bid up to 400,000, he will start the bid at $100 (minimum bid). If someone bids $200,000, he will bid 201,000 (1,000 is the minimum increment after the bid hits a certain amount). If someone then bids 250,000, the rep will bid 251,000. When someone bids $400,000 or more, the rep sits down and is out of the process. The rep is like a robot. You bid, he or she bids until the price they stated in the beginning is met, so there is no reason to bid less than that amount unless you just want to upset everyone else in the room for wasting time. If someone does bid less than the rep's price, they may be causing the lender to incur additional sheriff's fees if those fees are based on sales price. So rather than computing fees on the $100 sales price, the lienholder would have to pay fees on the $201,000 or whatever. That is an act of aggression, i.e. the property sharks are letting the lienholder know that they did something to break the unwritten code of operation.