I Bought A Hoarder House (Part II)

So, back to my story. Actually, let me back up a few minutes further than we left off...

After chatting with the spiky-haired man for a few minutes, the shorter gentleman shuffled my direction and asked

"Are you here for the auction, too?"

I nodded.

He chatted with me about the house, too. Shared how he'd lived next door for 25 years, sold his house to a business. Thought the house up for auction was solid (along with the garage), but once again emphasized how messy it was.

Things were quiet for a few minutes, and the spiky-haired man on the bench turned to look up at me.

"You looking for a place to live?"

I nodded again; I seemed to be doing a lot of that lately.

"Yes, I've been beat out of about 10 homes here in town, so I thought I'd try something else. A half-hour commute to work wouldn't be so bad. But all that to say, fair bidding!"

We chatted for a few minutes more, with him sharing that he'd been born and raised in the small city where the auction house was located.

At two minutes to ten, the sheriff came down the stairs. As mentioned in Part !, he waited until exactly 10:00am before beginning the auction.

Now, a little back story.

When these auction listings are publicly posted, generally the amount of the foreclosure is listed on the notice of foreclosure sale. This particular house had a foreclosure amount of approximately $12,500 -- a ridiculously low starting bid. By comparison, several other upcoming foreclosure listings were in the ballpark of $60,000 or $105,000. So yeah, I expected the bidding to jump quickly. (Not only that, but once these auctions roll around, the properties typically have accumulated attorney's fees and various other charges added to the foreclosure amount as liabilities. The mortgage holder almost invariably submits a starting bid that will cover all of the property's obligations on their books. This does NOT guarantee that all debts on the property have been paid, though. All of that to say, you really don't know the starting bid until the day of the auction.)

The sheriff read off all of the preliminary information, then the starting bid by the plaintiff -- something like $15,231, I don't remember exactly.

Not being shy and wanted to get to the end as quickly as possible, I clearly stated my opening bid. "Sixteen thousand."

The sheriff and I both looked at the spiky-haired, barrel chested man in the plaid shirt. Standing up, he was a tall imposing figure. A brief moment passed, then the shoulders inside the plaid shirt shrugged.

"I was just here to see how it worked."

And just like that I won the bid. Thank you, sir...and thank you, Lord!

Being completely new to this process, I didn't know what to do next, so I asked the sheriff. Turns out that after the auction, another waiting period begins to get an appointment with the presiding judge for a 'final confirmation hearing'. So, I'd won the property's bid, but couldn't actually purchase it...yet.

If only I'd known that my house's drama had just begun!

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