County Courthouse Steps

The county official in charge of  the scheduled auction stood at the top of the courthouse steps.  The crowd of one included just my father, who was the only one that attended the  trustee sale auction recently conducted at the courthouse steps in my hometown.  There were no bidding wars on the courthouse steps on that day.  The absence of competition peaked my interests in researching the trustee sales process and inventory.

Trustee sale auctions are periodically conducted at your County’s court house steps.  Future trustee sales must be advertised and announced in one local news publications twenty days prior to the sale- so check your local business newspaper.  Real property that is foreclosed and auctioned to the highest cash bidder at the courthouse steps can sell for significantly less then it’s market value.

Finding what should be free obtainable public data online can be a challenge at times with numerous websites that are purely online marketing sites intended to gain revenue by capturing the clicks of users or building a database of email accounts for marketing purposes.  I’ve attempted to aid in your search, or at the very least share with you some of the sites I found informative when looking for trustee sale events.  Bid4Assets.com, Auction.com, and Realtytrac.com are some of the most popular sites used to find trustee sales online.  RealtyTrac.com is a paid service or subscription based website that lists properties scheduled for auction as well as those properties that have been issued a notice of default (NOD).  A free site affiliated with Bank of America is ReconTrust.com. I think that this is actually an interesting site and worth reviewing and knowing about.

Purchasing real property at a trustee sale has several requirements that inherently reduce the number of bidders and competition.  For instance,  buyer’s are not typically permitted to inspect the real property that is being sold at auction.  Winning bidders are required to tender an immediate cash or cashier’s check payment when the auction ends.  While a foreclosure and the trustee sale wipes out junior loans against the title to property,  government owed back taxes remain the responsibility of the winning bidder and requires payment to posses clear title to the real property purchased.  Bidders must conduct thorough title research with the county recorder’s office or title company to ensure that their will be no additional costs of outstanding property taxes.

Get in touch- and tell me anything you can about  your County Courthouse Step experience!  Register to gain access to my private research on the subject of flipping, buying primary residences, and investment real estate in California.