There is a foreclosure auction today in my county, Brazoria County in S.E. Texas. I was going through the foreclosure list on the county’s website and found a few foreclosures in my neighborhood. The information said that they were going to be sold today. So I drive by last night to look at the property and there were people living in the house. I am not planning to buy today but I just wanted to see the property and go to see what the high bid will be, and meet a few other investors. I thought that they had to vacate the property before it was sold, i guess not.
I hope someone can answer pretty quickly, I have to leave in an hour.
I’m not sure what your question is…are you asking about whether there can still be people living in a house that is up for auction?
There are a couple possible anwers.
First, the house might have been scheduled for auction at one time, but maybe the borrower got things worked out, even if only temporarily, enough so that the auction was cancelled. If the borrower pays the money to reinstate the loan, the auction will not go on. This could happen because they miraculously found the money or maybe they found a buyer who paid to reinstate the loan. Or, maybe they restructured the loan with the lender. The point being, many houses that were once scheduled for auction will not end up going.
Second, even if a house does go to auction, the people can still live in it right up until the day of the sale. They might even stay after the sale until someone comes along and evicts them. If you buy a house and the previous owners are still there, you can approach them on your own and let them know what’s going on, but I’d probably bring the Sherriff with me. While some people are level-headed, others are not.
Well I didn’t make your deadline, but better late than never…
No, most of the time people do not move out of the home until after the sheriff sale. Why would they? The longer they stay the longer they have free rent. This is one of the down falls to buying foreclosures at auction, you don’t get to see the condition of the property.
Every Sheriff sale I’ve been to they state at some point that all sales are as is. You’re expected to do whatever research you feel you need to do before the auction date and before you bid. If you are bidding at auction it is assumed that you have done your due diligence or you have a big bank roll to by properties blindly. If you have the cajonas you could knock on the occupied foreclosure and ask to see the property because you’re thinking about bidding on it at auction. Who knows, you might be able to buy it and keep the current people there as renters…depending on the reason they couldn’t make their mortgage payments to begin with (unless they are already renting and the landlord is in foreclosure)