You don’t buy at an auction. There’s no bargains there. You have to buy before the auction, negotiating with the bank to take on any loan payments in arrears, interest, penalties, etc. to reinstate the loan and negotiate with the seller to pay him for his equity. Preforeclosure dealing like this is complicated, full of headachees, requires a LOT of work AND a seller who still has some equity and hopefully no liens, etc. on the notice of default property. Sellers in this position are hard to find. I think if an investor is interested in preforeclosures, though, now is a good time to do it before there are too many foreclosures hitting the market — and too much competition from other investors looking for the same type of deal.