My husband went to watch the circus today at this auction. He was quite surprised at how many people showed and how high people were bidding these properties up. Most properties needed lots of work. Also, the final bid price, plus the 5% commission the auction house was taking, ended up being at market or not much below market price. It was a great tactic for the banks. One other observation was many homes were being bid up and since the buyers weren’t prequalified-many winning bidders would go back to finalize the deal and then come up short, so many homes were having to be auctioned off for a 2nd time. So seems like many people there weren’t even aware of their limits and were just emotional.

He didn’t stay the entire time, but here are some results he had written down;

The house mentioned above Morning Creek South, in the Carmel Mtn. Ranch area, started bidding at $349k final winning bid was 585K plus the 5% commission the auction house takes. This house didn’t even have a stove or ac unit, and needed almost everything redone….also looked like one of the rooms had previous water damage.

4667 La Canada Rd. Fallbrook, on 2.5 acres-started bidding at 439K, final bid was $620k plus the 5%. We visited this home and it appeared to us that it was almost a teardown…needed absolutely everything and had a strange garage conversion with cement floors. The property was just weeds with little development.

4306 Morgan Creek Way, Oceanside-started bidding at $419k, final bid was 615K plus the 5%. This was a newer home with 3500 s.f.

16564 Gettysburg Dr, San Diego (in 4S Ranch)-started bidding at $339k, final bid was 525k plus the 5%. In addition by my calculations beforehand this home has nearly a 2% property tax rate due to high mello roos. This home is on a 0 lot line with a patio type ‘yard’.

We would love to hear from the original poster (REO investor that had emailed in) on their perspective.