I just spoke with a very experienced REO guy who went to the auction and stayed for the whole thing. He had researched every property and had a realistic expectation of what they would sell for in the current market. He was also sitting with clients from the major lenders who owned the properties. here’s his take:
The lenders were NOT HAPPY with the prices they got and were testing this out. Doing it again is not a given for them.
In many cases, the prices they got at auction were about 5 to 20% below what the REO guy felt he could have sold them for on the open market. We went over several and he said they left 25K to 75K on the table in those cases.
With the 5% buyers premium, the buyers didnt get huge bargains either.
