[pic: Shannon Mays with Hudson & Marshall yells in a bid for a customer at an auction of homes Tuesday in Fresno. Investors came from Southern California and the Bay Area.]"Wagga" scores another coup. It should also be noted that the Fresno Bee's avatar is a tiny black and blue "FB." Too funny.
Article here. Excerpt:
Energized by rock music that set the tone, more than 200 people -- some serious investors and many just curious -- crowded into a room at Four Points by Sheraton to watch Hudson & Marshall's first auction in Fresno since 2001.
Investors came from Southern California and the Bay Area to bid on houses in Fresno, Clovis, Madera and Selma.
Sandi Fox, a Prudential California Realty agent, said she had clients from as far away as Italy contact her about the foreclosed properties.
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I'll wait for the handpainted "make offer" signs nailed up to the mail box hidden by weeds thankyouverymuch.
9 comments:
First! Murst!
that Italian buyer is going to get a PRIMO! house.
Now that I got that out, its kind of hard to know if I should have waited to buy, or if I did get the best deal I could. There's been a few houses we really like in our area, but people are still asking too much, so we hope we did good on our price. The previous homeowners did a lot of expensive improvements, and less of the showy ones (all windows and doors replaced, new lifetime decks, new furnace, etc). They weren't planning on moving, and the kitchen and the carpet were the last things on the 'to-do' list.
Lifetime decks... Don't let Mrs. Dawg find out. She's been "hounding" me on those all summer.
Jake, if you can afford it and you aren't moving soon even if it falls in value you get to use it. We need to think of houses more akin to automobiles than magical piggy banks.
Born and raised in Fresno, moved as soon as I could. Can't tell you why anyone would buy anything from there...that being said, my entire family still lives there. I on the other hand, keep moving as far away as possible!!
I was born in Fresno, grew up in Merced. As soon as I turned 18, I got the fuck out. Wait until the auctions start in Merced.
Tony.
There are entire empty neighborhoods in Merced. They aren't worth "free" if you count taxes and HOAs.
here are a couple of the 'smart' folks from that article
'Eric and Jane Wood traveled from Orange County to try to buy some investment property. Eric Wood bid on a four-bedroom, two-bath house on Millard Avenue, but was outbid.
"I had a number in my mind," he said.
Wood said he didn't want emotion to get the better of him.
That was also the advice of Daniel Slenders, a Chowchilla resident and a veteran of cattle auctions who had his eye on a house in Clovis and one in Madera, but didn't get either.
"You never get excited," he said. "There are more auctions coming up." '
At least they are being patient. perhaps if they stay patient they will realize it's not a good time to be bidding on these loosers.
interestingly in my neighborhood prices have leveled and the for sale signs have turned into 'under contract' or sold signs. I guess at least for a bit we have stabilized. Let's see what happens in early 2008 as interest rates continue to rise.
Regarding these H&M auctions, I attended one in Vegas last year, then kept track of all the properties afterward to see what really happened. Not a single house that "sold" at auction actually sold for the high bid received.
You see, the auction is a gimmick to get free publicity and generate interest. The houses being auctioned are all REO's, they are bank owned, and are already listed for sale on the MLS and have generated no interest at their advertised price. By placing them in the auction catalog, a few of them will generate some interest and actually generate offers before the auction and sometimes the bank will deal and they are removed from the auction.
The other thing they don't tell you is these auctions are not without reserve. In other words, the bank may look at the high bid that comes back from the auction and then counter back to that bidder and all other bidders. Which is exactly what happened here.
In the Vegas auction, there were about 20 props in the catalog, and by the day of the auction 4 had been sold to buyers through the buzz generated by auction publicity.
The remaining 16 got bids, and I kept track of the high bid, the previous MLS price, etc. In every single case the bank did not accept the high bid from the auction. They countered, and generally the bidders didn't increase their bids, there were no sales and they went back on MLS.
It took 6 months after the auction for all of them to sell through the MLS. Not a single one of the 16 sold to a bidder from the auction at his bid price placed at the auction. All sold at higher prices than the high bid, and those prices came through the traditional MLS sale process for an REO, with the bank slowly reducing its ask price until they sold.
I conclude the entire auction is a publicity tool, and gets free press for the houses and generates buzz.
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