Real Estate Auctions: Avoid Online Scams

(Discover Hidden Gems by Avoiding Potential Pitfalls and Fraudulent Websites.)

Seized Property for 90% off Market Value?

Recent popularity

In the last year buying bank and government seized properties has become very popular. This is because people have discovered that they can purchase any type of real estate: affordable homes, single-family homes, multi-unit houses, apartments/townhouses, commercial properties, mobile homes, land, timeshares, vacation and rental properties at greatly discounted prices ... property listings as much as 90% off the market value.

Why so cheap?

A seized property is a home or property that has been repossessed by the lender because the owners failed to pay the mortgage - this is called foreclosure. A home or property can also be seized by the government due to illegal activities or tax evasion. Hundreds of thousands of properties are seized every year.

Because of the constant influx of new seized properties and the enormous amount of money and time required to maintain and market them, the banks and government attempt to recover at least some of the money by conducting public seized property auctions. Bank and government homes and properties are purchased here for as much as 90% off their market value.

Real estate's little secret

Not many people attend these auctions because they are not well advertised. There's a reason for this. Since the profits will already be small, the banks and government will not spend much money on advertisement ... maybe only a small ad in the local newspaper. This means attendance is small, so those who do attend have a great opportunity to purchase bank and government homes and properties at bargain costs by sheer lack of competition.

Properties at you fingertips

2004 saw entire networks spring up solely to administer these seized property listings. Members can now perform online searches for bargain properties in any part of the country. The better services allow someone to search by city or zip code, and include photo and detailed descriptions in the search results.

Fraudulent websites

Unfortunately, as with any innovative idea come the scammers. Hundreds of "bank property listings" and "government property listings" websites have popped up, claiming to offer direct access to networks where people can purchase these properties. Most charge $50-$75 dollars to browse their listings. But once a customer pays the membership fee they find:

1. Outdated Listings
2. Non-Working Pages
3. Non-Intuitive Navigation
4. Zero Support or Customer Service

Someone looking to join a website might even find themselves being offered the opportunity to access the "premium homes and property listings" by becoming an "elite" member of this particular service for just $50 more. There are many instances where the websites appeared to exist just to take a consumer's money. In many cases people aren’t even able to contact anyone from the sites.

Yes, you can purchase homes at a 90% discount.

If you can stay away from the SCAM websites, it is possible to purchase perfectly nice ... even stunning, homes and properties by accessing these networks of seized property listings. For anyone looking to join a seized property network website to purchase a home or invest in real estate, be sure that it meets these minimum requirements:

• Network spans all 50 states.
• Listings are fully searchable by city and zip.
• Listings include photograph and description.
• Listings are updated daily.
• Customer service available via phone or email.