Sold! An auction can make any purchase exciting, but would you leave the biggest purchase of your life up to an auctioneer?

August 11, 2012 12:00 am  •  By Lisa Iannucci CTW Features

Fran Young lives in Springfield, Mo., and has purchased seven properties at auction, including a duplex, four small homes, a 10-acre plot of land and her current home.

“The land prices are more reasonable,” says Young, who purchased one of those homes for $13,000. “Besides the great number of availability of places, you can go to open houses and really inspect the place, so you’re saving.”

Young is a proponent of real estate auctions, in which a home is sold to the highest bidder. They take place at courthouses and other locations, even online. Foreclosure auctions are held by bank-hired trustees. All types of properties (single family, multi-family, condos, commercial property, luxury property) are sold at auction.

But before you fantasize about buying a home with the slam of a gavel, consider the pros and cons of real estate auctions.

For instance, not all auctioned houses are open to viewing for the public – Young was lucky to attend an open house, but in other auctions, buyers have never seen the inside of the house for sale.

“Deferred maintenance may have caused significant damage which you need to repair,” says Elena Rivkin Franz, a real estate attorney with The Mlnarik Law Group, Inc., in San Francisco.

Buyers willing to take this gamble are rewarded with lower prices…

Source: http://www.nwitimes.com/lifestyles/home-and-garden/sold-an-auction-can-make-any-purchase-exciting-but-would/article_b69c4d9d-56ad-5bc3-8b3c-c0e87d53d2db.html

 

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