Buying a House at Auction - is it Right for You?

With the number of foreclosures happening now, you can sometimes find a good deal on real estate by buying a property at the auction.

We've all seen the advertisements on the television for the "Get Rich Quick" schemes, where you purchase their book and they'll tell you everything you need to know about buying houses cheap and selling them for a substantial profit. If it sounds too good to be true, chances are it is.

While I'm not saying that it can't be done, it can be- but there are a few things, that you need to be on the look out for before making the leap.

Some (not all) homes are not available for inspection before the auction. If it is one of the ones that you can see prior to, you'll only be given a brief opportunity to view the house before the auction. This means you won't have the opportunity to have a home inspection to determine what might be wrong with the house. If you're handy, or confident you can do it rather cheaply, than the house might be worth it if you can get it for a low price.

More often than not, the property will be vacant. However, occasions come up where someone will be living there. It will be up to the winning bidder to evict whoever is. This can be a major nightmare! Sometimes it will even be a tenant, and not the actual homeowner living there. If you're not familiar with how to evict someone, you might have attorney fees to have it done properly. Sometimes, the previous tenant might come back to retaliate as well.

As for the interior condition of the home, anything is possible. Ideally you'll get to look the day of the auction, but if not, it's not uncommon for a house going into foreclosure to be completely trashed. When homeowners find out that they are going to be foreclosed on, they let property maintenance go. More viciously, it's not uncommon for angry sellers to remove and destroy everything on the property. I've walked into homes before where everything was missing, right down to the light bulbs, closet rods and doorknobs.

Walls and windows will be smashed and broken, and even sometimes the copper plumbing will be missing.
Buying a house at auction can be a good deal, just make sure you do your homework ahead of time. It's definitely not recommended for a first time homebuyer, or someone with a faint heart!