So hello BiggerPockets I have a question about Sheriff's sale or House auctions , like when they do the opening bid in NJ I noticed they do opening bid at 100 but say there max bid will be let's say 170k. The layer or who ever is defending that person. So does that mean I have to beat that bid basically ?

Correct. If the opening bid is $100 and the representative states I am willing to bid up to $170,000 on behalf of the bank you have to start at $1000 increments higher than the banks bid. So in this case the first bid would be $171,000.

I hope this answers your question

The only reason they do this way is they likely have to pay transfer taxes/fees on the sale amount, as they do here........so why let the bidding go to $150k just to pay higher fees.

There’s a guy in Delco and Montgomery County who hates a certain bank, so every time this one particular lawyer stands up he bids the property up from $100 to a much higher number.

I was Told he does this because it forces the bank to pay higher fees every time.

It’s hilarious.

@Mayer M. That sounds about right but that whole thing is kinda confusing because there opening bid will be 100 but willing to bid up to let's say 175k so I gotta bid 176 if I want the property? && does that include the taxes owed on the property or I pay the after ?

@Ray Agosto it does NOT include property taxes, you will be responsible for paying those as well. We bought our home at a Sheriff's sale and the whole process can be mind-numbing. I live in a small town and at the time was working for our local community bank as a Mortgage Loan Originator and we were still terrified. My boss went with us because he had been through these sales thousands of times. When we arrived he immediately found the attorney representing the lender, just asked him how much the bank was looking for and he gave us the number, I would think this might not happen in big cities. We ended up paying $4000 over what they needed and the appraisal,  before we started any repairs came back at $150,000 over what we just paid for it. Keep this in mind as well, the last thing the lender wants is to take the property back. They don't want to list it for sale with a Realtor and would much rather sell it at auction, if they get close to what they want they'll take it because taking less now saves much more money later. Good Luck!!!

Typical reserve price would be set at whatever is owed to the lien holder of the foreclosing lien. If no one reaches it they take back the house subject to any senior liens ahead of their position.