Foreclosure Auctions in Massachusetts
I have my eyes on a few foreclosure properties around Boston with auctions coming up. Has anyone had experience with on-site auctions in Massachusetts? I have access to capital and can run due diligence before the auctions but I do not know what to expect on the day of the auction.
Does one typically provide a down payment on that day or the entirety of the purchase price? What is the typical timeline of a foreclosure sale?
Not sure how it is in MA. But I think usually you have to have a cashier check to pay for the property in its entirety.
Typically these are conducted on an online platform just as Hubzu.com for bids - most will entertain some sort of loan but the overwhelming % of bids is by cash or hard money. I would see if you can go inside the property (some do not have any access at all) and then monitor the bids from there. It takes 48-72h for the bid to end. Once you are chosen, closings are 6-8 weeks and often have title issues so have a bit of patience and you should be OK!
- Lien Vuong
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Any auctions will have the terms spelled out. If it is in person, you usually bring a cashiers check for the deposit, say $5,000 or $10,000.00 Generally you have 30 days to close. You pay at that time so you want to have your financing ducks in a row ahead of time (whether hard money or say an equity line on your personal residence) You can always walk away after the sale. I had one client who routinely did that costing them upwards of $50,000 a year. They felt a better deal had come along or that they had bid too much and it would not be worth it in the long run. Better to get out now.
Most of the auctions are going for crazy money right now in MA. Be careful and try not to bid on any with people still living in the property, very tough to vacate and can kill you with holding costs. Check out a few live and get a feel for it! Good luck.
Agree with the above advice not to buy with occupants. For in-person auctions keep checking the status right up until you're ready to hop in the car because they're frequently canceled or postponed at the very last minute. Good luck!
I used to go to 5-6 auctions per week in MA for a friend who likes buying auction houses.
I gotta say the results after going to these for about 6 months were a mixed bag. Out of 8-10 properties that we locked down at the auctions, we were only able to flip 3 successfully, 2 of those sold back to the previous home owners. I would advise to do your due diligence before biding. it can get costly very quickly and getting your deposits back isn’t always possible. That being said you can typically find beat up houses at a slightly lower rate than market price sometimes you can find nicer houses too at the higher end level.
I made a personal tool/app to browse Mass auctions faster as it’s just not fun browsing through auctioneer pages daily. My app compiles all auctions in one place, sorts auctions by date and removes canceled and postponed auctions. I would still double check with the auctioneers before heading over as sometimes auction statuses can change at last minute. I’m going to leave my tool here for whoever wants to use it. It is free as of this moment but I do have plans to make this a for profit tool in the future. Any feedback is appreciated -> Auctionandcompany.com
Thanks and good luck at the auctions!
Does your website work? I can’t get any info onit.
I just went to one in Brockton. Pretty easy and simple.