Real story. Five separate occasions. Five different buyers. All bid on a foreclosure we held in second position in Florida, and every single one of them apparently had no idea we existed.

Let me be blunt: in Florida, the public records are online, searchable, and FREE. You do not need to order a title search to figure out the basic lien stack before you bid at a foreclosure auction. You can pull it yourself in 5 minutes. Mortgage recorded? It's there. Second position lien? Also there. Any liens that survives the sale? Guess what, also there.

Yet bidder after bidder showed up, bid and won the auction, and then had to realize there $5,000 - $10,000 deposit was gone (into my bank account) as they realized what they actually bought. 

I am not saying this to be cruel. I am saying this because it keeps happening and somebody has to say it out loud.

Before you bid on ANY foreclosure, especially in a public records state like Florida, you should at minimum be doing the following:

1. Pull the official records on the county clerk's website for the property address. Most Florida counties have this down to a science.

2. Look at every instrument recorded against that property, not just the one being foreclosed.

3. Understand which liens survive a foreclosure sale and which get wiped. (Hint: junior liens generally get wiped. Senior liens and certain government liens do NOT.)

4. If you are not sure what you are reading, either learn or pay someone who knows to review it before you bid a dollar.

I recommend a title search before bidding, but in Florida you can at least do basic due diligence on the lien stack with public records and save yourself from the most obvious disasters.

Five buyers. Five times. Same mistake. I could have kept going and collected more, but this last time around we finally had our attorney file with the courts that if it is a 5th default the property reverts to us. I am ok with that as I got my money from these idiots who donated to us and we will pay off the first as there is equity in the property.

Sorry for the rant but It literally blows my mind how people are incompetent and throw away thousands of dollars. 

Is anyone else seeing this occur out of curiosity? Can anyone explain the rationale?