All Forum Posts by: John Koopman

Matt, it's the corner of Warner and Watson. But yeah feel free to contact me anytime!

And actually she's right in Auburn!

I'm an agent in Enumclaw. Actually just got done with a 1031 exchange in 2018. Also, have a great tax consultant/accountant contact who knows exactly how to handle it. She was actually my client who did the 1031 exchange as well. Was an awesome investment move, got a duplex out of it.

My dad and I (I'm a real estate broker) are currently negotiating a contract for a 27 lot pre plat in Enumclaw WA. More dealing with the city, not so much the county. It's been a looooong drawn out process, but gonna be worth it!

@Dennis Dahlberg yeah I notice when REO's pop up on the MLS around here, they are going for retail. Which I'm assuming they went at auction, but nobody bid high enough or bid at all, so then the lender listed it. I've also noticed that some REO properties end up with HUD and then auctioned on hudhomestore dot com. I actually just sold a duplex in this situation a few months ago (As a buyers RE broker). But curious as to how and why HUD owns the home. But I did just find out about a home in my area that went at auction several months ago for $287K. An agent bought it and flipped it and has recently listed it at $500K. Talking to the agent, he said he had no competition at the auction. So that was good to hear that getting places like this at an auction is still possible (even though I'm sure it's rare), cuz this would've been a no brainer at $287K. I wish I was savvy with the foreclosure and auction process back then. Thank you for the advice!

@Mike M. Something weird is going on with this house and the owners though. There's been 3 notice of trustee sales in the last 5 years. The outside of the house is nicer than the rest of the houses on the street. Also, owners have nice vehicles and spend extra on them like new chrome rims, fully tinted windows, and other dumb accessory stuff. I've Facebook stalked the owners lol, and they go on vacation a lot. My guess is that they are morons and forget to pay their mortgage?? Who knows, this is just a local example for the topic though, not that important. Appreciate the advice though!

Hello!

I'm looking to go to my first foreclosure auction soon in King County, WA. I have a few questions on the process of the whole thing. Here is an real life example for an upcoming auction: 

There's a house in my area that is going for auction this month. This house from the outside I can tell has been well maintained and you can even tell they've added on to it. In my market, it's easily worth at least $350K. Opening bid is $260,000. But I can see the mortgage owed is for $276,827, so I'm assuming the lender, Wells Fargo, won't take anything less than that. Also, this house and same owner, has had 3 notices of trustee sales in the last 5 years, but within a year there's been "release of lis pendens/notice", which I'm assuming means they paid their default amount to Wells Fargo. I also noticed in the last notice of trustee sale, the trustee name changed from Northwest Trustee Services LLC to Aztec Foreclosure Corp of Washington.

Pretending I'm ready to buy this place, my questions are:

Is it possible for me to contact the lender several days before the auction and try to buy it now?

If I did end up going to the auction, willing to pay up to $300K, do I just get a cashiers check in that amount, paid to "Aztec Foreclosure Corp of Washington" or who do I make it out to? What happens if I win the bid at $295K but only have the check for 300K?

What's the process after, if I am the highest bid? When is my name officially on title?

These are all probably real beginner questions, I apologize for that, but your help is greatly appreciated!

That's awesome! Thanks for sharing Brian, really appreciate it! Gives me a confidence boost to do the same.

@Brian Erickson how did the conversation go? I'm just curious as to what was said that made them willingly take down your info. I have several places in my area that are in the same situation, and I'd love to either buy or help the owner out by listing it. Fear of rejection definitely stops me. I guess I feel that me bringing up the fact they're in foreclosure would offend them.