How to buy Foreclosures at a Texas Auction

There are 3 ways to find deals on foreclosures. You can buy before the auction, at the auction or after the auction. This article will focus on buying at the auction. If you decide to buy at the auction, you will be competing with professional investors who buy every month there. This can be quite intimidating for many people. There are still deals to be had there. After all professional investors will rarely pay too much for a property. But the chances are good that they know more about the property and how to deal with specific problems inexpensively. That means if you outbid them and it costs you more to repair the property’s problems you could lose money.

Before we get into the specifics of buying at the auction, we need to talk about the Trustee. The Trustee at a Texas foreclosure auction is the person who sells the property. He is given rights to sell the property under certain conditions in the Deed of Trust. There are some Trustee’s that handle large amounts of properties. Lisle Patton is the largest in the Dallas area. He sells many properties every month. Professional investors who have to buy many properties every month will focus on guys like Lisle Patton, because he is easy to find and he has many properties.

There are also Trustees at the auction who may only handle 1 or 2 properties. They represent small independent banks or individual sellers who have to foreclosure on properties that they financed. They are difficult to find at the auction. Imagine trying for find a Trustee who has only one property. He can show up at any time during a 3 hour window. He will begin reading without warning and will finish within 5 minutes. The key to finding really good deals at the auction is to find these smaller Trustees.

The way to find the smaller Trustees is to contact them before hand. Alamo Foreclosure Service allows you to sort by Trustee. They will also give you the address and phone number for many of the Trustees. The notice of sale may also have this information. The smaller trustees will usually be glad to talk to you. After all you may help their client by offering a reasonable price at the auction. A fair auction is the legal obligation of every Trustee. The only way to accomplish a fair auction is to allow everyone a chance to bid. Ask the Trustee what time he will be at the auction and how you might recognize him. Ask him where at the courthouse he will hold the auction. Then just make sure you are there. The chances are good that your competition has not taken the time to do this. For more information on this subject please visit the Foreclosure Investment Weblog at http://alamofc.com/blog