Seeing a fresh twenty-one Plainfield properties listed a couple of weeks ago as up for Sheriff's sale, I made it a point to schlep on down to Elizabeth this past week and see what was up.
First, you should know that the house I live in was bought at a Sheriff's sale. As buyers in what was supposed to be a regular home purchase, it was discovered the night before closing that the seller was in foreclosure -- hence the Sheriff's sale.
A quarter-century ago, the sales were held in a dimly lit, musty old room in the old courthouse. Today, they are in a brightly-lit conference room in the Sheriff's complex in the super-secure County Administration Building.
Gone are the bidders of yore, goodfella guys with sharkskin suits, ruby pinkie rings and wads of hundred dollar bills.
The dozen wannabe bidders who showed up were dressed casually, with credit cards but no wads of cash in sight, and looked vaguely like home repair contractors.
The twenty-one Plainfield properties turned out to be only a few of the hundreds potentially for sale from all the county's towns.
But most properties don't make it to the auction block, being either withdrawn or canceled by the plaintiff (usually a bank or mortgage company) or removed because the owner had filed for bankruptcy.
Of those that came to the block last Tuesday, only three of the Plainfield properties were among them.
But, unlike the auction at which my house was bought, the properties instead being knocked down to the plaintiff -- without any other bidders -- for $100, a minimum probably barely covering the Sheriff's expenses. (The only bidding that day was between two contractor-types and a bank rep over what was apparently a divorcing couple's property in Linden, up for a half-interest of $70,000. The two guys bailed when the bidding hit $38,500, leaving the property to the bank rep.)
 West End $315,006 |  In-town $364,219 |  East End $92,811 |
Pictured above are the only three Plainfield properties, with their upset prices, to come to the block in this auction. Each went to the lender for $100.
As the subprime mortgage mess continues to unwind with further bankruptcies and foreclosures, expect to see more properties in the Sheriff's sales. But with prices falling, there are likely to be few if any buyers for the (mostly) inflated mortgage amounts the banks are carrying.
View today's CLIPS here. Not getting your own CLIPS email daily? Click here to subscribe.
Posts
0 comments:
Post a Comment