Attending a Trustee Sale of Phoenix Homes

The housing market around the country is suffering which is resulting in numerous foreclosures and home auctions. Some are watching interested properties with the hopes of picking them up at bargain prices. The steps of the Maricopa Superior Court is the place to be for interested parties to potentially picking up one of the numerous Phoenix homes that are up for trustee auctions.

This type of sale is conducted by an individual hired by the firm representing the trustee, usually a law firm. The sales are also sometimes held at the law firm?s office; this is identified in the Trustee Sale Notice along with the time of the sale, but most are held at the courthouse. The trustee sales are scheduled on the hour and half-hour. This particular one was conducted just off the Maricopa Courthouse steps so as not to impede the traffic in and out of the courthouse.

Most trustees will provide an opening bid amount that is made public anywhere from a week ahead of the sale to as little as a few hours before the sale. There may be several sales scheduled at the pre-set time and they are conducted one after the other until all are done. Then you wait until the next scheduled sales to be held the following half-hour. If you plan on bidding, you will need to place a deposit, generally $10,000, in the trust account of the law firm handling the trustee sale and be prepared to pay the balance in cashier?s funds within 48 hours if you are the successful bidder.

At the predetermined time, the auctioneer will announce the address, the APN number (number assigned by the county to identify the parcel), and the opening bid. The auctioneer will ask for additional bids. At this time, the bidders start the bidding. They start with $100-$300 increments. The auctioneer writes each bid down and who made the bid, announcing the last bid and who has it. This will continue until there are no more bids and the bid is awarded. The auctioneer will take a few minutes to get the high bidder?s information, signature and then notarizes it.

The auctioneer then moves to the next property. If there are no bids, then the lender?s opening bid purchases the property. There were about 30-40 attendees at this auction with the majority being regular attendees who were on a first-name basis with the auctioneer..