No Sale?

[pambysue]

Does anyone know how the foreclosure auction sale works in New York State? My house is scheduled to be auctioned on April 6th. What happens if nobody bids on it. How does the bidding begin..can someone bid $10 and if there are no other bidders, they get it?? ..and then, I get slapped with a HUGE deficiency? My papers state the amount owed is $83,000 but the house is never going to pull in that much. This is all very confusing and very scary.
I am filing my bankruptcy in May (thats the soonest I will have all the lawyers fees paid ) so that should take care of the deficiency..but, what will happen between April 6th and the end of May?? does anyone know?

Thankyou so much for any input or advice.

[jal1129]

I don't know about in NY- but I have bought a house before at a foreclosure auction on the court house steps. The way it worked was a rep from the first mortgage company is there to open the bidding at the $ amount to pay off the first mortgage. Bidding goes from there. If nobody bids then the first mortgage company "buys" the house and will later try to sell it thru other methods. Most houses are not sold at auction. Just my experience.

[SinkingFast]

Some States even have a minimum amount the house must sell for. Like 2/3rd's of the Market Value or Tax Value.

As Jal said, generally the only person that will be there to bid is the Bank Rep. Sometimes Investors will go to a Foreclosure Auction. If you'd have had the property on the market, an interest buyer might show up hoping to get a deal.

We had 1 prospective buyer show up when our Foreclosure Sale was scheduled. He was standing out on the Court House steps when the Sheriff came out and announced the Lender had cancelled the Sale. The buyer went immediately to our Realtor's office wanting to know why the Sale had been cancelled. He was livid when he found out someone else had beat him out on buying our house. He was just at the Sale to pick up a deal. Otherwise, he woulda made an offer thru the Realtor.

Most of the time, regular folks don't go to those things. There's requisites for down payment, when the funds have to be paid by, and such. Generally only a well qualified individual could even manage/afford to bid at a Foreclosure Sale. And then, there's the Redemption Period to contend with. So most regular folk just don't bother.