So I went to the court house (and literally on the court house steps) bought a very nice house (from the outside). So for anyone thinking of doing it, here was my experience. I needed 5% in cash or a certified bank check. Not sure who to make the certified check out to I just brought cash. :-) There was one lady there from Auction.com contracted to do the sale. She covered the central NC area as a contracted employee. Seemed pretty nice and answered all my dumb questions. I was the only one there so I paid what the bank minimum was, signed 1 piece of paper and she counted the cash. Next we went upstairs in the court house and she had that paper time stamped and dated. It all took less than 40 minutes.

I have to wait 10 days and see if there are any upset bids but as this progresses I'll post what my experience is.

House in question is in a nice area 3/2, built in 2004, vinyl sided, looks nice from the outside. Once the paperwork is done I guess I'll get a look on the inside. The one photo I saw on facebook of the previous owner showed a nice kitchen in 2016.

I called my real estate lawyer to start working on the title (I guess if I were to do it again I'd have him do a title search before hand but hey this is my first go around).

Like Forest Gump says "Auction houses are a box of chocolates, you never know what you are going to get"

The problem for me is that these auctions are during work hours. If you can go to some of them before you just show up and bid I would suggest it.

Bank foreclosures appear to share many characteristics with tax foreclosures (aka tax liens). And yes, Mr. Gump is wise.

To date, I have 'bought' and received title to 3 pieces of tax lien property. I have also bought post-foreclosure houses, but those are more of a known entity buying through a HUD agent where tours are available.

One of the issues I've found is with smaller, cheaper properties: there are often city special tax assessments against them because the owners failed to comply with health/sanitary regulations. Mowing lawns, dumping trash, etc. This can also impact "nice" houses as I found one of these for sale on the 2017 auction...nice looking on the outside except the roof looked shot. Came to find out later from a guy at the auction who knew the neighbor of the owner, indeed the roof was shot, and the owner was living in the basement. Literally, the house's main level "floor" is now his roof while the water just pours into the upstairs during rain storms. The property is maybe 25-30 years old. Nice middle class hood of other 3/2/2 brick houses with well kept yards and good school. Owner went nuts, we think. There are close to $7,000 in city liens against it for yard care and dangerous structure citations (large shed in back was falling down and was demo'd by city). And it's still on the City nuisance list, so more charges are piling on.

It could be a disaster if the owner wakes up one day and decides to douse the place in kerosene and put a match to it...poof. No more value.

The "winner" at the tax auction bid it up to $45,000 or so. In "as is" condition, I estimate the house and lot together are worth $80,000 - $90,000. Comps in the hood are selling for $120K-$130K. If it gets burned...maybe $20,000 for the lot after demo/cleanup costs. The winning bidder won't know for sure what he'd got until the redemption period expires in August 2018.

My starting point when bidding on auction.com is the land value. Tried for 3 weeks to get BOA to take the land value for an REO .... ended up getting it 25k above land value.

The 2 buildings on the property are clearly worth more than 25k. Also helps that it has an additional br and bath (than the website and town posted).

Only a 10 day redemption period? That is nice. (It is generally 6 months here -- and the one time we did this the guy deemed it on literally the 2nd to last day of the period.)

Let us know how the next 10 days go! :)

- John...

Congrats! Sounds like a nice adventure. :)