After being triggered in the Realist tax record information with a yellow Auction flag, my client asked if we could take a visit to the Fulton County Courthouse steps December 2^nd. According to our documentation the auction would begin at 8:30 am at 136 Pryor Street… think again!

I set out bright and early, bearing the cold weather and wind at my face (not to mention finding good on-street parking downtown) to discover no one standing outside on the courthouse steps. Once my client and I waited through the security check point line (NB: they do NOT allow cameras at the courthouse) and got through the metal detectors we asked numerous security officers where the auction was, what time it started, and where we could find a schedule. All we received were mumbled and unsure answers with no conclusions. All we could deduce was that once the auction began, you would know. We decided to take matters into our own hands.

Wandering the hallways for a few minutes, we thought we should occupy some time for the sun to warm the temperatures outside and for the activity to start by going to the ground floor to the County Records Office to see if we could do some title research on the house my client was interested in. It was there that we met Cindy, our gateway into the auction process. Cindy has worked for the county for 10 years and previously did title searches. She promptly showed us the computer system and how to pull up different records and the history of the security deeds. This is a very labor intensive task and worth every penny for the closing attorneys to do in my opinion.

Cindy escorted us around the building to obtain the Daily Report publication which shows which properties are being auctioned, introduced us to the McCalla Raymer auctioneers as well as took us to the steps when the auction commenced.

From the few hours of chaos we were able to pull some important tidbits of information about the foreclosure auction process:

-The auction is always held the first Tuesday of every month at the Fulton County Courthouse

-It will begin around 10 am and go until 4 pm

-You will never know when a property is being auctioned off, they will not post a schedule, you just have to wait. Apparently lawyers were being sued for not showing up at the exact time they were supposed to in the past.

-Each bank will have their particular law firm send a “crier” to announce their properties so it is mandatory to know exactly who to look for (both the law firm AND the person) because different people will be calling out properties all at the same time

-If you are really interested in the foreclosure auction as a piece of your business it would be vital to subscribe to your county’s DAILY REPORT publication to see which properties will be auctioned off

-And last but not least, NEVER purchase a property at the courthouse steps!

The bank will have a “plant” there to bid out the minimum bid as a starting point and they (from our understanding) never allow it to be sold for less than they have in it. It is much preferable to wait (approximately one month) for it to go back on the market as an REO property so that you can have clear title, have time to do a thorough inspection as well as get a better market value price

Tags: Foreclosure, Real Estate by Mary Stuart
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