Can I observe an auction in the courthouse without the bank check?

Foreclosure Investing
1

Sorry for the newbie questions. 1) I live in San Francisco and am interested in buying a house for my primary residence (or to resell if I don’t like the floor plan). After I have browsed through the very informative information here, I would like to go to the court house to observe an auction. Would they let me go in as a spectator? Do I need to bring a bank check? 2) buying a house in auction, how do I find out if there was anyone died in the house? This is normally disclosed by the seller. Thanks

Stan

2

Stan,

The auction is open to the public and you can watch the action as long as you like. No check required. As for your second question, I’m not sure of the answer but perhaps one of ForeclosureRadar Realtor followers can give you some insight. I do know that there are no disclosures of that kind at the auction.

3

In a regular sale and short sale information such as a death in the property is a required disclosure. In general any information that could affect the value of a property or the decision to purchase a property are required disclosures. Auctions, foreclosures, and trustee sales are not considered regular sales nor a short sale and are not required to disclose as much information.

I suggest you talk to the neighbors because most likely they would know if someone has died in the house.

4

You might also do a Google search for each of the following…

name of each owner/spouse
name of each occupant
address of property

Sometime very interesting information
can be found.

5

The unknowns about a property is one of the big risks buying without warranty as to condition. CA state law seems to acknowledge this. a) Pursuant to California Civil Code, Section 1102-1102.18, ??. Transfers by any foreclosure sale after default?.? are exempt from the requirement to provide a Transfer Disclosure Statement (TDS). The subject property was purchased at a foreclosure sale and is therefore exempt from the requirement for seller to provide a TDS.

I still write a disclosure, but it is what I know. Without the traditional TDS from a seller, I cannot disclose what I do not know.

I frequently hear things from neighbors. If they tell me, they will probably tell my buyer, so I include those significant rumors in my disclosure as hearsay.