County foreclosure sales moving onlinet

ALACHUA COUNTY – The days of Alachua County’s Clerk of the Court and Comptroller J.K. “Buddy” Irby and his staff standing in the lobby of the courthouse near the elevators auctioning off foreclosed properties are numbered.

As of Sept. 1, 2015, Realauction.com will take over the auction process holding them online at www.alachua.realforeclose.com.

The Fort Lauderdale-based company already represents 28 counties in Florida, and hopes to help increase auction revenue for Alachua County by increasing the number of bidders who can take part in the purchase of foreclosed properties, said RealAuction.com CEO Lloyd McClendon.

“We provide this service for many clerks around the state,” McClendon said. “Buyers can avoid parking and other hassles, and do this from the comfort of their home or office.”

Registration is free, McClendon said, and placing a bid is free. “But you need a deposit in order to win,” he added. “You’ll need 5 percent of the amount you intend to win with.”

With no buyer’s premium, McClendon does the math.

“You’re able to win 20 times your deposit. So if you put down $1,000 deposit, the maximum amount of property you can purchase is $20,000.”

According to McClendon, Realauction.com charges the county a $49 transaction fee for every home it sells for counties using its online software and services.

“We’ve done foreclosures in Florida since 2008, using the online foreclosure system with 700,000 cases auctioned so far,” he said.

According to Irby, the idea is that auction participation will be available to everyone throughout the country. And the more bidders in the mix, the higher the selling price could go.

The online auction service will go live on Monday, Aug. 17.

Bidders who want to take a class to learn the software can attend a live training course at the Alachua County Courthouse Center, 201 W. University Ave. at 2 p.m. on Aug. 17.

Realauction is conducting the class and space can be reserved by calling 877-361-7325.

According to Irby, the bank holding the mortgage often ends up being the high bidder.

“They usually bid up to the amount they held the mortgage on it,” Irby said.

“They just want to get their money back. They don’t really want the property.”

“How high the bank will bid so they don’t lose money,” is up to each bank, Irby said.

“Some settle for getting 75 percent of their money back. But nobody knows that but the bank.”

Irby describes the process of what a normal auction goes like.

“We stand at the courthouse,” he said. “My staff or myself goes out and announces the property. It’s been properly advertised.

“It usually starts off at $100, and the next bid may be $10,000 and then we go from there. We really don’t know what’s going to happen.”

This procedure will play out the old-fashioned way until Sept. 1, Irby said. “And we’ll have lots of them,” he added Those interested in searching the database can visit www.Alachuaclerk.org and  click on Foreclosures, “And it list all the foreclosures we have coming up,” Irby said.

“Every now and then, people have gotten a really good bargain. It just depends on who shows up.”

 To close the bid under the current system, Irby said the winning bidder has to deposit 5 percent of the bid with the county.

“They have until the end of business next day to pay. If you don’t have the money, we don’t close the bid and somebody else does the bidding. If they don’t show back up, the money is kept by the court.”

Switching to the new online system has been in the planning stages for about six months,” Irby said. He advises potential bidders to research the properties thoroughly before they bid.

“We tell people ‘buyer beware.’ They want to do their research. What it is, if there are liens or other loans against the property. Research before you start jumping in and bidding.”

McClendon echoes the warning of buyer beware.

“There’s no guarantee,” McClendon said.

“You have to obtain a title search. It’s best if you have an attorney, a real estate professional to help. You really need to do your research, since there’s no guarantees from the clerk’s office. All lot of times, bidders get excited and speed through the warnings.”

The online process does help prevent bidders from fixing the rate on a property, McClendon said.

“Online saves the public time, money, and the clerk’s office resources,” he said. “It prevents collusion. No longer can people get together and ‘fix the deal.’ ”

At the Aug. 11 auction held in the courthouse lobby, four bidders took part in the foreclosure auction process.

One local property investor picked up a 4-bedroom house for $38,000. He said he will miss going to auctions in person because he said he got to know who the other bidders are, and once the process goes online, you won't know who your competition will be, or how high they'll be willing to go.