拍賣花絮（1） - 三秒鍾的決定

On the auction, there are only three seconds to make a decision. Because of the nature of the auction, one does not know what the starting bid amount is, nor does he know a particular property will be auctioned or not because a property can be pulled off the auction list anytime before the auction.

On the auction, the trustee(the person who represents the bank) will read out the listings one by one, some with street address, some with legal deion. At the end of the reading, the trustee will say: "On behalf of xyz bank, I bid abc dollars and m cents. Any other bidders?... Going once, going twice, sold back to xzy bank."

Between the anounced bid amount and going twice, there are only three seconds for bidders to react. This is very intimadating, and there is a lot of pressure.

All the homework has to be done before the auction actually happens. Drive by the property, take pictures, search title, check mortages and liens, get to know the neighborhood. There is great risk because one is not allowed to look inside of the properties, so bid with that on mind.

All that goes to the auction are not good properties. For example, in May 2008, the auction list for a county had 500 properties. On the auction, only two hundred were announced, the other 300 were cancelled. Out of the 200 properties, fewer than 20 got sold to individual bidders, and the rest were "sold" back to the banks.