Posted by Brandi_TX on April 14, 2000 at 15:50:50:
…I’d have just called her a loon, rolled my eyes, and left it at that. (Can you tell I haven’t mastered “forward thinking?”) Seems to me, your way would pretty much allow me to set my own terms for that “hard” money.
Brandi_TX
PS - Who knows? This just may get me to go to a foreclosure auction in SA. (They aren’t every month here - not that much property. hehehe) Wouldn’t Piper be proud? 
Craziest liens you have experienced/crazy stories heard about first hand - Posted by Gina Hinds
Posted by Gina Hinds on April 13, 2000 at 18:19:39:
Hi,
Just had two interesting experiences and wondered if others have also had any interesting experiences. I just got back from doing research on the San Francisco auction, and there is a company that is going around to the residents that own houses and offering to secure their house for $11,000.00. Even with the high cost of earthquake insurance this price seemed amazing, wonder how many sign ups they get a day.
My second experience was attending a recent auction, where the people bidding had done no research what so ever on past liens, and found themselves involved with a house that had a FEMA lien against it that had been paid out to the previous owners for earthquake repair which they never did.
Any crazy stories out there?
I have seen… - Posted by David
Posted by David on April 14, 2000 at 16:45:17:
people buy the following properties at auction, presumably sight unseen:
One for the record books… - Posted by Ben(NJ)
Posted by Ben(NJ) on April 14, 2000 at 12:52:03:
a competitor of mine used to be the tax collector for Jersey City, NJ. When the Port Authority was delinquent
on the water/sewer portion of the Statue of Liberty, he put the STATUE OF LIBERTY UP FOR TAX SALE !! This is verifiable and was the subject of a newspaper article. You can’t make this stuff up!!
Re: Craziest liens you have experienced/crazy stories heard about first hand - Posted by Eduardo (OR)
Posted by Eduardo (OR) on April 13, 2000 at 20:54:16:
Hi Gina–
I went to an sale of tax-foreclosed property one time on the steps of our local courthouse. I had researched the properties and, although one or two were interesting, I knew most of 18 or so were absolutely worthless (in regard to the required minimum bid) odd-ball pieces of land such as a strip of land several hundred yards long and only a few inches wide. Anyway, this fellow came up and in a loud voice began to bid on every single item. He quickly outbid everyone on the good properties. After the first few sales it was obvious that he had no idea what he was doing so the rest of us shutup and let him buy everything. Among other things, he paid $1,000.00 for a triangular piece of land 13 feet square at the bottom of a local river. I always wondered whose auction course he’d bought.
Craziest stories about people bidding at auction - Posted by Gina Hinds (CA)
Posted by Gina Hinds (CA) on April 14, 2000 at 10:15:32:
Hi,
I guess this would have been a better title. I am just amazed at people that show up for auction with their money and not much more knowledge than that.
I was at an auction in Contra Costa, CA and I met this lady before the auction and she told me she didn’t have the time to look at any properties prior to the auction and she was just going to watch. Well the auction started and someone behind us mentioned that a good property was coming up and she started bidding, she ran it up to over $40,000 and then let the person hat really wanted it pay the high price. She then turned around to the people behind us and asked what kind of house it was, and they said it was raw land.
This kind of buying just simply amazes me.
I think I know this guy… - Posted by Ben (NJ)
Posted by Ben (NJ) on April 13, 2000 at 22:32:30:
last year at a tax sale in North Bergen, NJ (kind of a rough town where you have to be very careful) this guy came in with the newspaper ad (no other due diligence) outbid everyone on EVERY line item blindly and spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on burned down properties, contaminated buildings, etc. During one hysterical moment, he went outside to make a phone call for a few minutes, came back in in the middle of bidding and
BEGAN SHOUTING OUT BIDS HAVING NO IDEA
WHATSOEVER WHAT PROPERTY WAS BEING SOLD! At that point the tax collector demanded to see his money, amazingly he had it AND paid for everything with bank checks!
Same here Eduardo - Posted by Paul_NY
Posted by Paul_NY on April 13, 2000 at 21:39:13:
In May '99, I attended my local tax sale and found a fellow buying most of the properties, many which I knew were worthless. He wore gold rings, necklaces and a nice suit.
The next auction, in the adjacent county, he was there again doing the same thing! Parcels of land that I let go back years ago, he was buying for outrageous prices.
I walked with him to the cashier at the end of the auction and watched him write a check for $42,000+ for all that he bought and he owed a balance of $200,000 approx.
Well, after his check bounced, and some time passed, he was finally arrested.
Maybe it has something to do with the fact that my local county is not holding an auction this year. There’s been 2 auctions per year at my local county court house since I’ve known about them!
Paul_NY
Re: Craziest stories about people bidding at auction - Posted by Jim IL
Posted by Jim IL on April 14, 2000 at 12:48:58:
Gina,
Seems to me when meeting a person like this, OPPORTUNITY is RIGHT IN YOUR FACE!
If I meet someone like this, and they WANT to spend there money on RE, but “do not have the time to research it”, we may be able to work together.
You can bet, if this lady made her money available to me, I’d make the time to research the homes.
She could be a good partnering possibility for you.
So, next time you see or meet someone like this, get there contact info and tell them you may have an opportunity for them. If they are interested, talk to them again, after you write up some ideas and proposals.
Use her as a hard money lender, and show her what kind of returns she can get working with you, hassle free.
then again, this is just an idea,
Jim IL