Attention all investors: As foreclosures continue to mount to record numbers, there are any number of opportunities for investors to acquire foreclosed properties relatively inexpensively. One of these that is seeing more and more use with the rising tide of foreclosed properties is the auction. Frequently, large lenders will bundle chunks of their REO portfolio of properties together and have a professional real estate auction firm dispose of the properties by public auction. Advertised in advance, they usually provide catalogs of the properties to be sold at a given auction, along with times and dates of not only the auction, but also when the properties can be viewed by prospective buyers before the auction date.

These can be very worthwhile ways to obtain real estate below market prices. As an example, I listed a foreclosure in northern California for $575,000. Only a year earlier it had been purchased by the folks who lost it to foreclosure for $605,000. After three months with only minimal interest from potential buyers and their agents, the owning bank added it to an auction. It sold there to its present owner for $416,000! That's not a misprint! Roughly 1.5 years after going for $605,000, it was purchased by an investor for nearly one third less than its former price. There are many other similar opportunities in some of the auctions now happening. Check on-line for info.