I've only been going to foreclosure sales since 2013, and quite a bit has changed, but one thing you could always count on was that the bank would bid first, and just once.
Well not anymore!
Yesterday I attended the auction for Kona Coffee Villas unit #D136. I was hesitant to even bother to go since I know the big investor buyers will show up at court confirmation instead, so anyone who wins at the auction will have to rebid to win again at court confirmation. But I thought that might give me an edge at auction and who knows, maybe they'll put a stop to the easy reopening of bids at court confirmation in the meantime... a girl can dream.
Anyway, I pulled out a small cashier's check and headed to the flagpole. As suspected, there weren't many people there. Just myself, two other investor bidders, and the bank representative. The bank opened bidding at $162,xxx and one of the other investors bid. The bank rep then bid $175k. WHAT?! I almost fell over. The bank never bids again. As bidding went back and forth the bank bid 3 more times and finally dropped out when the bidding got above $200k. I've never seen anything like it and there is absolutely no explanation for it.
Bidding ended at $304k, well above my max for the day. It will probably go for higher at court confirmation though, when the other investor bidders show up.
So... there are no rules. The bank may bid 5 times? Bidding may get reopened at court confirmation? Court confirmation could be 6 months after bidding!! There is no way to anticipate what will happen, so just bring your cashier's check, be ready to tie your funds up for quite a while (and still not be the final winning bidder) and cross your fingers. Foreclosures in Hawaii are certainly unique.
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