Foreclosed-upon homes head to auction block
Nov. 08, 2006
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal
Hudson & Marshall will offer nine LV dwellings on Nov. 19
By HUBBLE SMITH
REVIEW-JOURNAL
Looking for an affordable home? Your chance to buy a foreclosed home at below-market value in Las Vegas comes Nov. 19 at the JW Marriott.
Hudson & Marshall, a Dallas-based real estate auction company, is offering nine Las Vegas homes valued from $275,000 to $460,000. They’re among more than 100 homes on the block in the foreclosure-battered states of Colorado and Nevada.
Rising foreclosures nationwide could translate into a huge opportunity for home buyers in a declining real estate market, Hudson & Marshall principal Dave Webb said.
The homes are “real estate owned,” or REO, property taken back by national lending institutions and asset management companies after every effort was made to work with the borrower.
“Posting a foreclosure doesn’t necessarily mean foreclosure,” Webb said. “These homes are in foreclosure, not default. Realtors have already had their shot at (selling) them.”
Sellers guaranteee clean titles on all the homes, ensuring that they’re free of any liens or back taxes. Buyers need to bring a personal check for 5 percent of the purchase price.
Webb said the auction enables lenders to swiftly move large volumes of foreclosed properties and avoid the high carrying costs of those assets. Hudson & Marshall uses an aggressive marketing program to get maximum exposure for properties and closes sales in less than 30 days, reducing the time homes linger on the market, he said.
Colorado and Nevada have posted the highest foreclosure rates in the nation over the last several months, reports RealtyTrac, a California-based online foreclosure listing service. In the third quarter, Colorado had one foreclosure for every 127 households, or 2.9 times the national average. Nevada ranked second with one foreclosure for every 156 households, or 2.3 times the average.
Rising interest rates have forced many homeowners with adjustable-rate mortgages to default on their loans because they no longer can afford the rising mortgage payments, Webb said.
“We’ve had some large sales in Las Vegas. I’d say we did two to three (auctions) a year in Vegas from 1999 to about 2003 with a big inventory, 40 to 50 homes,” he said. “Then the market took off. You were building like crazy. There were very few foreclosures from then until about the last six months.”
Auctions level the playing field for buyers because the highest bidder gets the house without negotiations or contingencies associated with a traditional real estate purchase, he said.
A listing of Las Vegas homes is available on Hudson & Marshall’s Web site www.hudsonandmarshall.com. Open houses are scheduled for 1 to 3 p.m. Saturday and Sunday at the home sites.