711 Ohio ~ Introduction & The Bidding War

My love affair with 711 Ohio, located smack dab in the backyard of my workplace, started over a year ago. The home sat vacant for what seemed like forever and the ominous sign on the front door warning any would-be intruder to simply “stay out” made me feel as though bad things might have happened in there. Turns out, the owner had walked away from the mortgage on this home and another on Kahkawa Boulevard four streets over. I’d be lying if I said I cared much for that warning and on more than one occasion my faithful 4-legged friend and I ventured into the front and backyard to look for any sign of human activity (this also meant that Daisy and I had peeked into every window that I was tall enough to reach). For about a year and a half the home sat still until the first week of October 2011 when a large green dumpster stopped our afternoon walk short. Fearing the worst, I assumed the property was purchased at Sheriff Sale although I was pretty sure my research was correct when it showed that sale was cancelled in mid September. Four days later the dumpster was gone and a For Sale sign took up most of the tiny front yard. Our week-long Bidding War for 711 Ohio had officially begun.

Placing a bid on a foreclosed property is a daunting task. If you’ve never done it, you simply don’t know what to expect other than to expect the unexpected.

Climbing The Steps
Step One: Contact our Realtor and find out the sale price. This property was listed at $49,900 and, in my mind, a steal for a 3 bedroom brick home located in the City of Erie’s Frontier area. Step Two: get my husband’s blessing and Step Three: get inside as quickly as possible to see exactly what we might be dealing with. Step Three proved to be challenging because my husband John and I don’t live in the same state, but fortunately, he was scheduled to return home late Thursday night. With all our ducks in a row – enough money in the bank to make a cash purchase and a open line of credit for improvements – we were ready to see the home and place our bid.

Before we could even get inside, a call to our Realtor (who is also my mother) brought bad news. On Thursday, Day One of the listing, the bank apparently accepted an opening bid of $48,000 and closed down the bidding process in less than 12 hours! That seemed to end a host of possibilities on a project that had once seemed totally possible.

Day Two: Early Friday morning, our luck changed and a call from our Realtor brought great news. The potential buyers had an apparent change of heart and backed out of the deal. Bids on lucky 711 were open once again and our bidding challenge ignighted. With no time to waste, John and I made a quick property inspection and agreed on an opening bid of $48,000. The bank was accepting bids online through a secure website accessible only through a Real Estate agency. Our bid was registered at 12-noon on Friday, the Friday before Columbus Day. With no indication of the bank’s decision date, we didn’t find out until the following Tuesday that the bank was considering four bids, and, no, they wouldn’t disclose each bid amount. John and I decided to rebid at $55,100 – the additional $100 as a “Price Is Right” strategy to slightly outbid any potentially close competitor. Note: in a foreclosure sale, the bank will literally accept the highest bid and cash is king. Two days later we were notified we outbid our closest bidder by $2,100.

The Closing
After a rather interesting sale, the closing was uneventful and that was fine by us. The Closing was 10 days after our bid was accepted and took about 20 minutes. Note: unlike a Sherrif sale, when purchasing a foreclosure, the bank wipes away all liens or back taxes so, although a title search is still necessary prior to closing, the potential danger doesn’t exist.