Georgia housing forclosures, as of August, 2008. (Courtesy RealtyTrac.com)
While housing market hard times mean foreclosure for many, it also means bargains for home buyers and real estate agents.
Potential home buyer holds up sign with the catalog number of the home he's interested in, as the auctioneer, standing before a slide image of the home, rapidly calls out the fast-rising price at a home foreclosure auction at the Cobb Galleria, Atlanta, Oct. 19, 2008. (Dave Bender)
Auctioneer Mike Carr's machine-gun delivery is music to the ears of some two thousand anxious homebuyers and agents, who crowded into the Cobb Galleria Convention center Sunday morning.
Nicole Brown, a real estate investor from Dallas, Ga., at the home foreclosure auction, held at the Cobb Galleria, Atlanta, Oct. 19, 2008. (Dave Bender)
Nicole Brown, a real estate investor from Dallas, Georgia says her $73,000 bid netted her a three bedroom, two bath home:
“This was my first time with an auction; it's very overwhelming, but it's worth the trip.”It was a trek made by potential buyers from cities and towns across the state.
Kamal Chopra of Alpharetta is looking for a house as an investment, but says it's hard to keep up with the auctioneer's rocket-fast patter:
“It's a different experience – it's too loud for me, i guess, and it's a little confusing for me, the way he's talking. but it's still very exciting, i guess – I'm enjoying it.”Part of that enjoyment is that it's a buyer's market: Realtytrac.com reports that, as of August, Fulton County led the state foreclosure rate with one in every 267 homes on the block.
Two potential home buyers inspect a catalog of properties, as they watch the auction at the Cobb Galleria, Atlanta, Oct. 19, 2008. (Dave Bender)
Mary Quella, the vice president of the Real Estate Disposition Corporation, at a home foreclosure auction held at the Cobb Galleria, Atlanta, Oct. 19, 2008. (Dave Bender)
Mary Quella is from the Real Estate Disposition Corporation, who are holding the auction:
“We have people here that are buying homes for $30 – 40,000 dollars, that a couple years ago were going for $160,000 plus dollars.”And at those kind of prices, Quella hopes the the series of auctions in metro Atlanta will sell off 1,100 homes.
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