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Bidder's assistant Jeff Johnston keeps things going during the foreclosed home auction at the Javits Center (Craig Ruttle/AP)
Yesterday, over a thousand people flocked to the Javits Center in hopes of landing a deal at the city's first home foreclosure auction. The NY Times, which said 1,400 were in attendance, described the atmosphere:
On the floor, four men called the bids, screaming, blowing whistles, thrusting their arms into the air and using their fingers to signal how much more was being offered over the last bid...There were also protesters outside the Javits Center, telling visitors, "The auction is a shame, the banks are to blame," and "Bail out the people."There were experienced bidders, many of them investors who have made careers of buying, fixing up and selling foreclosed homes for below-market prices — and quick profits. There were the novices, who looked at once lost and awestruck, their eyes darting between the booklet listing the houses that were up for grabs and the screens that showcased them as the bidding went on.
With 375 homes in the NY, NJ and Pennsylvania area on the block, some buyers just went for it. The NY Post reports that one family bought a 2,062-square foot home in the Finger Lakes region for just $12,500—or $6 per square foot. Marc Ettrick said, "I'm sure my wife made a really good deal. She knows to stay away from bad plumbing and vandalism," but admitted he had no idea where the house was (they didn't visit it). Another buyer, Beth Kaplan Bongar, had visited the Hamptons Bay home before submitting the winning bid of $185,000; she told the Times it didn't need much repair work, “I need a place to call home. And in the long run, this will cost me a little more than the storage bin I have down in Jersey, which is costing me $300 a month.”
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Apparently, it drew creepy, breakdancing Daddy Warbuckses as well.
Hahaha, good one.
Why protest? This is great. Get those houses off the books. Everyone wins except for the banks.
I'm having a Six Flags flashback.
Heh, yeah I thought the same thing.
What is that thing in the tux?
I guess the bidder's assistant's job is to psych the crowd so that they keep on bidding.
am I unrealistic in thinking that they still overpaid or am I cheap?
Protip: if you're a 60yr old assistant, wearing a tuxedo w nike shox, you're doing it wrong
I don't know. Seems like it'd be a fun job.
I loved this bit from the Post:
This demonstrates how few have yet to learn the lesson of this crisis. Value is not defined as "what the last guy paid for it".Going along with this was an article I saw on MSNBC about gold bugs this morning, or rather, the comments for the article, which were full of gold bugs denying that gold could be the next bubble...
Jacque - Say hello to the New York real estate market.
How can you "stay away from bad plumbing and vandalism" yet not know where the house is? All of these places are purchased sight unseen, so it's a real crapshoot on the condition, but I believe most are complete gut renos.
But at #6 a square foot, I would imagine that even the land itself is worth more than that.
They weren't all purchased site unseen. There were scheduled open houses.
The next generation of scumbag landlords is upon us
Fvking BOZOS, dancing around like little organ-grinder monkeys in tuxes in order to keep the crowd busy while an accomplice picks their pockets.
If the city had allowed more mobile home parks in Staten Island, these people could have spent the day burping up macaroni and cheese with tuna fish while watching Wheel Of Fortune, instead of outbidding each other on a copper scrapper's fixer-upper.