Archives for 2008

     If you attend a St Tammany Parish foreclosure sale, you may have the questions; What does it mean "sold with the benefit of appraisement?", and "How does this affect the sale of that property?"If a property is sold "with the benefit of an appraisement", this affects the opening bid on the property. The bidding will begin at 2/3 of the appraised amount. The appraisal amount can be found the Monday before the sale either by contacting the St Tammany Parish Civil Sheriff's Office by phone at 985-809-8231, (fax 985-809-8286), or through their website www.stpso.com. Make sure you have the Sheriff's sale number, (example: 2008-12345), associated with the property you are interested in. They cannot help you without it. That is unless you just have a question, then they are very helpful. You can also email the Civil Department at civil@stpso.com.

    If a property is sold "without the benefit of an appraisal, then bidding will start at "Cost" to the Sheriff's Office. This Cost consists of such things as;

• property taxes owed, including past tax sales with accrued interest and penalties.
• mileage for having to post the physical property.
• postage for certified letters.

    This cost is usually between $1500.00 to $2500.00, but can be more.

    Now, just because the bidding starts at Cost does not mean that is what the property is going to sell for. I have seen it jump from Cost to $80,000.00 in one bid. If the bidding begins at Cost, the Bank will open the bidding, and they are going to bid low, because there is a 3% Commission which has to be paid to the Sheriff's Office, and they would rather pay 3% of Cost, than 3% of $120,000.xx, for example. In other words, what this means is; if you are not willing to outbid the bank, then they (the Banks) would prefer you do not bid at all, and they are happy to tell you their highest bid. So if your number is not higher than theirs, then you will not bid at all. There is no guarantee on obtaining this information though, it is up to the Representatives discretion. There is no guarantee.

    Each property will be determined differently. Know what you are going to bid in advance through due diligent research, to include title and appraisal. Do not depend on hearsay. Do your own research. If you are going to purchase, be prepared to have 10% of the final sales price in certified funds. The Sheriff's Office will want it briefly after the sale.

If you have any questions feel free to email or post.

Thank You

Marc Pellettiere

marcp@scogginproperties.com

If you attend a St Tammany Parish Foreclosure Sale, you may have the question, what is the writ amount? The "Writ Amount" is the amount owed to the Forecloser/Bank, at the the time the writ of seizure and sale is filed. In many cases it can be considered the lowest the Forecloser/Bank is willing to let the property sell for. St Tammany Parish will not sell a property without a representative from the Bank present, and the Bank is always going to bid the property up so that it will lose as little money as possible. However this is a business, and banks have to make hard decisions too, especially in the market of:

• Federal Foreclosure Help Bills.
• Federal help for Fannie Mae, and Freddie Mac.
• Large companies, like Indy Mac, folding.
• Bank of America acquiring Countrywide Mortgage, (which is a nice way of saying; save our investment before it folds.)

I do not mean to cast a doom and gloom atmosphere over the real estate market in St Tammany Parish, I do see us still as a good market, especially in a bad time. We were an exceptional market for a long time, and were definitely thrown a loop from Katrina, and maybe because of that time of hyper activity we didn't see this coming. There has definitely been a leveling off period, but the market is good. Yes prices have come down and market times are longer, but properties are selling. There will always be fluctuations.

Thank You

Marc Pellettiere

marcp@scogginproperties.com