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
Hello my name is Jeanine I have a question If a house is sold with a benefit of appraisement does that mean the house owner has to pay anything ?
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Good afternoon, my apologies but I am not sure I am following. Sold with the benefit of appraisement will ensure the starting bid on the property is 2/3 of the appraisal amount. The home owner does not pay anything, to be frank they are losing the home. It is my understanding if the property sells for more than the writ amount, then the home owner will receive money back. Basically if the property sells in an amount greater than the liens filed against it, then the overage will go back to the homeowner who just lost their home. I hope this is helpful, please feel free to contact me with any questions or call me on my cell.
Thank You
Marc Pellettiere, Associate Broker, REALTOR®, ABR, QSC, CMS, , gCertifiedsmMauti Meredith Scoggin Real Estate
1131 North Causeway BoulevardMandeville, LA 70471
985-515-5825 Cell
985-867-8670 Office
985-893-1293 Fax
StTammanyTalks.com
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With or without appraisement, if you are a successful buyer, is there any other hidden things that can come back on you as the new owner such as liens, parish fines, etc.?
Research the title. Pay a local title company, there are many, to pull an abstract of the title and to have an attorney then review the abstract. An abstractor will go back 50 – 100 years in the chain of title making sure there is merchantable title which would be sellable and able to be insured for the purposes of Title Insurance. I hope this helps, please contact me with any questions. 985-515-5825. Thank you.
Thank you!