We have a friend who is absolutely fanatical about Black Friday sales. She and her sister are PASSIONATE about finding the best deals the day after Thanksgiving.

I used to love Fridays too. Nearly every Friday.

Friday was and is PAYDAY for most people.

I was one of the people that would supply checks to all my vendors and contractors on Friday.

But one of my favorite things to do with a check was to buy property at Auctions. As investors we make our money when we buy property at a discount.

Back when I was a regular on the Auction circuit you would never miss me at an auction on Fridays.

It was one of the best days to go to attend an auction – for one reason:

My favorite lender would almost always “give away” at least one property a month.

Let me explain.

In the foreclosure process when a lender gets to the “disposal” or sale portion, they have the option to offer the property at a local auction. Most of the time, this takes place at a county courthouse.

But not for this particular lender that I would follow.

They would often have the auction at the property – immediately following a quick “open house” where the potential buyers could see the inside of the property. (That’s usually not the case – we hardly ever get to see the inside unless we win the bid.)

Usually there was a week every month when only a couple people would show up for this particular lenders auction. Maybe it was a holiday weekend, bad weather, traffic – who knows.

Every once in a while – I would be the ONLY bidder on the property. The other people would simply be there to watch the process.

Long story short – I bought a lot of property at Auctions, and still do.

But times have changed. We seldom go to a property any longer for an auction.

Shoot, we sometimes just stay home and place our bid online – just like the “Fast Money” late night infomercials say we can.

As the foreclosure rates start to pick up, we will find ourselves placing bids on a lot more properties again.

But……

Auctions are just part of the foreclosure machine. There is a lot to learn about the process and a few people I know have a sharp focus on their favorite niche within foreclosures and have carved out a very nice living for themselves.

Now that I think about it, auctions are a lot like Black Friday sales.

There can be some fantastic deals at auctions, but in your research you may come across another property with potential as well. Sort of like an unadvertised special on Black Friday. Those are the fun ones to tell your friends about.

It’s part of the reason we are going to be talking about the entire foreclosure process at WREIA this month.

The soup to nuts foreclosure process is lengthy and has many points at which you can step in as an investor and help people who may be facing this tough situation.

We will be discussing a few key points for investors in an interactive WREIA meeting this month.

How will the DC area real estate market respond if we do dip into another national recession?

What should you do as homeowners or renters to prepare?

Are online auctions as good as “real life” auctions?

Let’s cover a few of those questions and more this Monday at our April WREIA meeting.

As always – we will focus on the DC real estate market and how we as investors can best help people and make a profit at the same time.

Come out this Monday, April 15th, and hear what is working (and not working) across the DC area.

Join us at WREIA this month and you can learn from REAL PEOPLE having REAL SUCCESS in Real Estate.

Happy April!

John Peterson
Founder, Washington Real Estate Investors Association

Wholesalers – bring your deals to share with WREIA members!