WineCountryandHorses.Com

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Homes on the auction block

A few weeks ago one of my associates asked me to accompany him to a home auction at the fairgrounds in Sonoma County.  Now, when I think of auctions I think of the Keeneland Yearling Sales in Kentucky, the Napa or Sonoma Wine Auctions or livestock auctions.  The concept of auctioning peoples HOMES, I found depressing and sort of difficult to imagine, as if the homes would be paraded around the livestock ring on a lead rope, with numbers stickered on them, and the happy buyers would roll them away in shopping carts.  So I decided to go, and to help Miguel and Cecilia, his wife, as their agent, and see what the scoop was.

 The auction was run by LandAuction.com, a company which primarily has run land sales, but recently has started to move more homes due to the subprime mortgage situation.  The process of buying a home in this way is appealing to a lot of people, and in Australia, many homes are sold at auction, but it is fraught with risks as the process is about as different as can be from the standard realtor administered transaction, without completely disregarding California laws concerning disclosure and investigations in real estate transactions.  It the case of the auction, the buyer generally must do ALL of their investigation prior to bidding on the property, buy the property as is and with no contingencies, close within 21 days of the auction.  So unless you are very familiar with an area, and a property, you could find yourself in the position of losing your earnest money deposit if you change your mind after your “winning” bid.  This is the reverse of the sequence on a “normal” purchase, and an un-educated buyer is at risk of losing their deposit if they choose not to proceed, for example, if their own lender does not approve the property.  There is no loan contingency period unless you use the lender affiliated with the auction company.

Horses and Wine Country, Wine Country and Horses

For more inspiration about the wine country from a horsey viewpoint.  This article was posted last year in the monthly on-line magazine from Bay Area Equestrian Network, an invaluable resource for all things equestrian in Northern California.  There are other regional equestrian magazines around the US, but this is one of the first and most widely visited.  I bought my truck and my living quarters trailer through this site, although www.usedtrailers.com and www.endurance.net are also good trailer-finding resourses, but that can be a subject for a different day.  Ciao for now.