What is a Police (overseas investment properties) Auction? Learn and Save Money
No commentsBy Deb Weidenhamer
Are you in the market for a new car or a new plasma television but don’t want to pay retail prices? Try buying at a police auction! This article is designed to provide you with the details on what a police auction is and how they work. Specifics may vary from auction to auction; however, the following information includes helpful and important guidelines from which everyone can benefit.
So what happens when the police make an arrest? Well, somebody usually goes to jail and, depending on the crime, so does all of their stuff! What happens to case evidence when no one claims it? And what happens to unclaimed luggage at the airport?
Well, most of this stuff gets sold at a police auction! The average person may not realize it, but police agencies, including local police departments, county sheriff departments, as well as state and federal law enforcement agencies end up with a lot of confiscated goods, lost items or abandoned property. These things end up in the agency’s possession as the result of arrests, forfeitures and carelessness on the part of the property owner. Eventually, these items may end up at a police auction.
Going to a police auction is like walking into the living room Christmas morning. What are you going to get? You never know until you get there! At a police auction, you can find just about anything and it changes every time you go. You don’t know what’s been confiscated. You don’t know what has been stolen. You don’t know what’s been left at the airport. You have no idea unless you show up and find out.
Police auctions feature items from a multitude of places - a lot of government agencies, police departments - and can include items like cars, tools, electronics, jewelry, sporting goods and coins, commercial heavy equipment, real estate, antiques, guns and more. For example, forfeited property is usually the result of drug arrests where it was determined that the seized property was either used in the commission of drug-related crimes, or was purchased with money that was received as the result of a drug-related crime. Forfeited property can be anything from motorcycles and cars, to boats, airplanes and homes!
When you bid on this type of property at a police auction you are agreeing to accept the item “As-Is.” “As-Is” means there is no warranty on the property and the bidder is responsible for removal from the auction location. It also means that the bidder must rely on their own information to make bidding decisions - the bidder is responsible to inspect the property! In addition, if you buy property at a police auction, and that property has tax liens placed against it, you will be expected to clear those liens before you can take rightful ownership. The same holds true for mortgages or car loans.
Most states have specific laws that deal with how police auctions are to be conducted. The agency conducting the police auction is usually required to publish a full description of the items that will be auctioned, as well as the date, time and location of the auction. The agency will also publish additional terms such as what types of payment they will accept, how long you have to remove the property from the auction site once you win the bid, plus legal disclaimers if there are any. This information is generally published in at least one major newspaper that serves the area within the law enforcement agency’s jurisdiction.
Police auctions require that you register as a bidder and in most cases, you are allowed time to inspect the goods before the actual police auction begins. You should take advantage of this time because it is a very bad idea to bid on anything that you haven’t had time to inspect. Once the auction starts, you simply bid on the items that you want. Have a budget in mind and don’t bid more than you’re willing to pay. It’s easy to get caught up in the bidding frenzy and end up paying far more than originally intended.
Police auctions can be fun and save you a ton of money on great items like cars, electronics and real estate!
Deb Weidenhamer is President of Auction Systems, the Southwest’s most active auction and appraisal company. Learn more about what a police auction is and check out our police auction schedule. Visit us online or call 800-801-8880 for more information.
The Advantages of Using a Land Trust
By Omar Johnson
A trust is one of the most potent tools available to the real estate investor. But if you’re like most people you only have a vague notion of what a trust is and how it is used.
A trust is a legal entity whose sole purpose is to hold assets. Trusts can hold any type of asset, including real estate. A land trust is a trust designed for the purpose of holding real estate.
So what makes a trust? There are different types of trusts, but all trusts have the following elements in common:
Beneficiary. The individual(s) who control the trust and its holdings. As the beneficiary of a land trust you have control of the property held in trust just as if you were the owner, and you are entitled to earn profits from the sale or rental of the property.
Trustee. The individual who actually owns the property in trust. The trustee is responsible for managing the assets held in trust, and distributing income according to the terms of the trust. The trustee owes a fiduciary duty to the beneficiaries and must carry out their instructions.
Trust Agreement. This outlines the terms of how the trust is to be managed and administered. It spells out the responsibilities of the beneficiaries and the trustee.
A land trust, then, is essentially a legal entity capable of holding real estate that is formed by a written agreement between two parties, the beneficiary and the trustee. The beneficiary controls the trust and the underlying property but does not have ownership. The trustee legally owns the property but must act according to the wishes of the beneficiary.
Perhaps you are asking yourself “Why on Earth would somebody use such an arrangement?” As it turns out there several advantages to controlling real estate without owning it. Here are a few.
Privacy of Ownership
The owner of record of a property held in trust is the trust itself. The trust agreement, which lists you as the beneficiary, is not made a matter of public record. Therefore holding a property in trust allows you to control the property without creating any public record listing you as the owner or associating you with the property in any way. This is a great thing if you don’t like lawsuits.
Publicly owning real estate makes you a fabulous target for them. Think about it, if you were an attorney being hired to sue someone, would you rather take on a legitimate case where the defendant is actually guilty of wrongdoing but has no assets, or a case where the defendant didn’t really do anything wrong but does have lots of assets? Believe it or not, just having publicly recorded assets makes you a more appealing target to predators and creditors of all sorts regardless of what you actually do. Holding a property in trust will also keep the price you buy it and sell it for off of public record, which can come in handy in certain situations.
Ease of Transfer
Transferring a property held in trust is much easier than transferring a property that you own. Beneficial interest in a trust is considered to be personal property, not real property. Therefore you can assign your beneficial interest in a trust to another party without a formal closing. The event is treated by the law as a transfer of personal property, not real estate.
Ease of control by Multiple Owners
If a property has multiple owners, those owners can place the property in a trust and assign themselves as beneficiaries. Then, only the trustee’s signature will be required to execute documents relating to the property, rather than that of each of the beneficiaries.
Given these benefits of using land trusts, hopefully you are excited to find out exactly how you can use them in your real estate business.
Omar Johnson is a successful real estate investor and entrepreneur who teaches and trains real estate investors how to create and operate land trusts from scratch in the specific state they do business in. For more information visit http://www.createalandtrust.com
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Wednesday, September 24th, 2008 at 12:05 pm and is filed under realestate. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
