The county of Miami Dade officially launched online bidding for foreclosures in Florida Monday, in a move that could speed the sale of huge numbers of distressed Miami real estate properties on the market, bringing together bidders from across the globe and launching hopes of an accelerated return to normalcy in the Miami real estate industry.
The new system is managed by RealAuction.com based in Plantation and will completely replace the traditional courthouse procedure. Miami-Dade Clerk of Courts Harvey Ruvin said it is expected to save the county $750,000 per year while cutting out a lot of the paperwork that has weighed down the process. As it tries to balance a backlog of foreclosure cases and a reduced budget, the move comes at a good time for the foreclosure division of Miami-Dade Clerk of Courts office.
Ruvin says the new online system is capable of handling four times as many auctions per week as the courthouse and will help reduce the backlog.
Florida is using the software in nine counties, with three more to be added by March and is the first state to use an online auction system for distressed Miami real estate properties. Broward County is likely to launch an online auction system before March. Lloyd McClelland, CEO of RealAuction.com said the state has sold more than 20,000 homes through Internet auctions since 2008, when the Legislature changed the law to allow for online public sales.
On Monday forty-six homes were auctioned off on Monday, including a Miami Beach real estate studio and a South Dade 3 bedroom single-family home at $150,000 and $313,000. A New York investor purchasing a Miami Beach condo and was the only bidder to close a deal on Monday.
The city in the months ahead could sell as many as 2,000 Miami and Miami Beach real estate properties per week, compared to the 450 Miami homes the courthouse sells.
BUYERS MUST REGISTER
To participate, prospective buyers must register for free at www.miamidade.realforeclose.com to participate. They will then have access to thousands of foreclosures in Florida along with pictures, links to a property appraiser's report, and take a street-level virtual tour of the neighborhood and check a profile on Zillow.com.
A refundable 5% deposit is required by bidders to get started which can be paid online or in person. After entering a maximum bid, they can let their computer take over and bid on their behalf, or monitor the auction and bid manually.
RealAuction's McClendon said, more than 2,500 people had registered at the site by the time Monday's auction began and more than $1.9 million in deposits had been taken in.
With the prices of Miami homes prices in Miami-Dade down by more than 18 percent since last year, people from around the United States and the globe are looking to take advantage of the web's portability to score a bargain.
Contributed by MLR Realty
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