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The last couple of years have seen a spurt in attendance at government real estate auctions. The concept of buying bank or government seized real estate from these auctions has gained popularity due to the realization that many kinds of real estate including family homes, multiple unit houses, apartments, townhouses, commercial properties, land and vacation homes at very high discounts. Buying from these auctions can take off almost 80-90% of the market value.

A seized property is a property which has been repossessed by the lender (could be a bank) since the owners defaulted on mortgage payments. This process is also called foreclosure. In addition to this, home or property may be seized by the government due to criminal activities or for evasion of taxes. It is difficult to believe but, properties seized annually are a few hundred thousand.

Since the volume of seized properties has risen, the banks or the government feel the burden of maintenance and resources needed to keep them secure, not to mention the enormous amount of capital involved, they try to recover some of the money by conducting government real estate auctions. This facilitates the bidders to purchase a property of their choice well below the market prices and some time up to 90% discounts on the market value.

Owing to limited publicity, the attendance at these government real estate auctions is on the lower side. Since the banks and government are trying to recover money, they are not willing to spend on publicizing and advertising these auctions. As a token, they only give a small advertisement in the local newspaper. This works out to be a great advantage to the bidders who attend since they would not have much competition to bid against and the prices will remain low as a result.

However, the year 2004 saw more publicity being attributed to these auctions on the internet. Seized property listings are now available and updated on a daily basis for members of certain websites. The details offered have descriptions, and photographs of the properties coming under the hammer.

Provided you do your homework and research well, there is no reason you can not buy a house for as little as $10,000.