My Rental foreclosure/REO Purchase story

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Sorry guys, its been a long few days, but here's the next part.. I will post more soon, but I figured that I atleast provide another part to this.. :)
I immediately tried contacting the attorney representing US Bank. Being that this was right after Christmas of course I couldnt get a hold of the guy. I fedexed a copy of my lease agreement and also a paragraph from California Renter's rights section which stated about how my rights as a renter were protected etc... This attorney turned out to actually be a nice and reasonable guy, he called me back on Monday and let me know that got my letter and that he would discuss it with US Bank.  After a few days I was contacted by the attorney again and informed that the bank had decided to accept my lease through the end of May, 2012( which is what was stated on my original lease agreement).  Keep in mind that you hear about how renters in foreclosure properties forge rental agreements ( I could have extended the lease through atleast the summer of this year since my kids were in school etc...) I did no such thing and was very upfront with US Bank about moving out by end of May.  We were going to start looking for a house anyways.
Following week, I started getting calls by the 2 realtor ladies asking us if we would let them show the house on weekly basis since they were putting the property on the market. I thought I had to allow them to do so and after much push back from my wife( she would have to deal with the people who would show up during the viewing hours) we agreed to the showing once a week on Tuesdays between 11-1pm.
The first week one of the ladies showed up at 10 in the morning ( an hour earlier) and told my wife that she needed to get the house properly "staged". 
Of course wife was not happy , but decided to go along with this request.  Anyways, we did the first 2 weeks of this and finally we just couldn't take it any more. The realtard lady would never have her clients show up on time and this viewing thing would go past our agreed time. My wife had to get the house ready and then make sure people left on time so she could pick up the kids from school etc. 
I spoke to a friend of mine who had used Martin in the past. He told me to call Martin up and get his advice plus we were looking for a new home anyways. Martin told us that we didn't have to show the house so  I called the realtards back and told them I was not going to allow this anymore.
Sure enough the realtors weren't happy.. They told me that they would work with me and to let them come in on weekends etc. They also told me that they would try and find clients that would renew our lease agreement( yeah right) . They even called my wife and asked her to re consider. I told them again I was firm and to stop harassing my wife.
Anyways, people started showing up like crazy at our place the following week.  Every weekend, we would have bunches of people show up and ring our door bell.  We even had vans full of Asian people show up every week. They would come around and look at the property, ( one Chinese guy even tried getting through the backyard gate).  I finally put up a sign on the front of the property and on my door stating "Do Not Disturb Tenants". 
This dropped the traffic down a bit and even more when I came out and started yelling at some of the same Realtards who kept bringing their clients weekly.
They figured I was some disgruntled foreclosed home owner :).
 
The unfortunate part was that I didn't get a chance to see Fire Blade ever yell at any of those realtors that bought their clients to see the home.  haha
 
See, I don't get the whole back story as it's improper to ask in a business setting. Nice to hear the details.  I was as amazed as anyone else how this deal came together. First time I've seen a purchase work out this way so far.
 
Ok, guys, here's part 3 of 4 . Hopefully wrap this up in next few days.

By this time the clock was ticking. We knew we had to be out of the house by May and we really had to do something.
Before we hired Martin we had registered for Shea Homes in Brea, Toll Brothers in Yorba Linda and Las Ventanas in Irvine.  We were all over the map.  We looked at South OC also, but since I drove up to LA a lot it didn't make sense for me. I finally made an offer at LV but backed out eventually since the mello roos had me sweating a little bit.  As this drama was unfolding, I decided to make an offer for our current residence. I figured it was a lot cheaper than what was out there, it wasn't the best floor plan for us but the place was upgraded and we wouldn't have to move. I came in at 10% below list price ( by the way the bank had dropped the price 3 times over the last 3 months, there had been no bites apparently since no body could see the house :)).  US Bank came back with zero movement on their current price, I upped my offer by 2% and yet they didn't budge.  I finally came back with another offer where I was roughly 3% below their asking price.  They again stood firm.  I figured it was because they were probably pissed at us for not allowing anybody to show the home.
Ok, so now I was officially pissed off too.  So our race to get the heck out of there was on turbo blast :)  ..  I had Martin looking everywhere  for us.  It was crazy to see the lack of decent properties in OC. 
Then in early May we finally made an offer on a house and it was accepted. This house was not the best house and definitely not the best bang for buck but I figured we would make the best of what out there.  Being that there was no way we would be able to close escrow by the end of May and exit the current property I contacted the attorney for US Bank and asked for a 30 day extension on the lease.  I offered to pay extra money for this and told them I would leave the property in respectable manner etc.  The attorney told me that he would speak to US Bank and get back to me.
Then I found out through Martin that our current house was now up for Auction!  The auction was in 10 days or so and Martin suggested we bid on it since we had the upperhand...nobody knew what the property looked like etc. I talked to my wife and she was against this especially since we had already started escrow on another house and this current house was too small for us.  I let Martin know and he said keep thinking about it since we could pick it up for a deal.
We  thought we had traffic before from visitors, as soon as the auction hit we had twice the number of people driving by, standing outside and ringing the bell.
I put up a sign that said "Warning to realtors, angry  Anti Agent Dog" , " Will Bite if he sees or smells any agents around property" .  Hahaaha. 
I had one guy show up and he pleaded for me to let him see the property. I got mad the first time he did so. Then he showed up next time with his wife and brought a bottle of wine. I wasn't there when he did and my wife called me up and asked me if she could let the nice couple see the house. I told here not to and to not accept the wine..I was mad at US Bank, they had not gotten back to us with regards to the extension and we were really rushing here. I definitely wasnt going to make it easy for US Bank to sell their property
The same guys showed up again and even offered me money, I felt bad but I was not going to let a stranger in my house. 

The night before the auction I couldn't sleep.  I talked to my wife all evening and finally we came to a consensus that we were going to try our luck at the Auction! This house was cheaper and the fact we wouldn't have to move etc ..all this was a big part of our decision
The auction was at 10 am and I had to be at work at 8 am and then race over there.  As soon as I got done with what I needed to at work, I hauled over there.  I had my ID ready, my 5% check ready in case I won the auction.  I got to the auction site and there were quite a few people there.  I also saw the same guy who had come to my house 3 times there. I felt really bad since I had told him we were in escrow and we were not interested in the current property.  He probably thought I was intentionally misleading him etc.
I had never been to an auction before so as I walked in I was nervous as heck.  I intentionally sat in very back and surveyed the room. You could tell who the professionals were, these guys were all business.  You could also gauge who the newbies were... couples who looked excited, some young guys wanted to try their luck at this venue etc.. all in all a mixed bag of people.  The auctioneer got up and made an announcement. He laid down the rules of the auction, he also mentioned that no body had been inside the property and that it was being sold as is..he said every one was at the same playing field.  I chuckled inside knowing that I knew everything about the house. Then the auctioneer asked if anybody had any questions. The same dude who had been bugging me to see my house got up and raised an objection. He said that there was someone present who had an unfair advantage.. Hearing this I got so mad, all and any empathy I had for the guy went out the window.  But what happened next was classic... The auctioneer immediately responded with "Sir, If you feel that this auction is not fair then you have the right to leave the premises immediately, you do not have to participate "...hahahaha .
The auction started in fast in furious fashion. I was having a hard time keeping up... People starting raising their token sticks and it was hard to see where and who was the next bidder.  As the auction started getting closer to the price I had in mind, I raised my hand and started bidding.  Now you could see who the serious bidders were because the responses started getting fewer and with longer gaps between the bids.  Within 60 seconds now there were only 2 of us bidding.  The auctioneer kept raising our bids and soon I could tell the other guy had lost steam.  Who would pay close to mkt value for a house they hadn't seen and had no clue about?  You figure you needed a 40-50k buffer below value to make up for  unseen and unexpected things within the property.... "Going Once, Going Twice, Sold to the gentleman in the back"  . Holy Crapola!!  As my knees shook, I realized I had won the Auction!!!!


 
I kinda wish that I was there with Fire Blade for the auction to see the look on that guy's face.  haha  But Fire Blade knew what the fair value of the home was and I had no doubt that he would bid higher than anyone else since he had "inside" information concerning the home.  ;)
 
Love the auctioneer's response to the other guy's comment about someone with the unfair advantage.  How far along did that guy that made that comment get in the bidding?
 
With this auction you had to pay 5% upfront. The rest you finance ( I had my loan approved through John Wheaton) or pay cash, but there is a clause that you close escrow within 30 days.
 
Fire blade said:
With this auction you had to pay 5% upfront. The rest you finance ( I had my loan approved through John Wheaton) or pay cash, but there is a clause that you close escrow within 30 days.
Click to expand...

Just curious what qualified this auction for 5% down with the ability to finance the rest?
 
The auction company didnt care how you financed this. In my case I had a loan approval with x amount down etc.  They only wanted 5% upfront since that was their total fee in the transaction.  This was non recoverable if you couldnt get the financing done.
 
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