Buying Bank Repos At Online Auto Auctions

These days, experts point to almost every economic report that is coming out as signs that the economy is finally starting to recover. Jobs are being created slowly but steadily, unemployment is dropping, consumer confidence is going up, and that means that consumer spending is rising along with it.

The automobile industry is especially important, because the number of car sales is a pretty good indicator of how the economy is doing – and these days, there are a lot more people buying vehicles than there have been in the last few years. In particular, we have noticed that a lot of the people now looking to purchase cars are first time buyers – usually teenage students or young couples who want to purchase their first car, and are looking for ways they can save money on the purchase.

It is interesting to note that a lot of these first time buyers are interested in online auto auctions as a source from which they can purchase cars. They think that they will be able to obtain large savings from these auctions, because the cars are being sold at rock bottom prices, and that these auctions are a godsend.

To a large extent, this impression is actually true. These auctions feature a large number of vehicles that are bank repos because their owners were delinquent on their loan payments, and as a result the banks (or the repo companies that seized the vehicles) were forced to sell them for lower than the book value – in a lot of cases, significantly lower.

However, there are a lot of things to be wary about at car repo auctions as well. In particular, it is important to note that for whatever reason, most of these cars have not been very well maintained. There is no point saving a few hundred on the cost of a vehicle at an auction if you end up paying thousands of dollars in repairs later on. As the Romans used to say, caveat emptor – buyer beware.


If you really want to pursue this, go to your state website or even better, go to www.us.gov and do a search for 'bank repos' or 'repo cars for sale' etc you will find that pretty much every state and the federal government hold regular auctions for millions of dollars worth of cars, trucks, atv's, snowmobiles, rv/s, planes, motorcycles, furniture, buses, aircraft, houses, you name it they're selling it off. You'll find cars for the government general service department, assets from the Marshall's office, forfeited property including jewelry and collectibles, it staggers the mind. With the us.gov site you can also find links to bid online for the surplus vehicles they are selling off.