More than Half of Foreclosure Auction Buyers are Mom-and- Pop Real Estate Investors
Irvine, Calif. — Oct. 16, 2019 — Auction.com, the nation’s largest distressed real estate marketplace, today released its 2019 Buyer Insights Survey Report, which provides insights from buyers who have purchased multiple properties on the Auction.com platform.
The survey found that 51 percent of foreclosure auction buyers plan to purchase fewer than five properties in 2019 while 22 percent of buyers plan to purchase more than 10 properties for the year. Only 2 percent of buyers said they plan to purchase more than 100 properties in 2019.
“Foreclosure auctions are no longer dominated by larger investors able to navigate what was an opaque process of purchasing a property at the courthouse steps or from a hard-to-find REO asset manager,” said Jason Allnutt, CEO at Auction.com, which accounted for close to 50 percent of all foreclosure auction sales in 2018.
”The majority of foreclosure and REO auction buyers are now smaller, mom-and-pop investors who are taking advantage of a much more accessible buying experience.”
Other high-level findings:
51 percent of buyers surveyed plan to purchase fewer than five properties in 2019.
73 percent are purchasing properties in the South region of the country, the highest share of any region.
24 percent said their local housing market is overvalued with a correction possible.
33 percent expect to see home prices appreciation between 3 and 5 percent over the next 12 months.
Novice investors were identified as the biggest competitive threat to the real estate investing strategy of buyers surveyed.
Rehab-and-flip was the most popular investing strategy .
49 percent budget at least 20 percent of the property purchase price for rehab costs.
The Auction.com 2019 Buyer Insights Survey Report is based on a survey sent to more than 4,700 buyers who had purchased at least three properties on the Auction.com platform. The survey was conducted between June 6 and June 20, 2019, with 197 buyers responding. See full methodology on Page 10.