Dream Homes on the Block
Gezeria Santos of Pacoima made sure she got to the Airtel Plaza Hotel early Saturday morning to get a good seat when the bidding opened on 62 foreclosed houses.
John and Rose Jacobs of North Hollywood brought their real estate agent to the auction to help navigate the bidding process.
Cristina and David Alvarado heard about the bidding on the 11 o’clock news the night before and thought the auction would be their ticket out of the North Hollywood apartment they share with their two children.
They all had come to the hotel ballroom hoping to trade a $500 deposit for their piece of the American Dream.
The foreclosed single-family homes, townhomes and condos were offered by the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corp., known as Freddie Mac, the housing agency that bought the mortgages from local lenders. The properties are all in the northeast San Fernando Valley.
The auction was the first time business and public entities had worked together to rehabilitate, finance and sell vacant and foreclosed properties in Los Angeles.
“This auction has given people the opportunity for homeownership, revitalized neighborhoods, galvanized the real estate community and stimulated activity,” said Kevin Bibbs, senior manager of community development lending at Freddie Mac.
Forty-eight properties were sold at Saturday’s auction, and officials said the remaining 14 are still available.
Along with Freddie Mac, Glendale Federal Bank, Los Angeles Neighborhood Housing Services, and two nonprofit groups--Hope America Inc. and Pacoima Beautiful--worked together to identify and rehabilitate available homes, and offer them to first-time buyers with low to moderate incomes for down payments of no more than 2%.
Last month, the partnership launched an unconventional advertising campaign to get the word out about the auction, said Jesse Wiles, president of Asset Property Disposition Inc., the Atlanta-based auctioneer who coordinated Saturday’s sale with Hudson and Marshall of Macon, Ga., another auctioneer.
Rather than just taking out newspaper ads, Wiles said, the partnership targeted low-income buyers through urban radio, churches, supermarkets, community groups, social service agencies and word-of-mouth.
Glendale Federal loan officers pre-qualified potential buyers--some as late as 10:30 p.m. Friday--so they would be eligible to bid at the auction, said Isa Infante Mulberry, housing and community development manager for the bank.
At 11 a.m. Saturday, the hotel lobby and ballroom teemed with potential homeowners. John and Rose Jacobs, the North Hollywood couple, snared seats in the second row. Santos and her mother, Delores Hardy of Lake View Terrace, sat a row behind. The Alvarados, who hadn’t pre-qualified and were not allowed to bid, took seats in the back. “I don’t want you to worry about making a mistake during the bidding,” Wiles said as he went over auction ground rules. “You’re not going to wave to a friend and buy a house in Pacoima or scratch your ear and buy a house in Sylmar. We are watching closely and we know if you are bidding or not.”
A nervous laugh rippled through the crowd of more than 200 bidders.
“The first property on the auction block is No. 109. Do I have an opening bid?” auctioneer Chuck Whitney called in a rapid-fire cadence.
It was clear from the start that this event would not have the restraint of a Sotheby’s auction, but the fervor of a tent revival meeting. They whooped. They thanked God. They pumped their fists in the air. They cheered in collective celebration.
While Santos celebrated with the others, she patiently awaited her chance to turn her dream of homeownership into reality.
Her dream house was No. 902, a four-bedroom, two-bathroom, single-family home with a fireplace, pool and two-car attached garage in Lake View Terrace.
Santos, a health examiner for insurance companies, thought the home would be perfect for her and her husband, Hector, and their 5-year-old daughter. The property was being offered at $138,000. Santos said she was willing to go to $88,000.
“The next property on the auction block is No. 902,” Whitney bellowed. “Do I hear an opening bid?”
“Fifty-thousand,” Santos said, raising her bid card.
“Fifty-thousand. Fifty-thousand. Do I hear $80,000?”
“Eighty-thousand,” Santos said.
“One hundred and ten thousand,” came a bid from the back.
Santos knew she was out. She sat back in her chair. The bidding rose to $112,000 and then to $115,000.
“Will you give me $115,500? Will that help you out? How ‘bout $116,000? Once. Twice. I have SOLD it your way, sir, for $116,000!”
Undeterred, Santos said she would put in an alternate bid on the property, just in case the winning bid fell through. “I know that house is mine,” she said confidently.
The Jacobses had their hearts set on a $98,000 three-bedroom, 2 1/2-bath townhouse in Sylmar.
John Jacobs, a supervisor for the Los Angeles Department of Public Works, and his wife, Rose, who is blind, hoped to snap up the property with a bid of $87,000.
They sat stunned when their bid of $81,000 held and Whitney hollered: “I’ve SOLD it your way, sir, for $81,000!”
They Jacobses were ushered out of the ballroom by an attendant to pay their $500 earnest money to secure the sale.
“I’m sorry. We can’t take a personal check,” an auction official said. “Only a cashier’s check or cash.”
Rose Jacobs seemed crestfallen. Eighteen years of renting. They had come so far.
Jacobs dug into her purse. She pulled out her rent money. Five crisp $100 bills. “When I made my bid, and the auctioneer looked at me, I thought to myself, ‘I got it!,’ ” John Jacobs said, smiling broadly.
Fourteen properties remained unsold at the end of the auction, and Bibbs of Freddie Mac said interested buyers can call the auction information office at (818) 834-3851.
