Learningthe Basics Of Government Auctions

At government auctions you can obtain quality or remarkable goods at a tremendous buy.







Government auctions happen both online and around different areas of the country where they sell surplus goods and seized and forfeited property.



What is seized property?



Most states have "seizure laws" in place. These laws let law enforcement departments to seize property that was involved in a offense, such as a car or truck used to transport stolen goods or illegal drugs, as well as any real property that was bought with funds collected from the commission of a crime.



If a drug lord uses the money he obtains from drug trafficking to buy a car, truck, boat, even a house, the property comes under the "seizure law" and will be confiscated and it sells at auction to the top bidder. This can include anything from aircraft and aircraft parts, boats, cars, jewelry, computers, laptops, cameras and camera equipment, office equipment and supplies, campers, trailers, and trucks.



What is surplus merchandise?



Surplus merchandise is property that is not used by the government, either through obsolescence or overstocking. You can also find unclaimed property showing up in government auctions.



What is unclaimed property?



One supply of unclaimed property is merchandise that makes its way into the list of unclaimed belongings from citizens who turn in found merchandise in the hopes that the police can find the real. Another type of unclaimed property is stolen property found in the ownership of thieves that the athorities have no way to identify the true owners. After exhausting all avenues to return the stolen merchandise to the real owners, any unclaimed property goes into a government auction.



What is Forfeited property?



Forfeited property includes houses that had a federally guaranteed mortgage that the title-holder defaulted on. When the property is foreclosed on, the property goes to auction.



With these auctions, you must realize that you won't find just one big sale. Each agency will run the auction by itself or in conjunction with other agencies.

The U.S. Marshals Service runs it's own auctions also for the Department of Justice, the FBI, the DEA, the INS and the ATF. This means that any merchandise seized by any of these organizations is auctioned by the U.S. Marshals Service. The U.S. Treasury runs auctions for itself and the IRS. Border Patrol and Customs take care their own auctions, and so on.



Each organization has their own rules that the buyer has to be aware of. For example, the original owner of an IRS auctioned estate can reclaim the house within a particular amount of time. The title-holder has to pay the selling price plus interest and the can't do anything about it.



The policies and procedures are given for each of the online and in-person auctions with instructions on where goods can be viewed preceding the government auctions.

By: frank millford