How to Find Government Auctions for Cars and Homes in Your City and State

Government auctions are a treasure trove of high-value items that you can buy for pennies on the dollar. From houses to seized cars (nice ones at that!) to heavy equipment like restaurant equipment and farm equipment, you can buy these items for a fraction of what they would normally cost. The problem is, its often tough to find out when and where these auctions happen, as the information is spread over many websites and phone numbers you need to call. I've been finding and attending government auctions for foreclosed properties and cars in my area for a few months now and found a few good resources I wanted to share.

US General Services Administration website

The GSA.gov website is the US government's resource providing you information about government auctions nationwide. It provides a lot of nationwide information, but doesn't offer up much information about specific cities or towns.

Listings of government auctions by city and state

USA.gov and Governmentauctions.org both offer directories with listings of auctions by city and state. USA.gov is free to use, but often the listings are not updated until the end of the month so you may miss some auctions. Governmentauctions.org is paid but is updated daily and I've found it to be the most comprehensive list of auctions.

Comercial auctioneers

Companies like Purple Wave and McCurdy Auction are private companies that hold auctions for all types of goods including homes, commercial properties, heavy equipment, and automobiles. Generally these are better for commercial buyers, you often don't find the type of luxury consumer goods that you find at government sales.

Real estate auctions

Good sites for real estate auction listings are the US Treasury Department, homesales.gov, and foreclosure.com. Foreclosure.com has government home auctions in addition to private foreclosure sales, while homesales.gov has a good listing restricted to government auctions. You can also do your own homework by checking your local county records for lis pendens filings which are notices of home owners who have missed 3 or more mortgage payments. You can also check MLS for bank-owned property sales as well as the local newspaper.

Cars: seized car and police auctions

USA.gov and GSA.gov offer listings and resources for car auctions across the US, and governmentauctions.org offers a list of seized auto auctions by city and state. You can also find a good number of car auctions on backpage as well as Craigslist at times (depending on where you live).