i looked into foreclosures long before it was the "in" thing -- way back in the late 90s. if i were to buy a home at auction, and it wasn't brand new, i'd pay a professional property inspector to accompany me and evaluate it. unfortunately, these days there are so many newbies jumping onto the bandwagon and they end up bidding up the price, so it doesn't seem worth it to participate. these people who are buying $250k homes at "50% off" are the same people who bought BSC stock at $30 just because it used to trade at $150.