Florida County goes online with foreclosure sales

Starting from January Florida's Miami-Dade County will use the Web in a move to help auction off tens of thousands of delinquent properties that have put it on the frontlines of the U.S. foreclosure crisis.

www.miamidade.realforeclose.com, that will become the first auction on the website, is scheduled for January 11 and will make Miami-Dade the largest of 12 Florida counties in the process of replacing courthouse auctions with online sales.

Florida had the highest rate of US homes either in foreclosure or delinquent on mortgage payments throughout most of the last year, putting it at the center of a crisis that has devastated families and communities across the United States.

CEO of RealAuction.com LLC Lloyd McClendon, having signed agreements to run the computer-based auctions across Florida, announced the state is the first in the country to adopt the system allowing bidders to make offers from their home.

The laws of most states require that property auctions take place "on the courthouse steps". Florida changed its statutes in 2008. So, McClendon hopes California, among others, would follow soon.

Harvey Ruvin, the clerk of courts for Miami-Dade, said he hoped to see the online system increase foreclosed properties sales to about 2,000 a week from a current county-wide total of about 450.

McClendon said about 1,450 bidders had registered for Miami-Dade's online foreclosure auctions so far. Some of them are potential foreign-based buyers.