Foreclosure Auction Draws Deal Seekers

Buleziuk began like a track announcer calling a horse race. Bidding moved quickly to $300,000, then $310,000. "Who else came to buy?" he droned. In the crowd, Abbruzzetti raised his white bidder's card. "Three hundred and fifteen. Thank you, sir," Buleziuk called. He tried to push the price higher, but the house went to Abbruzzetti.

The 69-year-old chef and owner of Alexandria's Trattoria Da Franco restaurant later expressed irritation when he was told that his winning bid did not meet the bank's undisclosed reserve, or minimum price. The bank still has 15 days to decide whether to accept his bid. "It's ridiculous," he said. "It's a joke."

Investors Leon Segears and Joyce Palmer, who buy, rehab and sell homes for a living, had targeted five dwellings in the auction catalog but managed the winning bid on only one. The three-story rowhouse on Madison Street NW had been valued at $398,000. The starting bid was $149,000. The partners' winning bid was about $275,000.

The two said later that they had calculated how much each house would cost to renovate, how much they could later sell it for and how much they were prepared to spend. They said that despite the mortgage crisis, there was money to be made by the disciplined investor.

"We don't get emotional," Palmer said. "If the numbers work, we do it. If the numbers don't work, we don't do it."

Warren, a member of the U.S. Capitol Police, said he was simply looking for more bedrooms for his eight children. He and his wife, Corrie, who live in Triangle, had 12 homes on their list. As the auction went on, he kept an eye on the kids, who filled a row of seats in the cavernous hall, while his wife pored over the catalog.

Amaya, 35, a D.C. police officer from Landover, focused on an elegant brick home in Bowie with a two-car garage. He and his wife have one child, and with another on the way, they were looking for a bigger house in a spacious neighborhood.

The house was valued at $780,000, and the starting bid was $289,000. But others were interested, and the bidding rocketed to $450,000, $475,000, $500,000, then $530,000 -- well beyond the $470,000 Amaya was ready to pay.

"It went bad," he said after it was over. "But it's okay. . . . I'm not disappointed."

Meanwhile, the voice of the auctioneer thundered nonstop from the big black speakers scattered throughout the hall: "Whadayasay . . . five hundred thirty-five. . . . I'm-asking for five-thirty-five. . . . "

In the back of the room, John Magnacca and his neighbor, Vicki Lillicrapp, of Alexandria, were on their way out after coming to see how the auction worked.

"To me, it's depressing," said Magnacca, 56. "This is going on across the country. It's really sad."

Lillicrapp added: "This is actually people who are losing their homes.

"We were also saying how much worse it's going to get over the coming months," she said.