Feb 3, 2023 4 min read

The Washington County Sheriff’s Office is moving into the digital age with its foreclosure auctions.

Beginning in March, the monthly sheriff’s sales of foreclosed properties will move from Courthouse Square to an online platform that will allow prospective buyers to register their bids through the internet rather than being required to personally attend the auctions.

The website hosted by RealAuction.com LLC will go live later this month, and there will be an online tutorial Monday for people interested in participating in the auctions. Sheriff Tony Andronas said the new web-based “Real Foreclosure” online system will bring a “tech-savvy” component to the traditional auction that is both user-friendly and more efficient.

“We’re happy to bring automation to the office, and we’re still going to be able to continue the great real estate sale services to the county at no cost to the taxpayers. We got nothing but positive feedback,” Andronas said of similar online programs used in other counties.

Several counties in the eastern part of the state went to a virtual auction format during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 and 2021, and then continued with it after seeing successes with it. Fayette County moved to the “Real Foreclosure” system in September, prompting Washington County officials to meet with their counterparts in Uniontown to learn more about the process.

“They like the ease of it and how you open it up to more people,” Washington County Chief Deputy Anthony Mosco said of other counties that are using the same system. “More properties seem to be going at auction.”

Fayette County Sheriff James Custer did not respond to a phone call seeking comment on how the online auctions have been going since his department implemented the new process.

Mosco acknowledged there are “pros and cons” to the change since the online component means some people without quality internet service at home may not be able to bid through the auction site unless they go elsewhere to access the web. However, he thinks the new system will generate greater interest in properties since people don’t have to personally attend the auctions that have historically been held during working hours on the first Friday each month in the county’s meeting room inside Courthouse Square.

“A lot of the counties are doing the virtual sales with major success, so we’re hoping it takes off and the public likes it,” Mosco said. “You don’t have to take a day off of work and sit through a sale.”

While the auctions will move online, the procedure leading up to foreclosure will remain the same, as required by state law. People whose properties are going through foreclosure will still be notified on multiple occasions as in the past and a list of the addresses available at auction will continue to appear in the local newspaper.

“The physical sale is the only thing that is changing,” Mosco said. “I don’t know where it’s going to go. I hope it takes off, honestly.”

Capt. Robert Vaughan, who leads the department’s civil division that oversees sheriff’s auctions, thinks the online auctions will go smoothly once people understand the process.

“Your audience increases because the confines isn’t just the people who can make it to the courthouse (for the auctions),” Vaughan said, while noting bidders could come from beyond Washington County’s borders. “This is just a step up. A little modernization.”

People interested in bidding must create an account at https://washington.pa.realforeclose.com when the website goes online some time later this month. Bidders must place a deposit into their accounts before the first online auction takes place March 3.

An online tutorial explaining the process will be held at 2 p.m. Monday. Those who want to attend the training session must register beforehand by going to www.realauction.com/training and selecting the Pennsylvania webinar icon.