Online Asset Sales Pick Up Steam.(for loanable assets and funds)(Brief Article)

With loan defaults trending upward, lenders face the prospect of managing a growing inventory of real-estate owned.

Increasingly, companies that sell troubled assets online are helping speed up the REO disposition process for some creditors.

For instance, the AMSauctions.com website reported that four Internet auctions in January brought the company's online sales total to over 600 homes. To date, AMS has hosted nineteen online auctions of bank-owned properties with an average of more than 30 houses sold during each event.

By April, the company says it will have completed more than 25 auctions in more than 10 states.

Tony Isbell, president and co-founder of AMS, said the auctions benefit home buyers.

"Bidders now have two weeks to make decisions, versus two minutes at a traditional live auction," he said. "And whether purchased by an individual homebuyer or investor, finding people who are willing to reinvest in empty homes is good for surrounding neighborhoods."

AMSauctions.com was launched in June of last year as a sister company to Accelerated Marketing Services, a national auction company based in Gadsden, Ala. The company said that ...