Faces of the Downturn: Foreclosure crisis creates heartache, opportunity [South Florida]

Faces of the Downturn: Foreclosure crisis creates heartache, opportunity [South Florida]

It was a motley crew that arrived at the Fort Myers courthouse, and it had one thing on its mind — profit.

Men and women wedged themselves into a windowless second-floor room and spilled into the neighboring jury room. They mingled in baseball caps, in T-shirts and in ties, and their voices blended into an excited murmur.

Here was the foreclosure auction, the marketplace in which bank-owned properties are bought on the cheap so they can be resold for a profit.

In a county that outpaces the nation in mortgage defaults and lost properties, this once-quiet auction is now seen as a money-maker. Potential buyers arrive by the dozen, many of them novices looking to snag a cheap home and resell it — or flip it — for a quick buck.