MARK WAITE / PVT Penny Strickland and Julie Mendenhall sit in front of the flagpole at the Nye County Courthouse in Tonopah reading off the notice of trustee sales. Advertisement

TONOPAH -- The women reading off the trustee sales weren't hard to find. They were standing under the flagpole in front of the Nye County Courthouse promptly at 11 a.m., reciting the legal notice in case anyone wanted to bid on the property auctioned off for foreclosure.

This is the end of the line for property owners who can't pay the mortgage. After this action, their property is either sold to a high bidder or it reverts back to a beneficiary, a finance company.

Mostly they're talking to themselves, no one usually shows up to buy them.

"Are you here to buy or cry?" Penny Strickland asked Julie Mendenhall, an employee for Trish Rippie Realty. But Mendenhall, like Strickland, was there to cry out another notice of a trustee sale, not to buy anything.

Business is picking up lately for Strickland, who runs a service called Strictly Strickland. It's simply handling the trustee sales in front of the courthouse.

"The majority of them have been daily within the last two years," Strickland said. "I posted nine (sales) last week and I'm not the only one."

Strickland said she represents two companies in California.

On this unusually warm day in Tonopah last week, three sales Strickland cried out went back to the beneficiary, another one was postponed. There were no bidders. She had four more sales scheduled the next day in front of the courthouse.

While some property is available for a bargain -- Strickland recalled a property auctioned off for $63,000 -- that doesn't include any other costs, like unpaid taxes or liens.

"The sales that are being made are on an as is basis," she said.

Bidders have to have a cashier's check drawn from a state bank, savings and loan or credit union. It must be sufficient to satisfy the obligation on the deed.

"There's a couple millionaires who are picking up property," Strickland said. Two Tonopah representatives will show up on their behalf to bid on property, she said. "They have a setup with the bank. They'll go get a cashier's check and come out (here) on property they're interested in."

Different finance companies set different rules for the auctions, Strickland said. One auction was to be bid in $1,000 increments.

Mendenhall said sometimes people are calling at the last moment in an attempt to stop a sale.

"I've got the cell phone and they can call me right here," Mendenhall said.

Strickland said it's rare to have someone appear personally in Tonopah on behalf of their property. She estimated 90 percent of the properties being auctioned are from Pahrump, 165 miles south.

"There was a lady here from Tonopah. Her house was saved because of the fact she was here with the paperwork on the bankruptcy on the day it was filed. In-between the lawyer's office and everybody, they hadn't got the paperwork yet," Strickland said.

"If the company doesn't have all their information, they'll postpone it. Most of that information I'll never see. This just happened to be a lady who lived in Tonopah," she said.

Sales are sometimes called off when the property owners file for bankruptcy, like a sale Strickland had scheduled the day before. But other times, Strickland said the owner can have a third party come up to bid on the property. Sometimes the sale will be postponed until the next day, while the finance company gets the information together.

A mobile resource center will be visiting the Pahrump Community Library from noon to 2 p.m., Nov. 30 to help people with foreclosures. Representatives from Consumer Credit Counseling, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, Nevada Fair Housing, Wells Fargo Bank, Housing for Nevada, Countrywide, Mortgage Bankers Association, Bank of America and Washington Mutual Bank will be there.

The state also launched a Web site to help Nevadans with foreclosures: www.foreclosurehelp.nv.gov.

"Like they tell them on the Vegas TV, contact your debtor right away. That's my advice," Strickland said. "Don't wait, don't put it off. Don't get scared, make arrangements."

Strickland said she doesn't get paid for reading off postponements.

"Nevada did pass those new laws, they're only allowed to postpone them three times now, instead of for two years," she said.

Strickland said she's attempting to keep up with the work load, while recovering from chemotherapy for breast cancer.

There were 19 trustee sales recorded with the Nye County recorder's office in August, another 16 in September.

"We're here by 11 (a.m.) by law. It's done, unless you make another deal," she said.