One thing I can think of is to check to see if you are responsible for back utilities. My neighbor bought a "distressed" property, and the city would not turn the utilities back on until he paid the delinquent gas, electric, and water charges that the previous owner had run up over a couple of years and failed to pay. It totaled about $5000!

Beware. This may not be a good deal. The city got them for back taxes only after nobody foreclosed on them and the owner couldn't sell them. That generally means that the original owner was either 1) a complete idiot 2) owed more taxes than the property was worth or 3) Owed other money on the property that prevented a sale.

I just helped my mother research some land in a similar sale. There were 2 parcels right next to her house that were up for "taxes due." The tax's owed were WAY more than the land would sell for right now. They went up for auction, and nobody bid. In her town, they do that twice. If they don't sell that way, they go to a secondary auction later. The 2 parcels she wanted didn't sell at the first 2 and she ended up getting them for $500 at the third. The taxes due were over 10k each.

wow 2 parcels of land for $10K would have been a STEAL by me never mind the $500 she paid.

In our county, you are not allowed to see the inside of properties offered for foreclosure or tax sales.
The inside may be pristine, gutted, or somewhere in-between...and you don't get inside until after you buy it.

Second problem is....most areas don't do deed searches. The property may have other liens against it, and when you buy the house - you become responsible for those liens. If you are interested in buying one - better pay for a deed search on it before you bid on the house.

As is means literally as is - a house offered like this may not even have an occupancy permit.

You may have to do some research, but in Texas, the state trumps the bank- it doesn't matter if there is a lien against the property. What you pay at auction is what you pay, period. Like somebody else said, you only get to see the outside of the house, so you have no clue what the inside is like, and if it was used for a meth lab, there could be serious health consequences for your family. The chemicals used in meth production get into the walls and it's almost impossible to get out. They're supposed to disclose if a property was a meth lab, but what if they didn't know about it.
Also, I went to a few of those tax sales with my mom trying to find her an affordable home she could fix up. The investors bought up all the prperties with houses on them. We bid, but we kept getting outbid by this one guy, and it was obvious he wasn't going to back down, so we gave up. The next week, he put the properties up for rent, without even cleaning them up or fixing the broken windows, painting or anything. Even his "For Rent" signs, he didn't spend money on- he took scrap wood that was laying around the yard and spraypainted "For Rent" on it!!!