This case arises from an application for confirmation of a foreclosure sale filed pursuant to OCGA § 44-14-161 by Freedom Bank of Georgia against Robert Trefren, Jennifer Trefren, and Skitts Mountain Development, LLC, collectively “Skitts Mountain”. Trefren appeals the trial court’s final order confirming the sale in the amount of $570,000.00, challenging the trial court’s valuation of the property. Finding no error, we affirm. The record reveals that Freedom Bank loaned Skitts Mountain $924,446.84 in exchange for a deed to secure debt, conveying a first priority security interest to the Bank in a tract of land consisting of 19 lots in a 32-lot subdivision in Hall County, Georgia.1 Skitts Mountain defaulted on the loan, and Freedom Bank elected to declare the outstanding debt immediately due and payable. Freedom Bank thereafter foreclosed on the property under a power of sale provision contained in the deed to secure debt. On August 5, 2008, the property was sold at auction to Freedom Bank, the highest bidder, for $570,000.00.
Freedom Bank then filed the instant application for confirmation of the sale, asking the trial court to find that the foreclosure proceeding was regular and that the property sold for true market value. After a hearing, the transcript of which does not appear in the record, the trial court confirmed the sale, finding that $570,000.00 was fair market value for the property based on the testimony of Freedom Bank’s expert. Value on the date of sale is a factual question to be resolved by the trier of fact. In a proceeding for confirmation of a foreclosure sale of real property, the judge sits as a trier of fact, and his findings and conclusions have the effect of a jury verdict. Where the trial judge, sitting as the trier of the facts, hears the evidence, his finding based upon conflicting evidence is analogous to the verdict of a jury and should not be disturbed by a reviewing court if there is any evidence to support it.2 “A trial court cannot confirm a foreclosure sale . . . unless it is satisfied that the property so sold brought its true market value —the price that the property will bring when it is offered for sale by one who is not obligated, but has the desire to sell it, and is bought by one who wishes to buy it, but is not under a necessity to do so.”3
