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Notes -
Does seem like you have to thread a pretty narrow needle to be able to afford the upset price of the house, but not to have an income stream that a judgment could seize.
Of course, the family part of this law makes it all more workable, because the person with no assets and the person buying the house can be two different people.
Well how about this scenario:
The first mortgage is has a balance of $300k; the second mortgage has a balance of $150k; the house would bring $400k at auction; the first mortgage is foreclosed and the upset price is set at $300k; the owner of the house goes out and gets financing from the Bank of Predatory Loans which gives him the $300k to buy the house plus $15k in "cash out." The owner buys the house, thus wiping out the second mortgage so that now he owns the house subject only to a $315k mortgage from the Bank of Predatory Loans, which mortgage quickly balloons to $400k and is then foreclosed, selling at auction for the same $400k.
The net effect of this is that $100,000 which should have gone to holder of the second mortgage instead goes $85,000 to the Bank of Predatory Loans and $15k to the original homeowner. Who gets kicked out anyway but at least he got to stay there another year and he got $15k for his trouble.
Or to put it another way, if a destitute person has the right to buy a piece of real estate at significantly below market value but lacks the money to do so, it seems almost certain that predatory lenders will show up to facilitate the transaction and appropriate to themselves the lion's share of the profits.
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