Ahmed and Nimat Rahmaan went in search of home sweet home. And they found it.

The Rahmaans were among hundreds who, over five days ending Sunday, bought at auction 300 metro Atlanta homes lost to foreclosure. Investors walked away with properties for only tens of thousands of dollars. Families found brick homes with as many as seven bedrooms for as little as $200,000.

Elissa Eubanks/AJC (ENLARGE)

More than 300 foreclosed houses were auctioned over four days at the Intercontinental Buckhead Hotel. Nimat (left) and Ahmed Rahmaan were among those hoping to bid on a property.

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In many cases the lender had agreed to take whatever was offered.

Another couple, Shea and Heather Futral, hope they snagged a 2,800-square-foot house in Oxford in Gwinnett County. If the bank accepts their $132,500 bid, they will have a home when they move back to Georgia from Missouri, where Heather Futral has been studying the past year.

An auction company ran the bidding on behalf of banks or lenders trying to unload repossessed properties.

The Futrals, expecting their second child in October, also bought two investment properties, their main motive for attending the auction at a Buckhead hotel Saturday.

The Rahmaans had to go both days — Saturday and Sunday — to get their first home.

They had their hearts set on three houses and skipped over several others to get to them. Later they regretted letting some deals go by.

"We wish we would have snatched that up," Nimat Rahmaan, a middle school teacher, citing one.

The biggest of the three on the Rahmaans' Saturday wish list was within Atlanta city limits, south of I-20 and west of I-285. The seven-bedroom, four-bath house went for $200,000, above their limit.

When the couple went home to their two-bedroom apartment in Lithonia on Saturday, their annoyed 8-year-old daughter, Carolyn, asked why they didn't "just buy something." So on Sunday, the Rahmaans did.

For $56,000, the family got a four-bedroom house in Decatur near Nimat's mother and the school where she teaches. All they had to go on was a picture of the outside and a street address.

"It wasn't on our list," Ahmed Rahmaan said. "It was a blind bid. I hope there won't be too much work to do on it."

But they know the neighborhood.

"We're so happy," Nimat Rahmaan said. "We're ready."