'Foreclosure Angel' Saves Stranger's Home

Oct. 27, 2008 — -- Tracy Pottsboro lost her job and then her home when she couldn't make mortgage payments. On Saturday, she watched as her home was auctioned off in Dallas.

"The final farewell to my house," Pottsboro said. "It means so much to all of us. It's not just a house."

Auctions on foreclosed houses are an opportunity for some and agony for those who've lost their homes.

From July through September of this year, more than 2,700 Americans lost their homes to foreclosure every day, according to The Associated Press. In Texas, almost 9,200 homes entered the foreclosure process in September.

On Saturday, Pottsboro took her seat among the crowd, waiting for house No. 73 to be called.

Marilyn Mock, a small-business owner from Rockwall, Texas, had accompanied her son, who was interested in buying a house, to the auction that day.

Mock was sitting near Pottsboro and noticed that she was upset.

"She was crying, and I asked her what is she upset about, and you know, she lost her house," Mock said.

When the No. 73 came up and the auction began, Mock said she asked Pottsboro, "Is it worth it?"

"She said yes. … I just kept taking her word," Mock said.

Mock ended up winning the auction, with a bid of about $30,000. And just like that, Pottsboro's sad goodbye turned into welcome home.

Mock told "Good Morning America" that she will take out a bank loan to finance about half the cost and will let Pottsboro and her family live in the house and make payments to her instead of the bank. She said she will pay for about half the house upfront.

Mock was straightforward about her motive. "People need to help each other, and that's all there is to it," she said.

Pottsboro was moved to tears by Mock's random act of generosity. "Nobody's done anything like that for me before, and I hope that I can repay the favor," she said.

Mock said her son and husband have come to expect these "crazy" things.

"When I came home and I said, 'Well, honey, guess what?' He just goes, "OK, whatever.' He's used to it," Mock told "GMA."

"I do a lot of things, you know, loan money out and give to somebody -- you see somebody in need, you give them money," she said. "Or you see somebody in the grocery store, they don't have enough money to pay for it, I'm usually the one behind saying here, here's $20 or something."