The scheduled sales are composed of about $773 million in residential acquisition, development and construction loans and $351 million of debt related to commercial properties, according to preliminary announcements dated yesterday and obtained by Bloomberg News. Cushman & Wakefield Inc. and UniCorp Services Inc. are the marketing agents for the sealed-bid auctions.

The FDIC has completed at least 18 structured-asset sales, auctioning stakes in loans with a total face value of $21.2 billion, since May 2008, according to data on its website and purchaser announcements. Bank failures have totaled 127 in the U.S. this year as souring residential and commercial property loans impair the companies’ capital.

“It was sensible for them to try and manage their assets in this way,” Steven Kaplan, a finance professor at the University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business, said of the FDIC. “People do not want to own those assets, and anytime people are afraid of a particular asset class and illiquidity, there’s usually an opportunity to buy things at attractive prices.”

Mariner Holdings LLC last month bought part of a $762 million portfolio of property loans from the FDIC. A unit of Mariner, an asset manager based in Leawood, Kansas, paid about $52 million for a 40 percent stake in the portfolio, the company said in a Sept. 2 statement.

Residential Loans

The latest loan sales planned by the FDIC are being marketed in separate residential and commercial parts. The collateral in the residential portion is in 41 states, with Florida, Michigan, Utah, Arizona and Indiana home to more than three-quarters of the properties. The portfolio is slated to be divided into northern, southeastern and western pools, according to an announcement.

The commercial sale is expected to be split into two pools, according to a separate announcement. One portion will have loans backed by properties in the northern and western U.S. and the other will have debt from the Southeast. The collateral for the commercial loans is in 12 states, with Florida, Utah, Nevada, Michigan and Arizona accounting for 88 percent.

Due-Diligence Deposit

Buyers for the debt, a mix of performing and overdue loans, must meet qualification requirements including the payment of a $250,000 due-diligence deposit, according to the announcements. Bids are due Nov. 16. The portfolios will be sold as structured transactions, meaning the FDIC will share ownership and proceeds with the winning bidder.

David Barr, a spokesman for the FDIC in Washington, and Martin Nee, a spokesman for New York-based Cushman, both declined to comment. John Lester of Dallas-based UniCorp didn’t return a telephone message or e-mail.

AmTrust Bank and Irwin Union Bank & Trust Co. are among the failed banks whose loans are in the planned sales. Irwin Union, based in Columbus, Indiana, was closed on Sept. 18, 2009, and AmTrust of Cleveland was taken over by federal regulators on Dec. 4, according to the FDIC’s website.