Online Auction Strategy

[John Shortridge]

Hi everyone,

Hopefully will be bidding on my first auction property this weekend (homesearch.com). I have read up ALOT about these deals. There are a lot of horror stories however usually there is at least someone in each thread who chimes in: "While everyone is griping about their bad experiences, I've been closing good deals".

Anyways, for those folks who have done these, are there any strategies you have for bidding on these? Is there any real point in bidding prior to the last day? I know some, Hubzu, homesearch.com, will bid the price up on behalf of the seller. Any experience here? 

In my particular case, they have the property listed on MLS at 105k, (which I'm assuming is their reserve, they wouldn't entertain a proper offer btw) which is at least 15k off where it needs to be. Also, this has some things that look scary at a glance (foundation, brick cracking) but my experts say it's actually no biggie, so I'm hoping there is less competition because of that.

Thanks for your help!

Johnny