Auction.com ????????? Anyone Ever Use It????

[Paul Flynn]

Anyone use it..... i have heard mixed stories about it.... It seems shady..... Would love to hear a success story from it or a nightmare

[Richard Marshall]

I'm a broker and have sold a few deals for clients on the site, but not at my recommendation because I believe a 'standard' marketing campaign is more beneficial to the highest price and finding the best buyer. It's not that it isn't a good platform for selling, but there are so many little things that I feel hinder the buyer pool. Each buyer must register, provide proof of funds, and place a deposit (can be done in the form of a credit/debit card hold) in order to bid on the property - These rules I don't mind and think they show the seriousness of a buyer. And I will say, out of the dozen deals I've been involved with on the site, we've had decent success, just a limited buyer pool in comparison to a typical marketing (read the reason's below). If the broker you hire to run the deal along side auction.com knows his market and who to call, you'll do just fine. 

What I dislike a lot about the process is four things:

1) I dislike the bidding process on this site because ten-x (auction.com) can bid the property up themselves - and yes, it's stated in the terms when you register so it's okay for them to do so. So not only are you bidding against potential investors but the auction site has the ability to bid up the price to meet the reserve.

2) Each buyer has to pay a $50K premium/"transaction fee" or 5% of the purchase price upon closing- whichever is higher. Just an extra charge that could keep a buyer from being able to go a bit higher in pricing because they know they have that additional charge to take into account. For example, we recently sold a deal for a client on the site and the buyer's final bid was $1.3M but they had to actually pay $1.365M at closing.

3) The terms/contract process can be very difficult for first time buyers or people with less experience. If you are the winning bidder, there is NO NEGOTIATION over contract length, contract terms, etc. Once the auction closes, you have 24 hours to sign their contract, start the process, and close within 30 days.

4) Lastly, i dislike this platform because buyers must pay cash only for any property they purchase on the site. There is virtually no time to arrange financing in a 30 day close. Although the buyers know what they're getting into, the issue is that not everyone has the ability to buy all cash. Lots of people have the 20-25% down payment to purchase a property, but much less have the ability to pay 100% of the purchase price in cash. Thus my biggest gripe with selling on auction.com, it cuts your buyer pool down substantially.

Hope this helped! Feel free to message me with any questions