House set to be sold in Auction

[Alvaro Rodriguez]

I found a house at the county website scheduled for Auction for $13k. Same house is for sale for $400k on Redfin. I found the owner’s mailing address. Is there anything I can do to offer the owner a better price prior to auction? I don’t want to compete with other people during an auction. Can I buy this house even if it is scheduled for auction? How do I check if the house has a clean title?

Thank you so much for any feedback