Anyone have experience with GSA Government Auctions?

[Stephanie Dupuis]

To clarify - GSA is the General Services Administration, a branch of the gov't that buys property (residential property) for gov't use and then will sell it later at auction to recoup their expense (is this accurate? I read this "on the internet"). The auction site is gsaauctions.gov . I'm checking to see if this is legit.

Anyone used this before? Have experience buying a property this way? If so, do they get bid up high and how long does the process take?

Here's the link:

http://gsaauctions.gov/

[Sean Kremer]

Originally posted by Stephanie Dupuis:

Hi Brian - I ended up bidding on a GSA property. My experience was that it tied up my money and the property ended up getting bid up past market value. Plus, GSA did not follow a very strict auction format, they would extend the auction if it would help them get a higher price - not cool. The process just went on and on. When they eventually got a bid, others started bidding (because it was deemed safe?!?), and then GSA kept extended the bidding period (which is in their contract, btw). When the property bidding seemed to have stopped, they closed the bidding. Basically, GSA did what was in their best interest. It did not seem to be a true auction. Steph

I bought one from them. Basically what they did to you, they tried to do to me after I had won the auction. They told me the amount was not high enough and tried to extort me for more. I told them that since they could change the rules on me , I would do the same with them and I demanded my deposit back with interest and that I was not interested in wasting any more time and money with them and was under the assumption that it was an auction, and since I had won, they needed to honor our deal.

After much huffing and puffing and swearing to tell everyone I know not to buy houses from them that way, they gave in. The clue that I was dealing with incompetant people was when I won the bid, and then they started the process of evaluating what the home was worth, (BPO's appraisals, etc.) Would'nt common sense dictate that stuff should be done BEFORE the auction? At the end of the day, they were just trying to get top dollar from the property, I just wished they would have made that clearer before I sent them $10,000 for the right to bid. Probably won't play that game with them again. I did get a fair deal on a nice home though.

Sean K