Sherrifs' auction

[Terry Hoefer]

My husband attended his first auction, just to see what it's about, with no intention of bidding. He looked at a particular house, researched comps , and the book at the courthouse listed it at $250k. The bidding starts, and this woman immediately bids $338K and some odd cents. "Sold".  This made no sense to my husband and he followed the woman outside and asked "do you mind telling me why you bid the amount you did? I'm new at this and I don't understand". She said "sure, that's what the bank told be to bid". Still makes no sense to us whatsoever. $80K over market value?? What are we missing?