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Updated almost 8 years ago, 03/11/2017
HUBZU
PLEASE help me with HUBZU.com
I have made a few offers on a place on Hubzu. I was the highest bidder once but it did not meet the reserve price so they put it back on for another auction and started at my bid.
Someone then made a few bids and I made one too...but was quickly outbid. I watched thinking it would not meet the reserve and it did not. They then countered me and said my min bid to "still buy the house" needed to be $551k or "own it now" for $591k. I was not willing to do that so I did nothing.
Another auction was set to end in 5 days at the new highest price fromm the last auction. I then received an email saying now I could buy it for $563k...(much less than the $591k from the previous day "own it now" email).
I again did nothing and then I got a message it was under contract. When I clicked on "make a back up offer" the min bid was now $538k!!! so $562k_+ with fees....it was substantially lower than $563k for "own it now" that was offered ...
Does anyone have any advice as to what happened? How the "Back up bid min" would be less than the "own it now" amount they offered?
Shill Bidding. I watched it happen on a property here in Colorado. It eventually sold 6 months later. Don't forget you have to pay the buyer's premium too. Hubzu is SCUM. There are some that have done deals if you search on this site, but it wasn't worth my time. It irked me so much that I almost complained to the real estate commission and attorney general.
thanks so much
I believe the backup bid is set at $1K higher than the 2nd highest bid on the property. One of my strategies is placing backup bids on Hubzu for all properties in my market, if the price makes sense that is (i.e. less than or equal to your max offer). I actually won a property this way since my backup offer was still higher than the reserve price, so they contacted us to see if still interested.
Interesting....I am just learning this screwy system...and it seems no matter what I do..I lose. The more I learn the better...it seems pretty popular around the northeast...so I guess Hubzu is here to stay. I have lost 2 places that I wanted due to ignorance on the system....
I will keep trying and I really appreciate the information and you sharing your experience...makes sense now as to how that back up bid was lower than the offers I was given by Hubzu.
@Matt M. Hubzu is SCUM.
I couldn't have said more eloquently. These online auction sites are simply gaming with the bidding in order to get buyers at or above to the bank's price. You can even see it by reviewing the bid history on some of the auctions, the numbers and (where available) dates just don't make sense. The best strategy is to set your price, place your bid 5 minutes before auction closing, then log out so they see that you're no longer online and willing to play their game. The fact that they came back to you after the auction closed tells you that you were outbid by the bank. You were the only real person bidding for that property in the first place.
I have closed on 2 HUBZU properties recently and my experience has been fine however a particular property is not personal to me. I :
-Place a bid I am comfortable with and don't move from there. In both cases the properties came back to me
-It can be difficult deal with the foreign based asset manager but if you know the system you can "help" them get the deal closed
Thanks for sharing...very helpful
Hi @Jennifer Taves. Late to the post, but I was doing some research on Hubzu and thought you might be able to help. I am working with an agent who showed me a property listed by Hubzu and was ready to submit an offer, but so many fees came up and agent is recommending we avoid this. Do you know how the buyer premium works and if it is to be paid cash or added to financed amount? Of course, I've tried contacting Hubzu, but no one answers the phone.
I really don't know...I never got that far but I assume its part of the financed amount...or the amount that would be paid out at closing to pass the papers...but I don't know.
@Hugo Luna probably will have a tough time winning any properties with a finance deal. but buyer's premium would be part of the closing costs.
@Jennifer Taves majority of hubzu properties are sold to investment companies outside of the auction in bulk packages
@Hugo Luna seeing that I just went through this as a Realtor, we were able to get the premium rolled into the loan, but not all lenders we looked at would agree to that. Also, the tricky part is that your contract will say the purchase price is X amount, but your appraisal price has to come up to X + the premium, otherwise it comes out of pocket at closing. My advice, stay away from HUBZU. There are better deals, and auction methods to use other than them.
@Jennifer Taves sounds like you dogged a bullet by not getting the home. The online auction is just the first headache, because it's followed up by having to deal with Altisource.
Sorry for commenting on the thread late, but I had a few questions concering a property purchased through Hubzu as well. I won the auction for the property Friday night and received an email in regards to signing and returning the purchase agreement and sending in the earnest money. I am prepared to sign the documents and submit the money, but upon talking to my lender, they are wanting the buyer's premium to be including in the purchase price before I sign. I see above that this was able to be done, and so I do not see it being a problem. My concern is that I am going to miss the 48-hour deadline to sign the agreement as I have not been able to reach my assigned document processor because they do not operate on the weekends. Does anyone know if the 48-hour deadline excludes weekends? I'm not sure how I am going to be able to address anything when I am not able to contact anyone during this time.
Alec Partin I cannot say specifically how they operate, because they are a bit of an odd entity, but to ensure you don't lose the home, you may want to just sign the contract as is. They really don't do any adjustments in their contract. As for your lender, this should be something you can work on as you're moving through the closing process. In the first 48 hours, the only thing they wanted in our case was a signed contract. After that they will either accept or move on to another offer. If they have other offers in the wind or you were bidding against someone, it is quite possible they will just move on to the next buyer. If they accept your offer and contract then they will assign someone to your transaction. From that point is is a lot like an REO, except they don't do any negotiating. Everything, and I do mean everything is on you, so I hope you have a realtor representing you. You're paying the commission one way or the other, along with your premium. As for the lender, not all will allow the premium to be rolled into the loan. Keep in mind, it still has to appraise for the full amount in order to get the premium covered. Not sure if that answers the question, but I hope it helps.