Buying property before auction

[Cody Crawford]

I am in Iowa and am looking at getting my first property and was hoping someone might have some advice on a home that is going up for auction in the next few weeks. I found the auction listing for a house that is in a neighborhood that I am very familiar with and it is showing an opening bid of about 20% ARV. Doing just a drive by it looks like it's in pretty good shape and I'm very interested in purchasing it, but for various reasons I can't go the auction route. Has anyone had any success or have any pointers on how to try to get the property purchased before it goes to auction? I appreciate any advice anyone may have.