Buying from Online Auctions

[Sarah Brown]

I was browsing Auction.com last night and I realized that some of the active online auction homes are not listed on the MLS. Is this common? I was operating under the, apparently mistaken, assumption that if I followed the MLS closely I would see all of the homes for sale on the auction sites. Does anyone have any tips for sucessfully buying a home to flip through an online auction? How involved can and should my real estate agent be with the purchase? Is there any benefit to placing a bid before the auction begins? If the home is not listed on the MLS will my agent be able to show it? I'll certainly ask her some of these questions but I thought I would ask here as well for an unbiased opinion. Thanks!