Buy before an auction???

[Angie Williams]

Is it possible to buy a home or submit an offer before an auction date? Or once it’s posted for auction there is no offers being accepted? Cash deal obviously.

[Ned Carey]

@Angie Williams When a bank takes a property to auction it is usually a foreclosure auction. Until the foreclosure auction happens the  owner still owns the property and has the exclusive right to sell.  They also have the right to pay off the bank even as late as the morning of the auction. 

At the foreclosure auction banks normally bid the amount they are owed. If no one else bids the bank buys it. They don't actually pay anything for it because they bid the amount they are owed. 

If the bank buys it at the foreclosure auction, they can resell it however they wish. Usually they will list it but they can choose to auction it. 

So in the first scenario you are buying from the owner and the sale has to happen and the bank paid before the foreclosure auction. In the second scenario you are buying it from the bank. It is whatever you can negotiate with the bank. 

If someone else bids higher than the bank. the bank never owns it. It goes from the old owner to the high auction bidder. If the bid goes higher than the amount owed, the extra amount goes to the previous owner who lost the house.

Now yes you can buy prior to an auction if the buyer accepts your offer. Some won't consider an offer before an auction. I sell a fair amount of properties at auction and I am always willing to consider a pre-auction offer. 

I have never bought nor sold via an online auction. Whether an online auction company accept pre-auction offers may be subject to their own rules regardless of what the buyer wants.