bank forclosure reo auctions? What is going on?

[Lynn Harrison]

I hope this is the right forum. It looked like the other was for tax and va auctions...

What is going on with bank foreclosure reo auctions? My friend and I were looking at an REO which was scheduled to go on auction.com for 10K starting bid but we were told by the realtor that the bank would actually not take less than 50K. I thought it was a bluff. Then I then read the fine print at the auction website which stated the sellers were not obligated to accept any offer.

The next day the property was taken out of the auction but is still on the market. I assume the realtor called the bank. She has another (100%) offer on the house but it is not a cash offer and the bank doesn't look too hot to take that either. Otherwise it would not be at auction or market...

Uhmmm.... How does one tell what the ACTUAL starting bid is?

Also, I read on a couple threads here that people had problems getting their deposits back from the auction houses if they did not win. Would a buyer's real estate agent be able to help with things like that?

Does anyone have experience with reputable auction sites or companies? Can one take any of them at face value or is this auctioning business the banks are doing just some way of shifting the bank's resources for some derivative or something?

Does anyone here buy from online foreclosure auctions?