Buying a house prior to Auction?! How have you or would you do it

[Jeremy H.]

Recently I've been trying to get more leads into the funnel and ideally close more deals faster. I'm having much better success with off-market as opposed to the MLS - my most recent strategy and a big one for 2023 is going to be buying (or attempting) at the sheriffs auction.

I will also have my RE license in January so I can tour my own houses, make my own offers etc. Probably going to start with 3 or so offers a week until I can get 5-10. 

This leads me to the sheriffs auction...the problem I've had is there have been a few good houses go up to be auctioned, then a week or so prior to the in person auction the house will come off the auction site and show as "pending" on zillow. So someone is picking up some of these prior to auction (I guess on some of them the deal falls though because they will end up back for auction). There will also be some houses that pop up as "pending" on zillow for around 60% of the ARV, but the house is already pending before it's listed (it arrives on the site as "pending". There's something going on - I'm just not sure exactly what.

So to the question...Let's say a house pops up on the auction site - it's a good one. To get an opportunity prior to auction - is it as simple as knocking on the door and getting an offer agreement signed? I'm sure you would have to offer more than the mortgage balance or you're looking at a short sale? What should the relevant contingencies be - inspection and a clean title is what I'm thinking. These would be cash deals and I would rehab the house and ideally turn it into a LTR or flip. 

I know there are some good strategies out there - I am just a little unclear on what to do after knocking on someone's door whose house is going to be auctioned in the next 2 weeks or so...