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Williams & Williams Auction Rejects High Bid Again
I just bid for and won my third Williams and Williams house auction. The latest one was last month for 3159 Sarah Ann in Lafayette IN. The sellers rejected my winning bid all three times. The first two homes were owned by Fannie Mae and the third was owned by a relocation company.
Williams & Williams used to brag about how 90-95% of their sellers accepted the high bids even though they have the right to refuse it. I see that they have removed this from their sales literature. Good thing because in my experience it is a joke.
Williams and Williams are a bunch of clowns whose sellers will reject the high bid. I will not be wasting my time in the future bidding at any Williams & Williams auctions.
Any other investors have any luck in getting their winning bids accepted at a Williams & Williams auction?
I went to one of their auctions just for gp and it wasn't the most professional operation that I've seen. At the site, it appeared that a guy got the place with as the highest bidder, but then again I never followed up to see if he took title. Sorry to hear about your negative experience, thanks for giving us heads up. courthouse steps, trustee auctions are successful. Good Luck! -- Dawn
That's a new one for me.
Are these bids above a minimum reserve of some kind? I've never placed any bids on this site, but sounds like an awkward thing to do.
I'm sorry. I'm not the best at communication. "Site" meant the home being auctioned, but understandable that it would be misconstrued as meaning web"site". I should have said on the property, or at the property. My hubby is always correcting me. Thanks. -- Dawn
Williams & Williams uses a low minimum bid to attract bidders, but there is no posted reserve price. They don't have to post a reserve since the seller reserves the right to accept or reject any high bid.
Bidding is easy and the auctions I've been to are fairly well run. I've bid in person and online as well. I don't have any problem with the process - only the fact that my winning bid is always rejected.
Just a waste of time in my opinion. Unless they switch to using an absolute auction I won't bid with them again.
It almost seems pointless. They should go with an e bay structure. Reserve if the seller so chooses and once met the sale is absolute.
Steve,
If you are going to use Williams and Williams, I suggest you only go to the Absolute auctions.....
You can do searches on their website with key word 'absolute sale' or absolute to narrow it down for ya....
Hope this helps for the future, don't give up....
Hi Eric,
I haven't seen any Williams & Williams auctions in my area that are no reserve. Their website says "All auctions are subject to court or seller approval." When they say "all" this doesn't sound like some of them are no reserve, but I will keep my eye out.
By the way - I'm not giving up. I've just decided not to waste my time on Williams & Williams when there are greener pastures! Thanks.
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If there is a reserve price then this not really an auction, it is an invitation to negotiate. I've been on both sides of both real auctions (absolute) and so called reserve auctions. If you want to bid on a property with a reserve price why waste time going to the auction. Just put in a pre emptive bid with the seller. The purpose of an auction is to have the market (bidders) set the price. If the seller sets the price (reserve) then what are the bidders bidding on? Only the right to further negotiate with the seller! Looked at from this perspective, how foolish is it to waste time at a reserve "auction"? Also be careful with auctions where most properties have reserve prices but there are some being sold absolute. In my experience the auctioneer has a friend or associate bid the minimum real reserve price. Most auctions are not what they seem.
Williams and Williams live online auction is a joke. Auction Network calls within minutes of auction end to tell me I had the high bid but there was a problem transmitting it to the auction site and that they would forward it on to see what they wanted to do. No they say, in person takes precedent. Why advertise live online and in person if they are not going to look at times bids were submitted to make a determination of the winner. At the very least , open it back up between the 2 high bidders to finish. If they could notify me that quickly, why couldn't they contact auctioneer? Smells funny to me.............
If you win and the seller does not accept do you get your 2k deposit back? I know it's a non-refundable deposit, but it doesn't seem right that they would keep the deposit if the seller did not approve...i guess it could be just another way for them to make money. I'm looking to bid in a week or two, but don't want to if i'm not gonna get the deposit back if they don't approve it. hmmmm...
If the seller rejects the winning bid or counters and you won't accept you will get your deposit back.
The reason for non-refundable is so if you back out once being the winner and approved by the seller they want to make it painful for you. It also weeds out people doing hair brained schemes.
If that is the buyers only 2k or they have little reserves they will make sure all their ducks are in a row before bidding.
Williams is on of the auction houses but there are about 5 to 6 big ones such as them.The bidding takes place in a huge meeting area,at the subject property,or online only or both on location and online.
My experience is the prices get bid way up over a good deal to a bad deal.If the deals were that great they wouldn't need to mail me out glossy expensive magazines because the prices would sell the properties.
Many time as an REO listing broker a listing might get pulled and put up for auction as the asset manager is praying some idiot will overpay and be the winning bidder.
Once that doesn't happen they assign back to the listing broker and do a price reduction.
Some properties sell auctions but not the hype Williams and other claim.
Auctions many times are a waste.The awesome deals are when you have little competition and can whittle down the price.
Had similar experience as everyone else with these clowns. WASTE OF TIME. Don't go to the auction unless you plan on bidding 25% off the last listed retail MLS price. In the majority of cases this is no deal at all. Williams and Williams clients banks and Fannie Mae (the sellers) reject over 50% of the high bids. Don't buy an at a real estate auction unless it is an Absolute Auction. They want to get people all whipped up into a frenzy and overpay. If you get a deal that seems to good to be true it is, they will reject it.
Just a regular person here trying to buy a house that W&W will have at on-line only auction starting in 10 days -- but I thought it would be better to just offer to buy it now. Any advice would be welcomed.
I've got 2 properties from them, one online, one regular onsite bidding. A close friend's mom got one from them, very good price also. Have seen properties sold thru W&W for unbelievable prices, i.e. a 700K property in good condition sold (and the bank approved) for 388K. I have been overall pretty happy interacting with them. I think it is the bank causing all the grief. Just my $.02
Had 2 clients buy from them recently, one has closed, other under contract. The contract terms were better than some other online REO auction companies IMHO. YMMV
My bid on a house through Williams and Williams was just rejected by a bank.
I now believe these auctions to be a sham: if there is a sucker bid, the bank accepts. If the bid is not a sucker bid, the bank is hoping that the high bidder will feel emotionally invested into the property and will use it as a basis for further negotiation.
In other words, these auctions are a "new age psychological marketing gimmick" and not true "let's get rid of it in three days" types of true auctions.
Originally posted by Igor Chudov:
In other words, these auctions are a "new age psychological marketing gimmick" and not true "let's get rid of it in three days" types of true auctions.
These are not auctions...these are lead generation systems, pure and simple...
The last house I picked up from W&W is a 3 bed 1 bath brick house in Birmingham valued at around $32.8k. My low bid of $2500 was accepted. I figured out these auctioneers some time ago. [SOLICITATION REMOVED]
Bradley, forgive me if I am skeptical, but why would they accept your offer for a given price, but not accept the same offer from me? You'll have to provide a few more details. Thanks.
If I told you that, I'd be out of business. I guess I'll just have to prove it to you. I'll let you know what properties(s) I'm bidding on for the round of online auctions starting the 13th. My user name on W&W is roguebard1. If I have the highest bid on any property but one that would obviously appear too low to get accepted, I'll let you know
Originally posted by Bradley Combs:
Just to be clear, is that
$25 HUNDRED or $25 THOUSAND?
This thread is in a discussion forum. No dealmaking or advertising here, please.
I won a W&W on site auction, only to have my bid rejected without a counter... They must make their money on auctions not sales.
Yes $2500.00 Twenty five hundred.
Sorry John.
I'll keep this thread up to date on any auction I may win.
Ok check out a couple of the auctions in NV, AL and IL. I've got a number of houses I'm bidding on. Super low ball bids (more than likely to get outbid), but if they happen to win the auction as the high bidder for some reason, . . . well lets just wait and see.