My experiences with auction.com!

[James McGovern]

I have been on auction.com for the last six months and thought I would share my experiences.

1. I continue to place the same bid for a property and always come out the high bidder however I don't ever cross the hidden reserve limit. This property gets continually relisted.

2. Many properties listed on auction.com attempt to spook investors by suggesting that inspecting a property is trespassing. I always contact law enforcement and let them know whenever I will be visiting lots of properties in their jurisdiction.

3. Auction.com is not very transparent. No way of knowing whether a property was relisted or if you come across a property that has ended what the winning bid was. 

4. Unlike an ebay, they do not show any information about who may be counterbidding against you.

5. Auction.com could make it easier by indicating whether your bid will get you free and clear title but they leave this information up to you to figure out. 

6. There is a lot of shill bidding on auction.com. Auction.com reserves the right to bid on behalf of their client so thread carefully and avoid bidding against yourself. 

7. Avoid purchasing title insurance via auction.com. Never use the sellers title company. There are lots of risk and no savings from this approach. 

8. Unlike an eBay auction that's over as soon as the initial time expires, Auction.com adds additional time to the clock when bids are placed in the closing seconds of the auction until there is no more bidding activity

9. it is the buyer's responsibility to potentially go through an eviction after winning the bid in many scenarios. 

[Peter Walther]

I believe the owners of Auction.com also own the mtg servicing company that is selling the property for the lender and the title agent they use to issue the policy.  That can lead to a conflict of interest where the title agent finds a defect in title or in the foreclosure and rather than having to tell the lender the property can't be sold because of a problem that should have been handled by the servicing company the agent closes the sale w/o the defect being addressed.  If the problem develops into a title claim after the closing, the Insured, who is the Auction purchaser, submits a claim to the title underwriter.  If the defect hasn't been excepted or excluded from the coverage of the policy the underwriter sets about curing the defect.  That can take from several days to several years during which the purchaser may not be able to borrow against the property or sell it.  The purchaser may not be able to even enter the property.  That's why many of the sale ads say you cannot enter the property, because it's occupied by someone claiming an interest in the property.  Of course if the defect has been excepted from coverage and the purchaser didn't notice it in the commitment, the purchaser is stuck with dealing with the problem on their own.