The first deal didn't work out because after winning the bid, the title company said it would 2- 6 months for clear title.

I won the bid on a Florida property at an online auction. 

I might even be able to get away with a slightly lower bid on the property in exchange for a chance at a higher payout in the future.My initial concern is that their cut might have to be cost prohibitively high in order to be appealing.

Outside of that, the public schools system is completely unproductive by any measure and ripe with corpution and fraud as many members of the school system have been sent to jail for issues with rigging bidding with vendors.  10)  Crime - 43 murders per 100,000 in 2017. 

If I win the bid and close on the house in the month of September, does the past owner still get until February to make their decision?  

Why did he bid what he did?

I would suggest that you contact this Company for a bid to see if it is competitive with your other options. 

You as a flipper put out a good product and you’ll still get top dollar.As Jay has stated the new strategy seems to be shifting from list price is set below market to generate foot traffic for multiple bids and revert back to pricing it to market or slightly above for concessions as it’s slowly shifting to buyers market.But I agree, don’t expect insane triple digit net margins anymore.

Some common mistakes are trying to go cheap, not vetting out contractors, paying contractors too much up front, not having contractors sign a contract when you accept their bid, not having enough of a cushion for unexpected repairs (there will always be something)

When you win the bid, you have to pay them in full.