Or does everyone just blindly put down the highest they can offer without knowing how much the others have bid?

Many wont even live till 60.People get blinded by the new shiny toy that they forget, REAL ESTATE IS THE RETIREMENT VEHICLE so why put a retirement vehicle into another retirement vehicle which you can't even enjoy until you're dead or crippled with medical issues.

Going forward, STOP blind trusting people, especially people who say "trust me" those are the #1 people you should be most skeptical about. 

That fact alone rules out Florida.The biggest mistake we see investors make is blindly investing and not understanding what is going on with their properties.

Couldn't imagine sending a first time or even experienced investor into a situation blind at these price tags.

People don't want to pay so, they buy a property blind because they see a $80K lien on a $800K property and think they are going to get a deal...and we all know how that ends up.

(BTW, that agreed on price should be the main data point in value).Even in a commercial appraisal, applying a cap rate to determine value, +- a quarter percent, which is a perfectly reasonable delta amount, will swing those values dramatically.Like BPOs, appraisals also use terrible comps many times, especially when they are doing so blind with no set sales price set to achieve.

I think it's kind of funny that people always talk about doing your own due diligence as I thought that was pretty assumed with any investment, but I guess there are some people who may buy blindly like they do with stocks or whatever.

The tenants may be picky too because blinds can a little long for the window if you don't have standard size windows. 

And then you hire a manager to manage the on site folks so they dont steal you blind.