This is absolutely crazy since they are paying 400 to hopefully win the offer.

Would they win?

Totally win - win for everyone when you pay cash for a property or wait until it is paid off and then offer some sort of your own "owner financing".

It should rent for $950-$1050/mo and if we can be all in for less than 45k we will consider it a win.

You can try taking them to court for it after the fact and you will probably win, but then you will just have a judgement.

We both decided you can't win if you don't play, so renting is now out of the question.

She fell off the ladder climbing on the roof and sued her neighbor, winning a 250K settlement.

Since your interest lies in auctions, I added a couple blogs to get you in that mindset.https://www.biggerpockets.com/renewsblog/2009/10/30/times/ (Auctions)https://www.biggerpockets.com/renewsblog/2015/07/03/oncetwiceaewin-real-estate-auction/ (How to win at real estate auctions)To be more successful, you simply have to work on the other elements to progress your REI pursuit.

(This was supposedly found in the billfold of coach Paul Bear Bryant of the University of Alabama after he died in 1982.)Imagine that you had won the following *PRIZE* in a contest: Each morning your bank would deposit $86,400 in your private account for your use.However, this prize has rules: 1.

You could also look at time series data for listing prices to make a statistical prediction on pricing bands which would help you make an optimal winning offer before a price drop causes an influx of competitor buyers.