I have contacted the owner and instead of letting the property go to auction where they lose it and receive nothing, they have agreed to sell it to me for say $5,000. 

Foreclosure Market Report,” which shows there were a total of 11,281 properties with foreclosure filings (i.e. default notices, scheduled auctions or bank repossessions) in the United States in February, up 16 percent from a month ago (but down 77 percent from a year ago).

Has anyone purchased any properties through auctions?

See what others bid.Not sure where you plan to bid....do you know how the auction works there and if there are any redemption periods?

These are actual number of a property at a tax deed auction coming up but I am using this for a mock analysis to attach to my business plan so If anyone has any pointers please let me know, thank you!

What I am new to is buying a property via sheriff's auction. 

There has been an institutional investment of ~$4.7 M and many smaller and mom/pop operators are wising up to parts of the game.Couple the rush of the everyday person/investor looking to secure a place to rest their heads and we have witnessed a push upwards with some speculation saying land prices with rise my multiples in the coming years.Many of these same folk are doing the same things aka waiting on the foreclosure moratorium to be lifted so hop on perspective flood of 'deals' to be auctioned off.Materials like lumbar and concrete are seeing significant price movement upward, leading builders to pause and play in spurts.With all this, my question is, will the SFR market actually cool down or are we in the midst of a major competition hike that will lead prices to only go up for the foreseeable future?

This property was purchase from a wholesaler, who won the property in an online foreclosure auction.

I seriously wanted to purchase properties to flip at auctions and I figured it would be very difficult for a flipper to net a solid $22,000 month after month and why would anybody want to work that hard with so many risks.

This property was up for sheriff auction but got cancelled a week before the bidding started.