Auction.com ????????? Anyone Ever Use It????
Naperville, IL · Member since 2017 · 29 posts · 8 votes
Anyone use it..... i have heard mixed stories about it.... It seems shady..... Would love to hear a success story from it or a nightmare
I'm a broker and have sold a few deals for clients on the site, but not at my recommendation because I believe a 'standard' marketing campaign is more beneficial to the highest price and finding the best buyer. It's not that it isn't a good platform for selling, but there are so many little things that I feel hinder the buyer pool. Each buyer must register, provide proof of funds, and place a deposit (can be done in the form of a credit/debit card hold) in order to bid on the property - These rules I don't mind and think they show the seriousness of a buyer. And I will say, out of the dozen deals I've been involved with on the site, we've had decent success, just a limited buyer pool in comparison to a typical marketing (read the reason's below). If the broker you hire to run the deal along side auction.com knows his market and who to call, you'll do just fine.
What I dislike a lot about the process is four things:
1) I dislike the bidding process on this site because ten-x (auction.com) can bid the property up themselves - and yes, it's stated in the terms when you register so it's okay for them to do so. So not only are you bidding against potential investors but the auction site has the ability to bid up the price to meet the reserve.
2) Each buyer has to pay a $50K premium/"transaction fee" or 5% of the purchase price upon closing- whichever is higher. Just an extra charge that could keep a buyer from being able to go a bit higher in pricing because they know they have that additional charge to take into account. For example, we recently sold a deal for a client on the site and the buyer's final bid was $1.3M but they had to actually pay $1.365M at closing.
3) The terms/contract process can be very difficult for first time buyers or people with less experience. If you are the winning bidder, there is NO NEGOTIATION over contract length, contract terms, etc. Once the auction closes, you have 24 hours to sign their contract, start the process, and close within 30 days.
4) Lastly, i dislike this platform because buyers must pay cash only for any property they purchase on the site. There is virtually no time to arrange financing in a 30 day close. Although the buyers know what they're getting into, the issue is that not everyone has the ability to buy all cash. Lots of people have the 20-25% down payment to purchase a property, but much less have the ability to pay 100% of the purchase price in cash. Thus my biggest gripe with selling on auction.com, it cuts your buyer pool down substantially.
Hope this helped! Feel free to message me with any questions
Forgot to mention....Please do know the difference between "insurable title" vs. "marketable title" before you bid, since Auction.com will only give you "insurable title".
I will look into Hudson and Marshall for sure thanks guys! Never even heard of them. Great info. As always
Just so everyone knows it's out there in the open when it comes to participation terms. If your bid isn't above the reserve price you're certainly guaranteed to "lose" the auction to Ten-X/Auction.com because they will bid up to the reserve price. Relist, relist, relist, relist, etc. until someone outbids Auction.com and meets the reserve:
https://www.ten-x.com/company/legal/participation-terms/
Reserve Price. Except for Properties noted “Absolute Auction” or “Minimum Bid Auction”, all Properties in auction Events have a minimum selling price established by Seller (“Reserve Price”). The starting bid is not the Reserve Price. Except where prohibited by law, Ten-X may counter bid on behalf of Seller on any Property up to the amount of the Reserve Price (and no such bid will result in a sale of the Property). If the Reserve Price is not met, Seller is under no obligation to sell the Property; however, Seller may accept a bid that is below the Reserve Price in its sole and absolute discretion.
Having a reserve is common in any kind of auction e.g. ebay, fast talking folks. It's not limited to real estate ... Auctioneers at "real auctions" will have shill bidding too.
@Matt Pich-Maxon It is common to have reserves. "Shills" are often illegal at auctions. I consider reserves to be same as bait and switch. In the past, I have been contacted when the owner wanted to take my offer without making the reserve. I would take it if I had needed it for an assemblage. But... since I didn't I told them no.
My dad and I purchased a home from them about 5 years ago for $22k. It was a little bit of a rough process and you have to be able to meet their crazy deadlines. But it was worth it. Use your own closing and title company though, do not let them pressure you into theirs. We rented this house out for five years and just sold it about 6 months ago for $60k. As long as you are willing to do your research on the house, it's worth it.
Anyone have any experience with Auction.com in Atlanta? I found a great house on there, BUT I'm a complete beginner and need some help. Any attorneys on here that can guide me? Auction is on June 4 and I have cash to buy...
Lets just say I have probably had 6 figures worth of 2,500 deposits charged and then refunded bidding on a certain type of asset on there and every single time I have been outbid in the last hour. After the 20th time the property appeared again after the first auction I quit going on it.
At one point I was doing so many bids I had 2 credit cards I only used for auction.com deposits. Never won a single property. Was the higher bidder until the last 2 hours on at least 75% of the properties.
One of their reps was at our REIA and I asked if the bank or other parties with an interest in a higher sales price could bid and did not get a straight answer. I never logged on again
Eric, no surprise here. They always want to get the market price for the property.
I'm a broker and have sold a few deals for clients on the site, but not at my recommendation because I believe a 'standard' marketing campaign is more beneficial to the highest price and finding the best buyer. It's not that it isn't a good platform for selling, but there are so many little things that I feel hinder the buyer pool. Each buyer must register, provide proof of funds, and place a deposit (can be done in the form of a credit/debit card hold) in order to bid on the property - These rules I don't mind and think they show the seriousness of a buyer. And I will say, out of the dozen deals I've been involved with on the site, we've had decent success, just a limited buyer pool in comparison to a typical marketing (read the reason's below). If the broker you hire to run the deal along side auction.com knows his market and who to call, you'll do just fine.
2) Each buyer has to pay a $50K premium/"transaction fee" or 5% of the purchase price upon closing- whichever is higher. Just an extra charge that could keep a buyer from being able to go a bit higher in pricing because they know they have that additional charge to take into account. For example, we recently sold a deal for a client on the site and the buyer's final bid was $1.3M but they had to actually pay $1.365M at closing.
Just as an FYI at this point many of the properties they sell do not have a transaction fee (aka "buyer's premium"). I suspect they hit the mortgagee or bank for that where they can.
@Matt Pich-Maxon It is common to have reserves. "Shills" are often illegal at auctions. I consider reserves to be same as bait and switch. In the past, I have been contacted when the owner wanted to take my offer without making the reserve. I would take it if I had needed it for an assemblage. But... since I didn't I told them no.
Shills at auctions are as old as Shakespeare and although they may be "illegal" no one will ever stop them. In my 30 years as an attorney I never saw a foreclosure auction that didn't have some (often small) amount of funny business attached to it.
The KEY in all these kinds of transactions is to do your homework. The item of top priority is knowing the inherent market value of the property. It takes the shills and the "reserve price" and a lot of other b.s. out of the equation.
Pretty much a scam. You’re bidding against the site itself. They will outbid you in hopes that you think you’re being outbid and go higher. So basically they have you bidding against yourself. The same properties go thru the auction process over and over again. Hopefully one day they will be shut down.
@Eric F.
Wow . I just deleted my Auction.com app
Hi, I was wondering if Realtybid.com is a trusted website for Real State auctions or can you share with me a few links besides Marshalls and Action.com. I try to buy a house at hudhomesusa.org but the information in their Website was not reliable and they got me in touch with a realstate agent that call me ones and was suppose to call me again but never did. I'm try to buy a house for me and my mom that we can afford and I try do this right.
Thank you in advance for any info you can provide me
I know for a fact that Auction.com works if all goes smooth throughout the process, up to getting the property/deed in you name. However when the process goes wrong, well Auction.com abandons ship and leaves you out to defend for yourself. I say as the closing company (Ginali Associates) in which Auction.com handed me off too, had me close on a home that was no longer available. I learned this the day after my closing in which I already wired them 80K and signed off on the closing documents.. However my disappointment with the closing company is a negative review that I'll leave for them on their page. For the purpose of understanding this review, I just want to point out that Ginali eventually stopped following up with me on the status of returning my funds. Furthermore I had to contact the seller myself and work directly with them on returning my money. Overall it took 7 weeks to get my $84K (with EMD), that's after I wasted 4 of those weeks trying to work through the closing company Ginali Associates), before calling the seller directly.
My issue with Auction.com is their inability to assist in the matter. I know they're going to respond to this review and say their only the facilitator. However I didn't select Ginali to act as my closing company, it was Auction.com who did. So too me Ginali is an extension of Auction.com, in which I started this process with after a winning bid and providing Auction.com with a 4K earnest money deposit. My main problem is that my closing specialist within Auction.com is Cindy Allen, which makes me wonder why have the title of "closing specialist" if Auction.com says they're not involved in closings. Anyways it's extremely difficult to get a hold of Cindy if you have questions not only about this issue, but even including leading up to the closing in which I wanted to communicate with her about status and/or questions I had. She's extremely difficult to get a hold and seems to only contact you when you haven't signed off on a doc-u-sign electronic signature document. One of those times was a phone call from Cindy after I haven't signed off on the doc-u-sign in which releases not only the 4K EMD too me but releases Auction.com from any wrong doing or further action to be taken against them. The call was taken by my wife and I over the speaker phone, the call was on a Thursday morning 2-weeks after learning of my inability to acquire the deed to the home. Cindy's inquiry was about my reasoning as to why I did not sign the doc-u-sign, in which I explained I wasn't releasing anyone from any legal action in case we have to hire a lawyer. That call ended with Cindy saying she will follow up on her end to figure when my money will be returned to me, that she will get back in touch that day or Friday. Needless to say she never did get back with me and when I emailed her in the middle of the following week, well she never responded to my email either. In that same telephone conversation I pointed out to her that some of the negative reviews I read mentioned people struggled to get their money back to them and it seemed 6weeks to 2months was the standard, and Cindy assured me it wouldn't take that long. Well guess she was wrong as it did take 7 weeks and within those 5-weeks of our phone conversation I have yet to hear from Cindy or anyone at Auction.com, even though I received the doc-u-sign reminder to sign nightly.
I highly suggest to anyone considering Auction.com to purchase their home investments to do your research and read through these reviews. Prepare yourself that if things go wrong with your purchase, Auction.com is not going to assist you and more than likely you’re going to end up like me making your own phone calls to the seller and/or possibly hire a lawyer like I almost did at $250 an hour. I know from Auction.com non-willingness to assist in this matter and not following up like Cindy said she would do, that I will no longer use Auction.com to purchase my homes. In addition this action was monitored by two friends who have purchased homes themselves and decided they’ll no longer use Auction.com, after they reviewed my emails and listened to regular updates as to what was occurring during my situation.