I was looking for information on a certain property earlier, and stumbled across the auction.com website, which was advertising two properties for sale in my town. One of them has a very reasonable opening bid, but either "no reserve" or "undisclosed reserve", depending on how I read it. We might make a feeble effort at it--- we had looked at it when it was last for sale in 2012, and someone in the past had run their red and blue pex water lines through the dining room and foyer up along the ceiling on the outside of the wall. O_o I think there had been a problem with the chimney as well-- I'm not sure if that's been fixed in the last 7 years. But the space is good, so we'll see.

Anyhow. The one I'm not considering a bid on was adorable. It was last sold in March of 2017, so it seems like it started the foreclosure process right off the bat, which is probably why the price is so unrealistic.

It said--

Est. resale value: $63k

Opening bid: $25k

Reserve: $84k

It's a nice house on a nice block---- but I was just shaking my head.

An $84k reserve on a $63k house? Why even bother with an opening bid that's not even a third of what your reserve is?

Hi Deanna,

If you are interested in an internet house, go ahead and bid a price you are happy with. Make sure your bid is not over the reserve.

If the reserve has not been met, the auction company will place a counter bid on the house in an attempt to get you to bid higher.

I have gotten 2 houses off the internet auction sites. My bid was below the reserve on both houses. I have bid on over 20 internet houses.

Make sure you are comfortable with the deed they will give you. Some houses are still occupied.

My success rate with internet auctions is about the same as my success with MLS, wholesalers, pocket deals, etc.

If the numbers are not right, I do not buy.

Ignore the stated resale value - this is your market and you know the actual resale value of this house better than the internet. That is a marketing ploy to get you to bid higher.

The reserve is an interesting number but, do let it push you into bidding higher (another marketing ploy).

I have seen houses stay on these sites for several months (being bid on every week). The bank will eventually accept the highest bid they get or the bank can take it off the auction site and try to sell it somewhere else (another auction site or the MLS).

Heh.

So, we put in a minimum bid of $10k. Bidding is in $5k increments.

About an hour later, the website puts in a seller counterbid of $15k. (At least they were honest that it was a fake bid.)

If we tried for a second swipe at it, we'd have to put in a bid for $20k--- double our original bid. So of course, we're not.

"Counterbids are common at online and in-person auctions. The auction website may bid on behalf of Seller to help move the price closer to, but not higher than, the Reserve."

Deanna,

You may find that the auction site will place another counter bid on top of the existing counter bid. I have seen the auction site place several counter bids in a row.

Bidding starts again this morning on three houses I have been watching and bidding. Opening bid on each house is $35,000. I am comfortable paying $70,000 for each of these houses, so, my initial bid will be $70,000. The bid increment is $10,000. Within the hour, the auction company will counter bid at $80,000. The house is not worth $90,000, but, that is the next bid. No one else will bid $90,000, so, the auction company will continue counter bidding until the price is around $120,000.

The ARV on these houses is $150,000.

Hopefully the auction company will eventually call me and offer the house for $70,000.

Good luck!

Thanks for your experience, MMIT! The extra information was very helpful.

So-- just to follow up, we put in our bid for $10k, which was the opening bid.

The website did an auto-counter for $15k.

That was where things stood about an hour before the auction ended earlier today. I had to go leave to go help a friend with some stuff, so I didn't get to observe the final hour of the process.

Somehow, the auction jumped from $15k (next bid needed to be $20k) to close at $40,600. Since things were in $5k increments, that led me to believe that the last bid was a real live human--- but the "bid history" link vanished after the auction ended, so there was no way to go back and see what happened in that last stretch.

MMIT, do you know how to go back and review the activity on a closed auction? Or does that just get sealed away?

I think the bank was just as dissatisfied with the $40,600 as they were with my $10k. It will probably be put back up for sale several times, whether online or in live auctions.

But I do like collecting information about houses in my area, and being aware of the competition. :) $40k is actually a pretty respectable attempt at a primary-residence price in a market when the price of a gallon of gas is around the $2 mark. Which tells me whoever tried buying it was either (a) a local person who was looking for a place to live; or (b) an out-of-town investor who doesn't know that our rents run correspondingly low as well. So that house would easily rent for $1500-$2000/month in DFW, presuming it was cleaned and fixed... but you might get around $550-$600/month here, and then minus taxes, minus insurance, etc, etc, etc.

Deanna, I do not know how to check the bid history once the auction has ended.

I am currently bidding on a house. Bidding started at 35000, counter at 45000, my bid of 70000, counter bid at 80000, Auction ends in 2 hours. I suspect they will continue counter bidding against themselves until they meet the reserve bid of 124000.

The auction I was bidding in has ended. The arv is 150000 with 10000 in rehab costs for rental quality. The reserve bid is 124000.

The bidding was:

35000 opening bid (10000 minimum bid increment)

45000 seller counter bid

70000 my bid (I bid my highest and best price - ignoring the bid increments)

80000 seller counter bid (they countered my bid an hour after I bid)

90000 seller counter bid (counter bid placed with 15 seconds left on the auction clock. The new bid added 2 minutes onto the auction clock)

95000 seller counter bid (15 seconds left which added 2 minutes)

100000 seller counter bid

The auction then ended.

Experience tells me that I have a 1 out of 20 chance of having them accept my bid.

So, I will bid again next week.

Bidding on a place where there is a reserve on it.

They will not allow an interior inspection so my highest and best bid is about half of the reserve.

I was out that general direction so I figured I would stop on by and see if the pics that they showed were realistic.

What I saw was a 2 inch pipe coming out of presumably the basement pumping out water continually. My guess is this place has an indoor swimming pool in it when it rains.

My bidding on that website stopped right there and then.