Betsie Melter's Real Estate Blog

Well back in February I had a client interested in purchasing an auction property at the trustee's sale. I posted questions and did a lot of research until we both felt confident in our decision to jump in and decide to place a bid. We had located the property, and were anxiously awaiting the day of the auction and what the opening bid would be. One day before the auction it was postponed for 1 month. Bummer. We were sad but felt like 1 month wasn't that long to wait. We continued searching and found a few other properties to bid on. Same thing, postponed. 1 month came and guess what, our original house was postponed again. This time to April 27th. So, here we are again. One week from auction and crossing our fingers it doesn't get postponed again. I think the most frustrating part of it is that we have no idea what the opening bid is going to be. If we at least knew that, then we would know if we can even bid on it or not. I mean, really, if it is over our price range, then we could at least have closure and move on.

Even while we are waiting on the auction properties we have still been searching for homes through short sales and foreclosures. Even those are not working out for us. My poor buyer is getting frustrated and who can blame her. Starting the process last July as an excited buyer has now led to a beaten down person who wonders if they will ever get a home. Luckily they don't have to move into it right away, but still how hard is it to find a house? She has cash and is ready to move but these short sales haven't been getting accepted. Maybe we are just picking the wrong houses.

All we can do is keep looking, continue to submit offers and wait. But I am hoping next Wednesday afternoon I will have an update that reads something like this: "Success at the Trustee Sale Auction"! Until then, we will just keep plugging away.

So after 3 weeks of back and forth and a whole lot of waiting, we finally got our bid accepted for an auction property. We received the contract and have found a few things that we wished we knew up front.

1) They will only pay taxes and assessments from the time the bank acquired the property. (Luckily in this case the taxes are paid to date) but that is huge and something to investigate before you accept the offer. Also, my title company told me that most of the taxes would have gotten wiped out at the trustees sale, so that might not be as big of a concern as we thought. But good to know.

2) They will not pay the HOA transfer fees. In their terms and conditions on the website it states they will pay condo fees (also HOA) but in the contract that only applies to the dues. So we contacted the HOA and the transfer fee is $350 plus there is a buyer's capital fee of $775 which we already knew.

3) They will not pay any special taxes or transfer taxes. When I contacted the title company they told me we don't have those taxes in AZ, so I guess we are safe, but in other states it is something to watch out for.

Wow, all of the little details that they throw in there. Wouldn't it be nice if the contract was posted on their website so you could read it before you submit a bid? They have 4 pages of terms and conditions, but not the contract. How convenient for them.

We are pleased that we got the house accepted and look forward to closing escrow, but it is a learning experience from the beginning to the end. Now onto the fun part the loan! That isn't going to be any easier, let me tell you!

So, we submitted a bid to an online auction and we received a counter last Monday. We immediately countered back and didn't get another counter til the next Monday. We countered back again on Monday and we are still waiting!!! Really, is it that tough to get back to a counter? I understand they are busy, but we are literally $1500 off of their last offer and we want to get this thing going.

I feel so helpless because there is nothing we can do but wait. And in the meantime if another bid comes in we are now in a multiple counter situation. Come on banks, please get with it and respond in a timely manner.

I am in the middle of placing a bid on a property for a client through an auction company. The house was originally listed in MLS and we put an offer on it but the property was given to the auction company the same day we submitted an offer. This is my first time working with an auction company and I have to say I am pleasantly surprised. Now, let me clarify that this is a company not the court house steps. This property is also not going to go to a live auction, it is strictly an online bidding system.

The negotiator for the auction company has been pretty quick with contacting me and submitting my bids. We are waiting to hear back from them on a counter we submitted to them, so we will see how well the company lives up to my expectations. I am happy to say though that the process has been similiar to how we submit offers to a listing agent and counter back and forth. The only downside is that this is an "AS IS" sale without the inspection or financing contingencies that we would normally see with a normal sale or even an REO sale. That concerns me a little bit, but the house appears to be in good shape so there shouldn't be too many problems with that.

Has anyone out there had a successful closing with an auction company? Any advice or things to look out for?