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.

BUYER BEWARE! April 2020. I am a licensed Real Estate Broker/Qualifying Broker/Owner of my own Real Estate Brokerage in NM with 27 years of experience. I flip properties as well. I won the bid on a property (6 Willow Rd, Edgewood NM) I had knowledge of as I had listed it for sale years ago. I became very suspicious when I went to preview the property prior to the final bidding, and the home had been totally rehabbed although the pictures in the Inspection Report show the property in its trashed condition when taken back from the borrowers. Why would US Bank sell this property for a low price at an online auction when thousands had been spent to make it sellable/loan worthy? I won the bid on Friday. Before I could return the purchase agreements on Monday, I just received a phone call stating US Bank removed the property so the purchase had been cancelled.
It is my opinion that Auction.com is an online platform for banks to dump unsellable properties to inexperienced folks allowing Auction.com to collect all sorts of junk fees in the process whether the deal closes or not!
Here are the points you need to know:
*YOU ARE ONLY GIVEN 24 HOURS/1 BUSINESS DAY TO SIGN ALL DOCS AND DEPOSIT EARNEST MONEY AFTER YOU HAVE WON THE BID! IF YOU DON'T MEET THIS DEADLINE, THEY WILL KEEP THE $2,500 CREDIT CARD DEPOSIT(required to be a valid bidder) AS PENALTY!
*PROOF of FUNDS was required before they would forward the purchase agreement even though it is advertised this info needs to be included when you return the signed documents.
*DON'T BID ON A PROPERTY UNTIL YOU HAVE DONE YOUR OWN DUE DILIGENCE! The Title info under the property listing was NOT CURRENT! As a Realtor, I am able to do a title search through a local title company and found the legal document "Assignment of Defendant's Rights of Redemption" e-recorded against this property more than a month AFTER THE DATE of the title info posted on this site. More than likely, clear and marketable title would not have be obtainable & my transaction would have been cancelled.
*Title is transferred via a Quit Claim Deed or a Special Warranty Deed with Title Insurance for which you must purchase. If you agree to a Quit Claim Deed, you are accepting Title with all clouds/liens. I believe this is their preferred method passing the title problems to the buyer.
*Most documents to purchase the property are written BY and FOR Auction.com. There are many ways for Auction.com to keep most if not all of your Earnest Money deposit (which is 5% of the purchase price). The documents state the earnest money is NONREFUNDABLE! (only refundable if title insurance cannot be offered due to clouds on the title). Plus, the Title Company/Closer can keep deduct from your Earnest Money for any fees they incur whether the deal closes or not!
*The Title Company listed for this deal was in Florida. I called to confirm they were legit, spoke with a lady and requested the Title Closer/Escrow Officer call me back and she never did. That was a red flag. Before signing these documents, I requested a change to my purchase agreement stating a local NM Title Company. Next thing, my transaction had been cancelled.
As a Realtor, I could see all of the caveats tied to this purchase. I went with their Title Company as I figured it would get the bid accepted. When I requested to change Title Companies to one in my local market, the property was no longer for sale. I did not give Auction.com any money as I was leery of all aspects of their processes.

Bidding process: I chose to bid on a house located in Detroit Michigan on Bramell street. This is the second time that this website has listed this house for auction. The first time it was up for bid, did not register to bid on this particular house. The second time, I did. What a friggin mistake from the start. First, the website does not update it's search page information. When you search for a home in any location, they give you a list of homes for sale in the area of choice and it's surrounding areas. When you are scrolling through the resulted list, they had the starting bid on the side as details. That's the problem. The search results led me to believe that the offer was still, the entire next day (03/18/2020), starting at $1,000. So, they did not update the bid information, I went ahead to register for this particular auction house, I was charged $50 for the auction registration, and a $2500 hold, which the hold would be charged if I do not participate in the bid or if I cancel. Okay, no problem. I get it, to ensure bidders are playing to win and not to waste time, you hold the funds, no problem, right? Wrong. Literally, after I agreed to the terms and conditions of the registration to bid on this house on particular that THE SEARCH PAGE HAD STILL PRICED AT $1,000, literally the price was NOT $1,000. THE PRICE WAS ACTUALLY $10,000 AND I WAS REQUIRED TO BID IN $2500 INCREMENTS. Once Again, THE SEARCH RESULTS STATED THAT THE HOUSE, WHICH HAD BEEN FOR AUCTION STARTING 03/17/2020 AT $1,000 WAS STILL $1,000 ON 03/18/2020. IT WAS NOT UNTIL THEY HELD THE $2550, THAT I WAS NOW INTRODUCED TO THE ACTUAL BIDDING PRICE AND THE NUMBER OF BIDDERS ON THE HOUSE. I WAS FORCED TO BID! WHY? BECAUSE YOU CAN NOT CANCEL A BID, NOR CAN YOU NOT BID AT ALL, BECAUSE IF YOU CHOOSE EITHER ACTION (TO NOT BID OR CHOOSE TO CANCEL) THEYLL POCKET THE $2550 FOR NON COMPLIANCE. SCAM! SCAM BECAUSE THEIR SEARCH PAGE IS MISLEADING. THE NUMBERS ARE ERRONEOUS AND OUTDATED. THE LEAST THEY COULD DO IS UPDATE THE BIDDING PRICE ON THE LANDING PAGE. I SHOULDNT HAVE TO HAVE MY MONEY STOLEN IN ORDER FOR ME TO FIND OUT THE TRUE RESULTS OF AN AUCTION. THATS THEIR BIGGEST LOOOHOLE IN THEIR TERMS AND CONDITIONS IN WHICH I AM ABLE TO FILE A CIVIL SUIT AGAINST THIS COMPANY DUE TO THEIR NEGLIGENCE AND INCOMPETENCE TO UPDATE THEIR SEARCH PAGE RESULTS TO THE ACTUAL UPDATED BIDDING PRICE. YOU MISLEAD PEOPLE AND TAKE THEIR MONEY BEFORE THEY CAN EVEN FIND OUT THE TRUTH. IF A HOUSE THAT A CLIENT IS SEARCHING FOR HAD A STARTING BID OF $1000 YESTERDAY AND HAS NOW INCREASED TO $15K TODAY, THE SEARCH RESULTS SHOULD ALSO UPDATE THE BID TO SAY $15K. IT SHOULD NOT STILL SHOW AS A $1K HOUSE, TRICKING BIDDERS INTO REGISTERING AND THROWING AWAY MONEY FOR PROPERTIES THAT HAVEN'T BEEN UPDATED AS FAR AS ITS NEW BIDDING PRICE. I AM CALLING MY LAWYER TODAY. THIS IS EGREGIOUS AND UNETHICAL. I GUESS IF THE SITE CANT PROFIT FROM REAL ESTATE TRANSACTIONS, THEY PROFIT FROM MISLEADING INFORMATION THAT COULD COST BIDDERS THEIR HARD EARNED MONEY.! STAY THE $#*! AWAY! Below I have attached 3 pics. The first two is of the search results page and the bidding price (which has not been updated on the results page for purposes unknown to me). As you can see, they elude to buyers that the bid is still at $1000 (basically makes it seem as if no one has bid on it yet to get you to register so they can remove the $2550 from your account and to begin the process of keeping your money for a lie that they told you in order to get you to bid. You have to bid or else they'll keep the $2550 for non participation fee. So basically, they $#*! you all the way around.) The third pic is of how much the property is really bidding for. The fourth pic is of the bidding increments that are NOT reported on the search page, which is how they trick buyers into registering to bid. You don't have information about the price increments and bidders UNTIL YOUVE REGISTERED AND THEYVE STOLEN THE $2550 FROM YOUR CARD ALREADY). Beware. Be very aware! You're better off buying from your hometowns landbank. REMEMBER, I ONLY BID ON THE HOUSE BECAUSE I WAS UNDER THE IMPRESSION THAT NO ONE HAD BID ON THE HOUSE YET (SINCE 03/17/2020) AND THE HOUSE WAS STILL AT $1,000. (WHICH IT WAS ACTUALLY $10,000 AFTER REGISTRATION).

I had some auction questions. Tyler was knowledgeable and very helpful. And pleasent.

GREAT GREAT GREAT GREAT GREAT
GREAT GREAT GREAT GREAT GREAT
GREAT GREAT GREAT GREAT GREAT

He did a great job for me. QQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQ

We have experienced tremendous success with auction.com but it did not come over night and we did not expect auction, com to help us.
We studied their platform and documented the steps we took to avoid financial disaster and profit with auction.com on our free webinar.

https://7figure.easywebinar.live/registration

Even though I am a seasoned real estate broker, instructor, engineer and investor, the bidding process was scary and I did not want to lose my hard earned $2500 or worse, purchase a property that I may not be able to liquidate. Plus, I had a lot of questions that auction.com could not answer because they are strictly a "Buyer Beware Business Model"
We wanted to master auction.com because we are in a tight inventory market and they control a lot of the distressed inventory. Plus, I was a Freddie Mac broker so I saw the shift of inventory to auction.com.
As the listing agent for Freddie Mac, I could view the properties but the buyer could not and I saw the profit that savvy investors were enjoying.
After we lost our Freddie Mac contract due to the shift of REO to auction.com, we spent a lot of time studying their technology platform and developing systems, processes and checklists. After winning several bids, we were able to document our actual, hands on experience and provide a structured solution to help others master online bidding even if they have never invested before.
There are a lot of hidden mines associated with online bidding that can wipe you out. For example, we identified at least five different property types that you must know before you bid. Do Not Bid before knowing this because you can lose a lot more than your bid deposit if you acquire the property and are not able to dispose of it because of the occupancy and status types.
It is important that you have a clear exit strategy and that you know your bid sweet spot range before you bid. For example, we won a conditional bid even though the reserve was not met. The formula we use is After Repair Value less (profit, holding, marketing, repair and contingency costs). Our checklist has over 80 items that we use so we are not caught of guard with unexpected repair costs.
These costs will differ for each investor based on their goals, experience, skill set, resources and exit strategy so they must be carefully measured before you bid.
However, by knowing our numbers, we were confident in our bid amount and we knew when to stop bidding regardless of whether we won or not.
However, after we won the bid, there were some unexpected requirements that we had to follow to secure the bid because our deposit was still at risk. We had done our own title search so we just included their closing costs in our profit driven model.
When we purchased occupied properties, we used strict criteria to help mitigate our risk so we developed a checklist to get critical property information before we bid.
Once we closed on the property, our first goal was to help the occupant secure a buyer so they did not have to move. These strategies were very successful and created a win-win for us and the foreclosed owner.
We also used strategies like cash for keys and other incentives and negotiating techniques to work with the foreclosed owner that we wanted to move so we could get possession and prevent property abuse.
Based on the reviews I have read, I believe that proper training and profit driven bidding strategies would alleviate a lot of the problems that consumers are experiencing because the auction.com technology model is different from traditional real estate, foreclosures, etc. and consumers have no representation.
We share a lot of strategies, secrets and recommendation on our free webinar at

https://7figure.easywebinar.live/registration

You can succeed in online real estate investing but in my opinion, you must be trained.
Respectfully,
Sandra Brazelton, Broker, CRS, GRI, MBA - Online Auction Consultant
*******@sandrabrazelton.com
https://7figure.easywebinar.live/registration

Okay, so like many I stumbled across Auction.com and wondered if this was a scam when they asked for $2500. 00 for a bidding deposit. This is not a scan. HOWEVER, I encountered countless times of poor customer service, fees, unethical practice and misleading information.

Here is my story:

Mid-West Bank Foreclosure Under 40K

I was caught up in their computer bidding system and did not win the bid. I couldn't believe the bid went that high, but realized their computer was just bidding $2500 over what I entered. They even did a $5 over bid at the very end to "play the game." They kept adding 1 or 3 minutes to the "countdown" to keep me engaged. They made it seem like several investors were on the line and everyone wanted this hot poperty. Ha. I was called a week later and told I was the highest "real" bidder and I could make an offer. I made an offer and it was accepted by the bank who actually owned the property. (The reserve was way higher than value). I did call the actual bank and they told me I had to go through Auction.com... So that answers one question for you. I'll later explain how other properties hit the market on places like Realtor. Com months after being on Auction.com

I'm sure you looked through all of their Property Disclosure reports. They have all of these fancy reports I reviewed 10 times. I looked through everything on their Auction.com deck. I walked around the property, but could not get inside. Not until I actually paid the $2500. 00 and signed a purchase agreement did I get a report I had never seen. This report was filled out by the company who went in and secured the property. This was a hand written, fill in the blank type report that contained very important information like the roof leaked, holes in the walls, appliances gone, floors needed replaced etc... Information I assumed could possibly be wrong, but hoped for the best. They hid this information until I sent the signed purchase agreement. When I called I was transferred to a "hard sales" person who told me if I don't like it, then just bail out. So here I am... $2500 out of my account and I now find out all of these issues that will cost me 5-7K in repairs.

I had a decision to make... do I continue or jeopardize my $2500. 00. I moved forward, but was not happy and still not happy with them keeping important information from me until locking into the deal. Information they had months prior. If I would have seen that report prior to making an offer I would have came down about 5-7K in my offer.

So, it is my fault? Yes. Is it unethical, wrong, misleading and possibly illegal to hide known property information to a seller. Yes. They tell you as-is and have information to keep their side "legal." But is hiding information until the $2500. 00 clears illegal? They could have put that report on their website for me to see prior to making an offer.

During the process I was continuously moved down the assembly line. I would work with a team member for a few days and on to the next. I had 48 hours to submit information and then would wait days to hear back from the team. Basically, Auction.com is the middleman in a assemly line property transaction.

Fees: This part is still a mystery. No realtor, appraisal, inspector etc... Nothing. I asked about the fees at the beginning of the process and was told they could be $300 to $1500. I asked why would it be $1500... no realtor, no appraisal etc... I assumed it would be on the low end because I did my own title search and didn't request any additional work. I was wrong. So wrong.

They hit me with $1700+ on fees and told me I had no choice but to pay or lose my $2500. Their "closing" was $900... I was called on the "closing" day with the wrong lock box code numbers and eventually got the right numbers. I paid $200 for a title "search" I already did. I was forced to pay this when I had already completed this on my own. $200 for a title "exam." $175 for a title "curative," $75 for a "deep prep." $60 for a title "udpate." $25 "courier fee." $25 for a "wire fee". You pay your bank $25 for a wire transaction and then Auction.com charges you another $25 to accept your money. I'm not making this stuff up... I'm reading this from my closing document. There were about 8 fees that totaled the $1700+ and about $100 were actually legit fees like Deed prep and county filing fees. Once again, I was told I had to pay these fees or lose my $2500. I told them I wanted to choose my own closing Agency. I was told I had to pay $700 in closing whether I use my own or theirs. So basically you are going to pay the fees one way or another or lose your down payment.

Like I said, If I knew this info at the beginning I would have adjusted my offer. I was surprised by about 7K in repairs, fees etc. that they KNEW and shared after I signed deal.

Would I recommend Auction.com? NO.

If this information isn't enough to stay away, here are some tips:

Do not pay above or near the "reserve". I've seen several properties on Auction.com not meet the reserve and ended up on Realtor.com 10K less a month later. One real example was a property on Auction.com with a reservce of $34,500. This was on there for about three months going to "auction" every other week. I just saw the same property on Realtor.com for $25,000.

Expect Fees and new info after signing. Just plan on paying $1500+ in "closing" costs. And you might find out surprising info about the house after you sign and pay $2500.

Understand that Auction.com will make money through their "closing" fees. They will also charge the bank or home owner 5%. (*These numbers are on a under 40K house) So if you bid a property more expensive I imagine the fees are even more.

The closing docs. Showed Auction.com raking in $3-4K on the deal. They had the bank pay for all of their fancy reports and were basically the assembly line for the process.

In short, I overpaid around 7K for the property because they didn't disclose known information until after I signed the purchse agreement. I had to make a decision to lose my down payment or continue. I moved forward and obviously still upset about the process. They are like the cable company of real estate. Too good to be true.
Buy your properties at your local Sherriff sale, craigslist or even Realtor.com. You are going to pay the same fees and "closing" with Auction.com as you would using the standard method.

It was convenient I didn't have to meet anyone in person or go to a bank, but, I paid for it.

My final thought... Not A Scam, But Unethical, possibly illegal selling practice.

Read all the other reviews and they will tell all!

On December 20,2017 Auction.com is holding it' 4th or 5th auction for 356 Cypress Drive Mastic Beach NY. No problem. So far every auction ended with Reserve not met. Even with Auction.com bidding for the seller. Here is where it gets interesting. If you are unlucky enough to win you will have several problems. The house was condemned by the Mastic Beach code enforcement. By the time the issues were resolved you had a mold problem. Yes the pipes burst. The house was in foreclosure for 9 years.So you know how it was taken care of.
There are several renters in the building now and we all know what's going to happen when they are evicted. The bank offered them a lot of money to move but the offer was a joke so everyone is still there.
So now here is the interesting part. Go to the New York ecourts Supreme court and look up Rob Metel and you will see that he has a motion on the calendar in April 2018.So they will be able to stay in the house for at least until then. You will then have to evict and that will take several months. So why is this interesting? Because Auction.com knew all about this. The new owner will be waiting at least 7 months to get in. By that time you had better have a lot of money to beg the current renters not to destroy the home or have even more money for a full rehab.
After you buy it you will need to deal with the town. Lots of issues that are still open.

Want to get out of the sale? The 95 page document favors the seller so you are screwed.
Are all the homes; like this situation? No but this is a bad deal at just about any price.

Pay the current homeowner $100 to let a home inspection company come in and look around. This will be the best investment you will ever make.

So why does every auction keep going down in price? I' honestly don't know. So far the high bidder was the 1st auction coming in at $105k.

Liens on the property- That's why lawyers charge $350 an hour so find out before you place a bid. FYI the Suffolk County Social Services has a $200,000 lien on the property. It is no where near that amount probably about $6,000 according to the owner, but again have your lawyer check out everything. I'm talking about getting a real estate lawyer not a slip and fall lawyer.

My gut feeling is that after a few more auctions it will end up back with HUD.

Oh, about the pipes that burst... the home is now almost all electric so you will go broke heating it in the winter.

Tl; dr: This site is basically a collection of bad banking practices that caused the economic meltdown. Scammy, spammy, untrustworhty, and 100% bad for the buyer. I'd stay away. I wish I already had.

I went to auction.com to bid on a Freddie Mac property. It was on the market for a while, I went to look at it and after the real estate agent representing Freddie Mac wouldn't even take my bid because he felt it was too low. I called Freddie Mac to get a better understanding of their selling agency policies and in normal foreclosure bank fashion they used double speak and shifting to not actually say something that would give them responsibility. Nevertheless This experience made me feel like the listing on auction.com was legitimate.

So when the agent emailed me to let me know it was going to auction, everything felt at least normally legitimate. I was already a little annoyed because I feel like banks aren't awesome and the use of an auction site was to get the highest price while shifting all the undesireable contract terms and costs to the buyer. But, I set my top price lower to accomodate for this and registered for the site without even thinking about whether it was safe or scammy.

I placed the first bid, having read that they would proxy bid to try to brng it up to reserve. I was already annoyed with this, but it felt close enough to business as usual that I just decided to stick to my number and if it wasn't out of reserve to not worry about trying to buy it.

After I registered I placed a proxy bid at the lowest price and then watched it carefully wondering what it would actually sell for and if there was a reserve (not initially disclosed until the auction started). Sure enough there was a reserve, but the reserve amount was not disclosed. Frustrating, but business as usual for one sided power transactions. I got the first big in at 6 am. At about 10 am I was notified someone out bid me. I looked and saw the reserve was not met and just assumed it was the counter bidding process. I ignored it because initially the bid increments were set waaay to high at $10,000 and with a counter bid that meant it was already out of my top price. Then the bid increment was dropped to 5000. I assumed this was the bank realizing it messed up, as the property was basically ignored except for my opening bid and their counter bid. I watched it a bit more closely because something was starting to nag at me and because I realized that any smart buyer would *not* buy this property above a certain amount. Then I saw another bid, and for a second, thinking there was another bidder in the mix, thought about going up just $5,000. But that nagging feeing got to me again.

I realized that as long as the property was under reserve, in the pattern happening on this property, that the last bid was likely a counter bid. Which meant that auction.com had counter bid *twice*in a *row*. And also meant I was the only one in the auction.

At first I was accepting of the coutner bidding thing, pre-auction, just grumbling about how if there was a reserve price with a desire to counter bid like that, they should just start the auction at the reserve price. But during the auction it really became clear to me that when the seller is bidding to boost the price to the reserve, its *not* an auction. Its a negotiation. The site should not use this feature and even pretend to be an auction. Its absolutely shill bidding, and even when disclosed, its dishonest and lacking integrity. Its absolutely the bank's (and auction.com by being the mediary that sets part of the terms) desire to maxmize all the best things while shifting all the worts things about property transfer, but disguising it as an auction.

Its not worth the extra premium, the disencfranchising terms, that loss of protection of the inspection and title work as part of the contract, if the seller through the auction.com designed process, *bids against the buyers*.

I did a search then and came across this site and honestly my heart sank. This was a joint venture buy and its the other guys credit card and phone number on the account, I have to inform him of the risk that A) his credit card number might get stolen and b) he might get spammy calls from an auction site thats only supposed to deal with me, to try to bring up his bid. All because I legitimately thought this was a legitimate avenue based on working with a realtor and freddie mac.

I've only been to two other (live) auctions that were like this and I can tell you nobody wants to work with those banks or auctioneers again. The difference is, that if the second one gets caught, they'll get their license yank/the first bank ended up shooting themselves in the foot, but auction.com is allowed to run this scammy unethical shill bidding process and be legitimized by also ehtically-compromised mortgagers. Worse, the computer clearly kept bidding against itself, the reserve was never over come, and at the end of the auction, the listing completely disappeared, without any trace in the dashboard, history or on the site. Other auctions in the region that concluded are still listed, but marked over. This one is just gone, no trace. I'm guessing by the other reviews its because it didn't sell and it will be back on the auction site again until the house falls down (totally happens in this region, banks insisting on a certain price, dropping it only to still be too high given the deterioration, and then the city tearing it down). Update: Yup, a day after I wrote this review it appeared again as an auction, with the same upening bid, lower bidding increments, and no hint that it was already failed auctioned once. They're going to dragnet for a sucker for this house paying too much, and its going to be sad.

I'm giving two stars rather than one because, while the whole process was uncomfortable and misleading, even where they were upfront, they haven't actually screwed me yet.

I'd like to say I can't believe Freddie Mac would use this site, but the truth is, it and other mortgagers are probably just as home-sale-judgment-and-integrity impaired as the site, they've just had a much longer history to get themselves seen as legitimate in the way they operate business.

I wish I would have looked at these reviews and taken a pass. Now I need to worry about whether they will screw or annoy my business partner, potentially damaging our relationship, because I'm the one who suggested we bid on this site.

The name of the site is misleading because this is not a true auction, not as long as the seller can counter bid. Thats really negotiating while trying to trick buyers into think they are attending an auction with the rules and benefits of an auction and actually bidding. Call it negotiate.com or something else. Not really an auction site. Just another avenue for skeevy mortgagers.