Many have asked questions about auctions. Frankly, an auction should only be considered as a last resort, or your last exit available. First thing you would do is try to market it through a traditional channels depending on how much time you have and if I agreed to make big monthly payments in the process. Many contract have been signed well after the auction failed. With some properties, we literally could not get a bidder to bid even though we had several people there that paid a deposit. We just couldn't seem to get the thing open. So we just put it on the market. Next thing, we had a realtor bringing us a contract.

You can also try putting it in the MLS system. You may find yourselves going back and forth several times, but it will usually pay off with a signed contract. So there's all kinds of ways to sell them. In fact, you can do the open house thing as well. But when you get houses in the higher price range, it would be in your best interest to get some good quality realtors involved and cut a deal with them as well.

In certain distress situations, networking with the realtors might possibly be good as well. The realtors need to clearly understand what you're doing. It's not a good way to option them. You know realtors and options don't mix very well unless it's not a listed property. The exception to this might be if they're bringing you a referral because either it's expired, or they for some reason, they can't list it.

Auctions are great but they're not the cure all. They don't work every time and you have to get 85% of the value, so most of the time they don't make any sense. Try to market it for what it's worth before you throw it on the auction block. Of course if you're in a hot market or hot area sometimes the auction will bring you what it's worth. But this is not the case most of the time.

Regarding an auctioneer, you will want to find a really good auctioneer with great credibility who can do the job. They don't even have to be in the area number one, you can use national auction companies. There's a company called Auction of America that comes highly recommended. You just call up any of the numbers and they'll refer you to one in your area. If none are available in you area, many of em will fly from area to area. They don't need to know squat about your area to auction off a house. This is because they aren't going to appraise your house, they're only going to come in and hold an auction. They just need to know how to get it marketed, get people to it with your help, and then stand up there and have an auction.

About the Author