I haven't seen this before in my area. It has come to the attention of several other people in my area as well.
There are these little yellow signs, similar to the one here, in my neighborhood. They are advertising an online auction for a home that was foreclosed on. This particular home is a 3BR, 1BA, 1,100 sqft home that was sold a couple of years ago for $54,000. The home appears to be in good condition.
The company holding the auction advertises it as an online only auction. Their name is Williams and Williams Real Estate Auctions (www.WilliamsAuction.com). You must go to their web site and register to receive more information, view the starting price, place any bids or find details as to how you can tour the home. Private buyers can register as well as realtors. Brokers must register if a sales associate wants to place bids for a client or themselves.
I was watching the auction of the home in my neighborhood. Anyone who's used eBay before knows you don't want to bid until the last few minutes. Any bids placed before that time just raises the price unecessarily. The auction started at $1,000 on November 14 at 12pm. Now, 2pm, November 18 the price is up to $11,500. One particular bidder has a maximum bid that has been overcoming other bids.
The week before the auction I tried 3 times to get access to the home by calling the 800 number. Each time I was told the auction company would call me back. For some reason they did not have a lockbox on the front door. The company reps I spoke with on the phone did not know why that was. I'm told interested parties have been entering the home through a window to tour the home.
When I was unable to get access to the home I stopped and looked in the windows. To my surprise was another agent's card taped to a front window. I called that agent and was surprised to hear what he said. Apparently, he had done the cleanup work on the home to prepare it for sale (it was a typical foreclosure). The bank that owns the home then let this auction company take over the sale leaving this agent out in the cold. He told me he plans to place a lien on the home to recover his expenses. I'm not sure a lien will be possible as the owner would have changed but whatever.
If you are a buyer interested in bidding on a home for auction on this web site call me at 270-994-3749.
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Bill:
Your situation seems a little unusual as most auction companies WANT prospective buyers to have the opportunity to inspect the property prior to bidding.
As a full time real estate auctioneer I can tell you the reason for no lock boxes is to give the auction company complete control over who goes in and out of the property. Usually there are two scheduled previews for 2 to 3 hours each where members of the public can inspect the property. We require all prospects or groups of bidders to register to enter the property as a method of showing our seller customer who visited the property and for follow up marketing.
I simply cannot imagine anyone from the auction company suggesting a prospective buyer crawl through a window to look at a home, it does not make sense.
Williams & Williams is on of the larger real estate auction companies in the USA with a solis reputation. I personally know Tommy Williams who is the founder and past President of the National Auctioneers Association and the company is a pretty straight shooter.
They do mostly bank work in foreclosures or REO properties which is why the agent lost the listing to the auction company after not being able to sell the property.
If he has a beef over payment, it should be with the bank he was working for and not the auction company, thats for sure.
Filing a lein is about the worst way to keep doing business with the bank who owns the property, he shoudl simply submit an invoice for payment. If the agent spent money on the cleanup and property prep, then he is entitled to be paid based on the contract he had with the bank. If he did work that he was not contracted to perform on the property thinking he was going to sell it and earn a commission then sadly he is probably out of luck.
I have been selling real estate using online auctions with a live bidding element since 1998 and it works very well. You did the right thing by going to look at the property before bidding on it and contacting the auction company.
If you want to find out more about auctions check out the NAA website or www.auctioneers.org