AN essentially yeah. Remember these homes are foreclosed right? So the opening bid is usually the outstanding loan balance… perhaps even more if there are multiple loans… So yeah at least when I look at the list from of REOs I see that the auction price is usually the loan balance and the property received no bids, thus the lender was stuck with it… I guess the lenders think they can still get more for the homes by putting them on the MLS and marketing them… Just my guess.