Does anyone have insight into the previous auction and what happened to the properties afterwards?
I am curious whether the properties that ‘sold’ at the auction actually ended up in an escrow where ownership changed hands to a new homeowner.
As neto mentions, these auctions probably have shills at them and I suspect it is not uncommon for the shills to end up ‘buying’ the property.
There are also the practices of ‘rolling’ (where the auctioneer ‘rolls’ past a price-point as though he received a bid) and ‘taking a bid off the wall’ (where the auctioneer accepts a bid from a non-existent bidder). In both of these cases the auctioneer could end up with a ‘sold’ property that had to be re-auctioned because the final bid wasn’t from a real buyer.
Caveat emptor at these auctions. There are no laws against shills, rolling or taking bids off the wall. Understand that these auctions are being run by typical REIC slime who will stoop to very low levels to stick somebody with an over-priced house and earn a commission in the process.
Any insights into previous auctions? Are these properties actually coming off the market? Deeds being recorded showing new owners?