Auction.com

Author: Kalicia Bateman

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The Good

• Customer support
• Listing information
• Lender partnerships

We liked the multiple levels of customer support for Auction.com. One of the most important things that was included was a good live chat paradigm. We were able to get information on how to use the website and find information about auctions. Sometimes, Auction.com will list a property that will be auctioned off "in-the-real-world." We asked about auction location information for a property and were provided with the date, location, and time of a physical auction. We also liked the Knowledge Base of the website. One of the important things about the knowledge base was that it had screenshots for how to place a bid in an online auction. For "live" auctions, there is information on getting information about the property, the location of the live auction, and other information provided in the live auction tutorial. There are also some good hints and tips for purchasing a property in an online auction. Auction.com provides tips for participating in an auction safely and how to attend a property showing before the property is to sell. Another thing that we liked about Auction.com was the information that was included in the listings. We liked the following information:

• A complete description of the property.
• Detailed photos of the property (not as extensive as the Realty Store).
• Information about the debt owed on the foreclosure, as well as other information about the foreclosure process and the current manager of the property.
• Information on the auction and how to participate in the auction if it is live.

We also liked the fact that Auction.com reached out to lenders, helping buyers get pre-qualified for financing before an auction. Auction.com has partnerships with the following lenders:

• Chase
• Bank of America
• Greenlight
• Nationstar
• Auction.com Finance

On each individual property, there will be a listing about the financing options available through the seller. We also saw that each property listing includes a description about whether or not a property could be financed and through which lender. There are financing options available for owner-occupied homes, second homes and investment properties, and there are multiple fixed rate and adjustable rate terms depending upon the property's financing opportunities.

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The Bad

• Bidding process
• Price accuracy
• Website

There were some problems with the bidding process, especially with the online auctions. Some property owners reported that they had issues with closing the final sale. One seller reported that it took them a year to close a sale on an auctioned property. Auction.com also promised that they would provide the seller with a small commission if they took care of the paperwork for the sale, but Auction.com failed to follow through. Another concern we had with Auction.com was the accuracy of pricing information. In the online real estate industry, many companies get their information from "third-party" sources. With the Terms of Service and other resources available online, we had a hard time gauging what information was accurate and if it came from a third-party source or not. One complaint, on www.complaintboard.com, listed that their property had been listed as an erroneous foreclosure, which can be damaging to the reputation of the original property owner. In regards to the website, there are a few opportunities for improvement:

• You cannot access foreclosure property information without creating an account with Auction.com (which is free).
• The search tool does not contain as many search filters as other sites, such as Realty Store and Zillow. With Auction.com, you can sort search results with the following filters: best match, auction end time, price, bid price, and square footage. We'd like to see home type, number of bedrooms/baths, and other criteria into the filtering of search results.

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The Bottom Line

We have hesitations against recommending Auction.com as an online real estate website. Here are our concerns:

• Some erroneous listing of properties as being "foreclosed," when in fact the homeowner returned a property to a financing agency voluntarily.
• The lack of search filtering to reflect the type of property (specifically, in regards to residential property listings).
• Properties that had already been auctioned still being listed on the website. We feel that as soon as an auction has happened, it should be pulled from Auction.com's listings.

We did like the following features of Auction.com:

• Live Chat help, which is a rarity in the industry.
• Detailed photos of listings, whether or not the property was residential or commercial.
• Probably the best knowledge base resource in the industry. There are screenshots and step by step directions for how to place a bid for a property.

Individuals looking for a property may not directly benefit from using Auction.com, but there are definitely benefits to using the website for purchasing properties at Auction.com if you are a real estate investor or are looking for a "flipping" opportunity to sell a foreclosed property.