If you have real estate to sell or you are an investor looking for good investment opportunities you may want to consider online property auctions as a good option for finding what you need. With round the clock bidding and secure transactions available you can be sure you are protected when buying property.
Some will say that you should never buy a property you haven’t seen and if you do you deserve whatever you get. That may be so but what if the property you buy is a great deal? If you do not buy it then you will miss out on that deal.
There are three main types of online auctions, absolute, minimum bid and reserve. Minimum bid means just that, there is a price set by the seller and bids must start at that price and the seller will not accept any bid lower than that set price. Setting a minimum bid for the property being sold ensures that the seller will not have to consider a below market bid and helps the buyer by showing them how much money they need to join in on the bidding for that particular property.
The most popular type of online property auctions is the same as any auction you might come across offline, the absolute auction. An absolute auction is the type of auction where the highest bidder is sold the property. This is the type of auction where the seller does not care if they profit from the sale of the property, they just need to be out from underneath it for whatever reason.
The reserve type auction can be the most confusing of all the types outlined here. In reality, a reserve auction is a lot like selling your property in the traditional sense by listing your property with a real estate agent or doing for sale by owner. A minimum bid is set by the seller but the seller does not reveal what it is. Bids are subject to acceptance or rejection based on what that set price, or reserve price, is. Buyers do not like to place bids on this type of property auction because their offers are subject to confirmation and even if they place the highest bid they may lose out on the property.
When dealing with online auction sites be careful to understand what is binding and what is non-binding. A binding contract is one that you may back out of if necessary but will place you in danger of being black-balled in the online auction community if you fail to follow through with the deal. Some sites encourage feedback regarding deals that have taken place and you could receive a reputation for bad conduct on the auction sites. So act in good faith and always follow through with every deal you enter into.
Non-binding contracts mean that if certain situations are disclosed from the buyer to the seller or the seller to the buyer then the sale of the property can be voided without any consequences regarding the property auctions.