You Call This an Auction?

Hubby and I were all prepared to go to the Auction in late July. We registered on Hudson & Marshall's site, but after reading the fine print, and wading through their less-than-user-friendly website we bailed at the last minute. We are now on their mailing list, and received this yesterday in the mail:

“The Sellers have decided to allow prospective buyers the opportunity to submit offers at or above the original high bid amount….The Sellers will review the offers they receive on a first come first serve basis and notify the prospective buyer if they are willing to consider the buyers offer. The Seller reserves the right to, in its sole and absolute discretion, reject any and all offers as well as remove the property from sale at anytime.” On the other side is a list of 36 properties and their high bids. The highest bid is $470k with most high bids under $200k.

I want to know how this is any different than accepting offers through an agent. Seems to be the same, just the "agent" is attempting to organize all the potential buyers in one spot and gather the offers all at once...so the process might go a bit quicker.

Of course in addition to the bid a buyer must pay 5% buyer premium, 5% of highest bid earnest money, agree to a 30-day closing, and property taken “as-is”, cash contract, no contingencies.....Yikes, this is certainly not a gig for your Average Buyer. I think the only way this process might pay off, is if you are already tracking a house and it goes for auction and you stick to your reserve price or below.

They are closing the process today, August 3rd….but at least this time they have pictures which does reduce the search costs of determining the condition of each house.