For those of you who’s been following my blog, I apologize for not having any updates, but I’ve been extremely busy. I have a co-worker who’s telling me I’m a type B person for not planing my wedding. I just laughed.
As for many of you have been following my blog, you know I’ve bought a property unseen, I bought it online through auction.com. When I look up the rating, I saw many one star rating, people are angry at the site, many lose their earnest money, and long wait for closing, and poor communication. Here are some of the bad reviews.
Language like worst business, bad customer service, they bid against you, cancel sale and hold on to your deposit after they cancel the sale, auction.com has a bad rep. Not to mention, they only give you a quit deed, if there is people illegally living in the house, you have to evict them out yourself. It’s a bad situation to get yourself into.
I bought one property anyway, you saw the pictures from my last post, they didn’t allow access into the house, so to my surprise, there were 2 feet of dirt in the house when they were trying to fix the basement. My prilimary estimation of cost of renovation to get the house up for rent is $15-20k, on top of the buying price $57k. While there are many good reasons to buy it, which I won’t repeat here, I want to focus on my experience buying at auction.com.
The process:
I saw a house that I like, listing $15k starting bid at auction.com. I used Zillow.com to look at what it was for closed for, so I know what’s the reservation price was. It was $53.5k, I bid $55k. It was easy to click and outbid yourself when you’re emotionally involved. I love the house and the location. I should have just bid the reservation price, but I was at $52.5 the next step up was $55. I should have talked to my brother, because he said I should have let it go at $45, let auction.com contact me to negotiate the price.
An hour after winning the bid, it was March, 28, 2019, auction.com contact me. Walk me through the process. Let me know I need to place the deposit. 5%, come to find out, that’s auction.com realtor or listing fee.
They really went quiet after receiving. My money, as they demanded wiring, which I used bank transfer instead, which took 3 days.
They sent me the closing cost, which I see the closing charges everywhere, so I shopped around for a lawyer who know my Midwest town’s law. Thinking they will give me an edge. My brother really scolded me for this, because I wouldn’t have lost any money if I walk away had I used auction.com company – servicelink. On the phone, they sounded like they are separate, but they are not. The same bad customer service, who know everyone from each side, don’t let them fool you.
My lawyer keeps asking for the closing, they keep stalling to disclose the fee, did mention about a violation. Which I kept asking what it was, there was only silence from them. So, we went and did the HUD (my lawyer said there was a violation for having trash out in the yard. Keep in my this property is park front so all the neighbor has immaculate yard, they didn’t want a bad heard give them a bad name, so they reported this house.
I signed the HUD, send the money to my lawyer, all I needed was a signature from the buyer and it’d be done. My lawyer told me that it’d be done on Friday May 6th, 2019. (Schedule close was May 4th, 2019). I sent my team to “break” into the house. I got a locksmith. My brother yelled at me for using one, he could have done it for free. 🙂 we clean the house up, graded the yard to prevent further water damage. Clean the basement out to prevent molding.
But I didn’t see my lawyer send back the closing confirmation, they couldn’t get them to sign. Come to find out, they haven’t clear the violation. This deal was off indefinitely. Auction.com told me I could have my earnest money back. But by now, I’ve invested in lawyer, abstract, cleaning, yard, locksmith, my time, blogging time, 🙂 my retirement home :).
My brother told me that it usually will clear out, it will take a little time. 1-week after that, the told me the volation is clear. I signed all the paper work on Monday, and today my lawyer was able to get them to sign, the delay closing of almost 2 weeks, earning me $73 in tax credit, it don’t have to pay tax for 2 weeks. 🙂
In conclusion: I can confirm that auction.com’s customer service is terrible. ServiceLink customer service is horrible. Real estate lawyer are lawyer, they will cold blooded ply take your money whether you close the house or not. I bought and close the house in around 6 weeks (3/28/16-5/17/16). For something that close with cash, this is pretty bad. For a forclosed, 6 weeks is the right amount of time.
Update about myself:
– continue to coach soccer 10 hours a week
– still work a full-time job
– found the replacement tenant for the up and coming turnover
– still looking for a person for room to rent
– been trying to get the sagging roof fixed, but I had a stove that need to be replace, and water heater went out – come to find out, the panel need replacement. So, I haven’t finish yet.
– I need to power wash the house, deck, so I can repaint.
– I’ll replace all the kitchens, bathroom, and stairs with vinyl and carpet for stairs.
That’s be it for this year maintenance, and save money in case hvac goes out.
– I will make a website so I can write about our wedding, keep rsvp, pictures and videos. But this project won’t get started for another 2 weeks. I am a busy bee, not type B. :). One problem at a time. A big wedding will take place, I just need to get through this crazy period, for my life to calm down. 🙂
Well, I hope you all have a great evenings! If you’re thinking about investment property, I hope this review would give you an accurate details to help you make an informed decision about buying property through auction.com. I, too, give auction.com 1-star rating.
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