These days just about anything can be, and is, sold at online auctions. Due to the size of the transaction, buying and selling real estate at online auctions has been almost non existent.
This is all changing with some US counties moving toward using online auction systems to sell foreclosed properties. Florida is one such state that is starting to embrace auctioning off foreclosed houses and homes online.
According to RealtyTrac, one in every 140 state housing units has a foreclosure filing, with 62,000 properties going into foreclosure in August alone.
Several Florida counties are establishing online auctions using external service providers such as Realauction.com. Due to the sheer volume of foreclosed properties, selling them by auction the old fashioned way was time consuming and labor intensive. Holding foreclosure auctions online will streamline the process resulting in faster sales while using less staff resources. Buyers will also have access to a wider range of foreclosure sale information than before – much of it at the click of a mouse.
One further advantage with holding online auctions is that they can, and often do, attract a wider audience. Buyers from literally all around the world can bid and buy at online auctions which opens up the foreclosure properties to more buyers.
One downside is that buyers may not get to physically inspect the property before auction. However, this should not stop many, many buyers and investors from using these online auctions to get a real estate bargain.
