Much like looking through any of the online real estate listings i.e. Zillow, Redfin, Trulia, you do the same with the online auction sites. In this case Xome. I sorted through the inventory and saved several properties to my dashboard as favorites. I could set alerts and read thru the auction companies’ process for bidding on a property, get additional info and request a showing; pretty much all the things I am able to do with any real estate company. Please note, that not all properties are available for viewing. Also, this was a cash deal, where as some properties can be financed. This is how I found the Albany Park property. The Xome auction company uses realtors to represent their properties and their contact info is on the property information sheet as shown below.
I scheduled several site visits and saw the property. After running my fix n flip formula, I signed up for the auction to bid on the property. There is a fee refundable if you are not the successful bidder and forfeit-able if you do win the bid and do not follow through with the purchase. Next, you wait for the auction dates, which usually last several days long. As the bidding commences you can bid at any time and are able to see the most current and highest bid. You bid in larger increments until it nears the auction end time when it decreases. I bid on the Albany Park property right up the auction end time and a bit over my dollar limit. Once I was deemed the successful bidder I received instructions on next steps including the closing date and location, where to wire funds and what to bring to the closing. I won the bid on December 16, 2015 and closed on January 2, 2016. I must admit that this was an easy closing, not what I expected. The following are some screen shots from the auction.
