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Account Creation
for Agents
homesale.plus Sale
Auction Sale
Help for Sellers & their Agents
Standard Offers with
Contingencies & Transparency
Bids with Price
Only, No Contingencies
Standard Offers with Contingencies & Transparency: Overview
FlexBid Sales combine the best features of an auction with the familiar protections of standard, negotiated transactions. Sellers choose their offer window—typically 2 weeks, but this can be set to any time period desired—and then watch buyers compete by submitting full offers that include price, down payment, inspection and finance contingencies, and desired closing dates. All offers and their terms are fully transparent, so everyone sees exactly where the market stands. In addition to the 5 offer parameters, other terms can be entered via buyer comments that accompany offers, and these are also visible to all participants.
Account Creation & Linking.
It's recommended that both the agent and their client create accounts so that the accounts can be linked. This will allow for the property to be listed under the seller's own account and for the agent to manage the sale on their behalf. However, this is optional, and the agent can simply create their own account and list on behalf of their client directly.
Our required information for a standard user account includes name, address, phone number and email address. Upon registration, a confirmatory email will be sent to you - you agree to keep your registration information confidential and allow homesale.plus to communicate with you: These procedures allow us to protect all of our registrants.
For agents, there is some additional information required pertaining to their team and/or brokerage and their real estate license (state license number). Once registered, agents can optionally link client accounts to their own. This is a simple process which only requires submission of an email address (the address that the client provided for their homesale.plus account). The client will receive the request for the accounts to be linked, along with a verification code that the client must give to their agent. Once the agent receives the code they can complete the process of linking the accounts. Again, linking the accounts allows the agent to manage the client account on their behalf while leaving the client full control and access.
Listing.
The second step is to provide homesale.plus the property's listing ID in the MLS (the local or regional Multiple Listing Service) and access to original photos in a manner that they can be downloaded all at once, for example via a dropbox or Google Drive account. These two things are all the homesale.plus project manager needs to create the draft homesale.plus property listing. When the draft listing on homesale.plus is created, the agent (and seller if they have registered and their account linked to the agent’s) will both be notified and will have access to review it before it is activated (published to the public on homesale.plus). When it is activated, the agent/seller will receive another notification.
Once the sale begins, the seller and their agent will receive email and text notifications as offers are made. There is a predetermined timeframe during which offers may be submitted, generally two weeks, but this period is at the seller and their agent's discretion.
Running the Sale.
Upon activation of the homesale.plus listing, and until the offer period ends, registered buyers will be able to submit offers. Buyers must submit a pre-approval letter or financial statement and be approved to participate in the sale by the seller’s agent (or homesale.plus can approve buyers on the seller’s behalf). These documents can be viewed and approved from the homesale.plus property listing page. Again, offers include five parameters: Price, down-payment amount (100% if the offer is cash), whether the buyers wishes to have an inspection contingency, number of days required to settle, and the type of finance contingency (Conventional, FHA, VA or Cash if no contingency). Buyers can also submit comments (as can sellers, and all comments are visible to all participants), which can modify the terms of their contingencies and add conditions to the offer. For example, a buyer might offer to remove the appraisal contingency from their finance contingency, or make their inspection contingency 'as-is.' A buyer could also add a request, perhaps for seller help with closing. Also, if the seller has chosen to include it, there may be an option to choose to use the seller’s preferred Title company. In this case, the Title company costs will be published with the homesale.plus listing.
If an offer is made in the last ten minutes of the offer period, an additional ten minutes will be added to the clock, and this ten minute process will repeat until no further offers are made. When the clock finally runs down, a new, seller decision period begins and is displayed on the timer. This period is also predetermined - generally for three hours but this is also at the discretion of the seller and their agent. During this period, the seller must decide whether to accept an offer. Doing so only requires the click of a button, which homesale.plus can do on the seller agent’s behalf, and all participants are notified of the outcome (notifications go out regardless of whether an offer is accepted). During the seller decision period, the seller agent may negotiate offline with buyer agents, and the seller decision period may be extended to accommodate such negotiation. Once an offer is accepted, the listing and buyer agents work with their clients to get a ratified contract and proceed to closing as usual.
Your homesale.plus Control Panel
Once your listing is published and the sale is set, you can monitor the action in two ways. The first is from the property listing page, which shows the current offers and has links to a detailed offer history. You can see all of the information that has been provided (documents provided by users registered to make offers on your property) and watch the offers as they are made. You can also track activity from the My Listings section of your Control Panel on homesale.plus. You can track everything both in real-time and anytime after the. Your homesale.plus account gives you unprecedented power and control over the sale of your property.
Your Control Panel can be accessed from the upper right corner of the homesale.plus website. When you are logged in, you will see a box with a message that reads "Hello" followed by the username you created when you registered. By clicking that box, you will see a menu that includes the following items:
- My Listings
- My Offers
- My Bids
- My Account Home
In the My Listings section of your Control Panel, you will see the following options:
- Drafts
- Active
- Scheduled
- Successful
- Unsuccessful
- Ended
The My Offers menu item allows you to track offers placed on your listing. The Drafts section shows all listings that have been created but that have not been published. Only a homesale.plus Administrator or Project Manager can publish a listing, which creates a sale. The Active section shows all of your listings that are currently available to place offers on. The Scheduled section displays all of your published listings for which there is an upcoming sale. The next three sections are for sales that have ended - those shown in the Successful section have sold while those in the Unsuccessful section have not.
Access My Listings to see Draft, Scheduled, Active, Successful, Unsuccessful, and Ended sales. Each entry shows full offer history, timestamps, and downloadable docs. From the “Hello YourUserName” menu you can access your account at any time.
Straight Auctions: Bids with Price Only, No Contingencies
Auction Sales generally run 3 days, with a pre-auction listing window of 1-2 weeks. Both of these time periods can be adjusted in accordance with the seller’s wishes. In an Auction Sale, buyers are bidding price alone—there are no inspections, financing or other contingencies. All sales are final and as-is. Sellers set a reserve price in advance; the highest bidder who meets the reserve wins and the buyers and listing agent/seller are notified of the results. The listing agent/seller is also notified of all bids as they are made, and buyers are notified when they are outbid by another buyer. At auction close, the buyer with the highest bid above the reserve will be notified to contact the listing agent, execute a contract and send the deposit to escrow.
Account Creation & Verification
Creating a free user account is the same process as for FlexBid. In addition to creating a user account, to register for an Auction Sale buyers must accept the Terms of Participation and provide a credit card on which a refundable $2,500 hold can be placed (this is automatically released within one business day for non winners and held until the earnest money deposit is placed in escrow for the winner). No card is required to list or to participate in FlexBid Sales, this is for Auction Sales only.
Help for Buyers & their Agents
Please click here if you are a Buyer Agent in a FlexBid sale.
Standard Offers with
Contingencies & Transparency
Bids with Price
Only, No Contingencies
FlexBid Sales: Standard Offers with Contingencies & Transparency
Buying a property on homesale.plus is simple and easy, but before you get started you should familiarize yourself with a couple of key aspects of our marketplace. First, you should clearly understand the mechanics of how our sales work – the basic rules that govern the offer process. You should also be able to find and understand all relevant information relating to a property that you are interested in buying, and be comfortable with the terms of sale that apply to that property.
Account Creation.
In order to submit an offer you must have a free homesale.plus account. Our required information includes your name, address, phone number and email address (by registering you also confirm that you are 18 years of age, or the appropriate age of majority for your home state, are of sound mind and have the legal ability to participate and accept our Terms and Conditions). Upon registration, a confirmatory email will be sent to you - you agree to keep your registration information confidential and allow homesale.plus to communicate with you: These procedures allow us to protect all of our registrants.
For agents, there is some additional information required pertaining to their team and/or brokerage and their real estate license (state license number). Once registered, agents can link their client accounts to their own. This is a simple process which only requires submission of an email address (the address that the client provided for their homesale.plus account). The client will receive the request for the accounts to be linked, along with a verification code that the client must give to their agent. Once the agent receives the code they can complete the process of linking the accounts. Again, linking the accounts allows the agent to manage the client account on their behalf while leaving the client full control and access. While you may skip this step and make offers directly on your buyer’s behalf it is recommended that you create both accounts and link them.
Register for a Sale.
In order to make an offer on homesale.plus you must register for each sale you wish to participate in. Each sale has its own specific terms of participation, and you will be asked to read and accept these terms when you register for it.
The first step in registration for a sale is confirmation of your phone number. You can use the number that you provided for general website registration or you can enter a different one here, but to continue you must be able to receive a voice or text message from us. When you click the Get Code button, homesale.plus will send a text message to your phone containing a verification code (if you do not have a mobile phone you will receive a voice message with the code). When you receive the code, enter it in the Verification Code box and submit it by clicking the Verify Code button.
The second step is acceptance of our Terms of Participation, which you must acknowledge you have read and understood, and that you accept them. Our Terms of Participation can be read by clicking the highlighted text link. Please consider them carefully. Please read all of the disclosures in the text box as well as the full Terms of Participation by clicking the highlighted text as indicated. If you’ve read, understood and accept the terms, check the box, then click the Next button.
The third and final step is to provide a pre-approval letter from a lender, if you plan to finance your purchase, or a financial statement from a bank if you plan to offer cash. You should provide a letter or statement that supports the highest amount you think you might offer. If you don't, and you wish to make an offer that is higher than the amount supported by the documentation you provide, you will need to submit new documentation supporting the higher amount. When you’ve submitted the documentation, click Register.
And you’re ready to participate in the sale, you may now submit offers.
Submitting and Tracking Offers
If you decide to make an offer on a property, and have registered for the property sale, you can submit an offer by clicking the Make Offer button on the property listing page. This will bring up a form with five input fields - offer amount, down payment, inspection, days to close, and financing. Please enter the amount of your offer (and down payment) with numbers only - no commas or dollar signs. In the down payment field, enter the amount of the down payment you intend to make. When you enter the down payment amount, you will be shown the percentage of the sale price that the amount represents. For example, if you enter a purchase price of $200,000 and a down payment of $20,000, it will display 10%. If you enter the full amount, it will display 100% and, in turn, set the Financing field to CASH (because you are paying all cash for the property). Please indicate whether you wish to have an inspection contingency, enter the number of days to close (the amount of time you need from execution of a purchase agreement until settlement) and, finally, the type of finance contingency you require (the options are Cash - i.e., no contingency - Conventional, FHA and VA). In addition, if the seller has chosen the option, you will see a checkbox to use the seller’s preferred Title company – if this checkbox is present, you will find the Title company’s information and prices on the property listing page. When you have completed the form, click Review Offer. This will display a summary of your offer for your review. If you are satisfied with it, click Submit Offer.
Upon submission, you will be returned to the property listing page, where your offer will be highlighted in color, to distinguish it from other offers. You can also submit comments, which will be visible to the seller and all other buyers. You can use a comment to add conditions to your offer parameters, e.g., to request seller help with closing, or to modify one of your contingencies (for example, remove the appraisal contingency from a finance contingency). The seller can also submit comments directed at a buyer. The seller’s comments are also visible to all buyers.
You can modify an offer at any time during the offer period - the time remaining is prominently displayed on a timer that is always visible - by cancelling it or by submitting a new offer, which will replace the previous offer. If an offer is submitted during the last ten minutes of a sale, an additional ten minutes will be added to the clock. This is to allow all buyers to make their best offer in light of what the other buyers are offering. Unlike a standard sale, where buyers have no clear idea of what they are competing against, with homesale.plus a buyer need never lose a deal if they are willing to make the best offer.
When the clock finally does run down, a new, seller decision period will begin (generally three hours). During this period, the seller will decide whether to accept one of the offers. All buyers will be notified of the seller’s decision. If you are the winning buyer, from this point forward the transaction will proceed in the usual way. Note that the buyer agent only writes a contract if their offer is accepted.
Tracking Offers: Your homesale.plus Control Panel
Your Control Panel can be accessed from the upper right corner of the homesale.plus website. When you are logged in, you will see a box with a message that reads "Hello" followed by the username you created when you registered. By clicking that box, you will see a menu that includes the following items:
- My Listings
- My Offers
- My Bids
- My Account Home
In the My Bids section of your Control Panel, you will see the following options:
- Watching
- Active
- Offers
- Won
- Not Won
The Watching section shows all listings that you are interested in following. To add a property to this list, simply click the "Add to Watch List" link that you will find on the listing page for the property you are interested in. The Active section shows all of the sales that are currently active and for which you have registered. In the Won section are all the sales that you won, and in the Not Won section are those for which you registered but did not win. The Offers section will show you all properties that you have made offers on, current and past.
As mentioned, you will be notified of each offer as it occurs – by email and text. You can also review the entire offer history for a property via the Detailed Offer History button above the property photos. The offer history will show the details of every offer made by every participating buyers.
Auction Sales: Bidder Registration
The first step in bidder registration is confirmation of your phone number. You can use the number that you provided for general website registration or you can enter a different one here, but to continue you must be able to receive a voice or text message from us. When you click the Get Code button, homesale.plus will send a text message to your phone containing a verification code (if you do not have a mobile phone you will receive a voice message with the code). When you receive the code, enter it in the Verification Code box and submit it by clicking the Verify Code button.
The second step is acceptance of our Terms of Participation, which you must acknowledge you have read and understood, and that you accept them. Our Terms of Participation can be read by clicking the highlighted text link. Please consider them carefully. While homesale.plus tries to provide as much information as possible about the properties it auctions you are responsible for your own due diligence. Buying a property on homesale.plus is different from a typical, standard real estate transaction. Importantly, there are no contingencies – our auction sales are cash only and the properties are sold as-is. While you may certainly finance your purchase, your obligation to buy is not contingent on your ability to obtain a loan. Nor is it contingent upon an inspection or anything else. Please read all of the disclosures in the text box as well as the full Terms of Participation by clicking the highlighted text as indicated. If you’ve read, understood and accept the terms, check the box, then click the Next button.
The third and final step is to provide a credit card against which we can place a $2,500 hold. If you are not the winning bidder, the hold will be released within 1 business day of the end of the auction. If you are the winning bidder, it will be released one business day after you wire the purchase deposit to escrow. Note that if you wish to register for another auction before the hold is released, and the second auction is scheduled to end within 30 days of the time the hold was taken, it is not necessary for homesale.plus to take an additional hold - you can use the existing hold to bid on as many auctions as you wish if they fall within the same 30 day window. When you’ve completed the credit card form, click Register.
And you’re ready to bid. You can now participate in the auction.
Auction Sales: Submitting Bids
If you decide to bid on a property, and have registered for the property auction, you can submit a bid in two ways – by clicking the Quick Bid button, which will bid the minimum amount needed to become the current high bidder, or by entering an amount you wish to bid and clicking the Submit Bid button. While this is quite simple, there are a few things you need to understand about how bids are tallied, and we’ll use an example to make this clear.
Every auction has a minimum or opening bid – this is the amount that must be offered to start the process – for the purpose of explanation we'll use $50,000. Every auction also has bid increments. An increment is the amount that must be added to the previous bid in order to beat it. For example, if the current highest bid is $50,000, and the bid increment is $1,000, the next bid must be $51,000. So, if we open with the minimum bid of $50,000 by clicking Quick Bid, we’ll see that the Quick Bid price – the minimum that must be bid in order to become the high bidder – changes to $51,000.
Bid increments can vary with the amount of the current highest bid – on homesale.plus, there are currently two levels of bid increments: $1,000 for bids under $1,000,000, $5,000 for bids above $1,000,000. The bid increment determines the amount of every bid after the opening or first bid. However, your bidding is not limited by the bid increment. Homesale.plus employs PROXY BID, also referred to as AUTOBID, which allows you to set the maximum amount you are willing to bid and then, if necessary, automatically bid for you in the required increments. In this example, if instead of bidding $51,000 you were to bid $60,000 – homesale.plus would treat your bid as the maximum that you are willing to bid for the property: it would first bid $51,000, and continue to automatically bid for you, in increments of $1,000, up to $60,000. This means that you can set a maximum that you are willing to offer, sit back and watch what happens until the bidding either reaches that level or you become the winning bidder at some lower price. If the bidding were to exceed $60,000, you would have the option of setting a new, higher maximum.
So you participate in the action as it happens or, if you wish, set an entirely automatic bidding strategy – set the maximum you are willing to pay then walk away until the auction ends… You’ll be notified in real-time - by email and text message (please check to make sure you are receiving text bidding notifications from us if you are going to rely on text) - as each bid occurs, you’ll be notified if someone outbids you, and if you become the winner. You should be aware that, because other bidders may employ a similar strategy, it’s possible for the bidding to escalate very quickly. For example, if the current price is $50,000, and both you and another bidder set maximum bids of $100,000, the price will instantly become $100,000, and whoever entered the $100,000 amount first will be the current highest bidder.
The homesale.plus platform does NOT allow Bid Sniping, which is the practice of placing a bid in the last moments of an auction in order to win, attempting to eliminate the chance for other bidders to bid again. On the homesale.plus platform, if a bid is placed within the last 10 minutes of the auction, the auction time limit is extended an additional 10 minutes, and this will continue until no other bid is received for a period of 10 consecutive minutes.
Tracking Bids: Your homesale.plus Control Panel
Your Control Panel can be accessed from the upper right corner of the homesale.plus website. When you are logged in, you will see a box with a message that reads "Hello" followed by the username you created when you registered. By clicking that box, you will see a menu that includes the following items:
- My Listings
- My Bids
- My Account Home
In the My Bids section of your Control Panel, you will see the following options:
- Watching
- Active
- Offers
- Won
- Not Won
The Watching section shows all listings that you are interested in following. To add a property to this list, simply click the "Add to Watch List" link that you will find on the listing page for the property you are interested in. The Active section shows all of the sales that are currently active and for which you have registered. In the Won section are all the sales that you won, and in the Not Won section are those for which you registered but did not win.
As mentioned, you will be notified of each bid as it occurs – by email and text. You can also review the entire bidding history for a property via the Bid History link on the auction property page. The bidding history of an active auction sale will show you the current price - which is the amount of the most recent, highest bid - the number of bids made up to the current time, the time remaining in the auction, and the start and end dates of the auction. You’ll also see the username of the seller; the date, time and amount of each bid; and the username, partially obscured for privacy, of the bidder.
If you are the winner of an auction, you will be notified, again by text and email, and directed to submit your earnest money deposit to Escrow and execute the Contract of Sale.
FAQs
Nuts & Bolts
A. Send yourself a password reset via email.
- From the sign in page select the Forgot password? link or click here.
- Enter your email address associated with your account and click the [Submit] button.
- Check your email inbox. If the email does not arrive in your inbox be sure to check your junk mail folder or spam filter.
- Click the reset link in that email.
- Choose a new password.
A. You can change your password at any time.
- From your logged in account, go to your "My Account" area.
- From the left hand menu, select "Account > Password."
- Enter your current password.
- Choose your new password.
- Save your changes by clicking the [Change Password] button.
A. If you are not receiving expected site emails, please check the following:
- Check your junk mail folder or spam filter for the missing emails.
- Make sure that your email address, in your account settings, is entered correctly.
- Verify that your email client, such as Outlook, is not in “offline” mode.
- If you use a POP3 connection to retrieve your email, please verify that the emails were not downloaded to a different computer.
If you are still not receiving our emails, please contact us.
A. You can change your email address by editing your account details within your “My Account” area.
A. Every user must select a username for their account. The username can only contain letters, numbers, underscores, and hyphens. We recommend replacing all [spaces] with either an underscore or hyphen.
Incorrect: MY Username
Correct: MY-Username
Correct: MY_Username
Or, it says that the username selected is already in use.
Usernames are unique. Two users cannot share the same username. If you get a notice during registration that your username is already in use, you will need to select a different username.A. If you get a notice that your email address is already in use when creating an account, it means that you have already created an account with us at some point. If you do not remember your login information, please enter your email address into the forgotten password form and you will be able to reset your password and log in to your account.
Auction Sales
A. Homesale.plus provides an online bidding platform for buying and selling real estate in an auction format. (We also provide a unique, transparent transaction platform where buyers can make offers that include contingencies - i.e., parameters other than price - where all offers are visible to all participants: this is called FlexBid and is NOT an auction).
A. All types, but we specialize in investment and single family residential real estate.
A. Yes, we sell properties for any owner who wishes to participate as long as they have a licensed real estate agent.
A. In auction (non-contingent) sales, buyers pay a small commission on the high bid price, called a Buyer’s Premium (BP), which varies from property to property. The BP is added to the final bid price to determine the contract price. For example, if the winning bid is $100,000, and the BP is $3,000, this will result in a contract price of $103,000. In an auction sale, the buyer is responsible for all closing costs including transfer tax, title insurance (optionable to the buyer), recordation fees, etc. Note that in both an auction and a non-auction, homesale.plus sale, there can be a listing agent commission, a buyer agent commission and a fee to homesale.plus.
A. Homesale.plus tries to provide detailed property information for every property it auctions. Of course, buyers are responsible for conducting their own due diligence, but homesale.plus helps make this process as simple and streamlined as possible.
A. That's up to the seller of the property but in most cases you can visit the property before the sale.
A. We employ a simple 2 step registration process. Initially, you register to use our website - you only have to do this once and this registration is good for all of your future site activity. When you decide to bid on a property, you register for that specific auction by providing us with your credit card information. We place a $2,500 hold on your credit card, which is released within 24 hours of the end of the auction for all unsuccessful bidders. The hold on the winning bidder's card is released after the winning bidder executes the Contract of Sale and wires the Earnest Money Deposit. Please note that the credit card hold only applies to straight auction sales, not FlexBid sales - a credit card is not required to participate in a non-auction, homesale.plus sale.
A. Yes, the homesale.plus platform is available on most internet connected devices, from desktop and notebook computers to mobile devices such as phones and tablets.
A. No. The homesale.plus platform utilizes AutoBid: The bidder submits the maximum amount they wish to bid and our system automatically places bids on their behalf, starting with the next highest increment and continuing up to the maximum. This automatically makes the bidder's submission the highest bid, up to their maximum, without the need to continually monitor the bidding. If the bidder is outbid immediately, it is because another bidder has set a maximum that is higher than that set by the bidder.
A. You can, but the homesale.plus platform does NOT allow Bid Sniping - the practice of placing a bid in the last few seconds of an auction in order to win the auction by precluding other bidders from having the opportunity to bid against them.
A. The winning bidder will receive an email notice that they have won and will be asked to execute the Contract of Sale electronically. You will be required to send the indicated deposit to the title company. At settlement, you will be responsible for the sales price, plus any commissions and the Buyer’s Premium and the costs of closing.
A. Of course, but please remember that all of our auctions are cash transactions and are not dependent or contingent on financing. There are many lenders in the market, and homesale.plus can provide you with contact information for some of them.
A. Yes. We operate a special type of sale that provides complete transparency in an auction-like environment for buyers and sellers who typically would not participate in an auction called FlexBid. Most buyers of residential real estate need to be able to make offers that are contingent upon a number of factors, such as finance and inspection. Aside from sales of very high-end properties, and sales to investors - where buyers are able to purchase with cash and can sustain the risk of foregoing an inspection - most home sales are made to buyers who need contingencies. For these sales, homesale.plus provides an innovative, efficient and extremely effective method of sale.
Glossary
The property sells to the highest bidder — no reserve. Whatever the high bid is, the property sells for that amount.
Email notice you will receive when there is any activity in your account — notice of registration on our site, notice of registration for a specific auction, notice of your bid, notice that you have been out bid, notice that you won an auction.
Executed agreement between seller and homesale.plus to auction property online.
Schedule of upcoming auctions.
Used for all of our auctions. Bidder inputs the maximum amount they want to bid and our site bids on their behalf in minimum increments up to the maximum. Bidders can not see one another's maximums.
A legally binding offer to buy property.
Bid Sniping occurs when a bidder places a bid in the final seconds of the auction. This practice blocks other bidders from placing higher bids. We consider this unfair. In order to eliminate bid sniping, our site extends the bidding time by 10 minutes if a bid is placed in the final minutes of the auction. Therefore, our auctions only close when no bid has been placed for 10 consecutive minutes.
The minimum bid amount necessary to surpass the current highest bid. These increments vary in accordance with the current highest bid: For example, with a current highest bid of under $50,000, the homesale.plus BID INCREMENT is $250, so with a current highest bid of $49,750 the next bid must be $50,000. For bids greater than or equal to $50,000 and less than $100,000 the homesale.plus BID INCREMENT is $500. The BID INCREMENTS are listed with each auction.
An amount, designated as a percentage of the winning bid price, that homesale.plus charges the winning bidder at settlement. homesale.plus'S' Buyer’s Premium varies from property to property and generally is the lowest in the industry.
Closing is the final part of the transaction. Usually occurring within 30 to 45 days from the end of the auction, the closing transfers ownership of the property from the seller to the buyer.
Condominium Owner’s Association
This is the legal instrument that transfers property title (ownership) to the buyer and is normally recorded at the county land records office.
A $2,500 credit card or debit card hold that is required to bid on a property. The hold is shown on your bank statement as a pending charge. Holds are released for unsuccessful bidders within 72 houses of the close of the auction and upon receipt of the earnest money deposit by REXTAR Title Company for successful bidders.
There are several such documents that address lead paint, seller’s knowledge of conditions, possible tenant’s rights, etc. These are listed on the page for each auction as may be applicable. Bidders should familiarize themselves with these forms and consult their professional advisers as they may feel is necessary.
Bidders are always advised to conduct their own Due Diligence. We try to provide comprehensive information on the homesale.plus website about each auction property. However, bidders should always do their own investigation including inspections (if allowed), neighborhood research, determination of repair costs, review of inspection and title reports, and anything else that a prudent buyer would deem appropriate.
Entails borrowing money from a bank or lender to be applied to the purchase of a property. The borrower has the obligation to pay back the money to the lender, who will often put a lien on the property until the money is paid back. Homesale.plus can connect buyers with lenders, not related to our firm, that may be able to provide financing.
Homeowners’ Association
Standard form presented to the buyer by the settlement officer (also known as title company). The form shows the summary of the buyer's and seller’s transaction expenses or credits so that both parties can prepare for closing (settlement).
A professional home inspection is an examination of the current condition of a house. It is not an inspection to verify compliance with appropriate codes. A home inspection is a limited, non-invasive examination of the condition of a home, often in connection with the sale of that home. Home inspections are usually conducted by a home inspector who has the training and certifications to perform such inspections. The inspector prepares and delivers to the client a written report of findings. The client then uses the knowledge gained to make informed decisions about their pending real estate purchase. The home inspector describes the condition of the home at the time of inspection but does not guarantee future condition, efficiency, or life expectancy of systems or components. homesale.plus provides a home inspection for each property that it auctions on the auction page for the property. It is provided at no cost to bidders.
This is our term for the individual page for each auction. Each auction page will contain detailed property information including photos, extract of a title report, neighborhood information via Neighborhood Scout, Home Inspection Report from a licensed home inspector, and much more.
A contract entered into between the owner of a property and a tenant which states the terms of the lease including length, monthly rent, security deposit, responsibilities of each party and rules for use of the property.
A legal agreement between a lender and buyer. The lender provides funds to buy the property and the buyer agrees to pay the lender back, usually in monthly increments. The mortgage lists all of the terms of the agreement including monthly payments, interest rate, etc. Once the mortgage is paid in full, the mortgage is extinguished.
A property that is either owner or tenant occupied. Occupied properties are often not available for an open house.
Bidding on homesale.plus for a property.
A designated period of time when bidders or prospects can visit a property and inspect it for themselves. Sometimes houses are sold without an open house, with only photos and other property information posted online available. Bidders are always advised to perform their own due diligence.
The amount required for the first bid.
Planned Unit Development. This is a planned residential community with certain home and lawn characteristics subject to the rules of the Homeowner’s Association (HOA). Most HOA’s require annual dues of the homeowner. A PUD may consist of single-family homes, condos, and commercial properties.
Reserve Auctions have a minimum price that is acceptable to the seller. Bidders are unaware of the price and the highest bidder does not know if they will buy the property until after the sale, when the seller decides whether or not the bid is acceptable.
The property is sold without any warranties and are sold “AS-IS”. This is typically how property is sold at auction and is how all of our properties are sold. This is why it is crucial for bidders to do their own due diligence and know the condition of what they are buying.
A report from a title company that shows if there are any liens on the property or if there are any past/present issues or problems with the title and or ownership.
A property without any occupants — no tenants and not owner occupied.