Short Sale or Foreclosure – Mobile Auction Apps Increase Sales

The past decade of app development has transformed how we shop, eat and travel, with companies like Amazon, Uber, and Instacart creating seamless services to meet our basic needs. In the coming decade, we will likely see a similar change in housing, with apps transforming how we rent, buy and sell real estate. 

Today, among all generations of home buyers, the first step taken in the home search process is to look online, and many are doing this from their mobile device. With inventory across the U.S. remaining low and home prices consistently increasing, the market for fixer-uppers, short sales and foreclosure properties is increasing and ripe for digital disruption. Hubzu, a leading online real estate marketing platform, launched a mobile app, which is enabling and enhancing real estate auctions by allowing buyers to receive notifications and place bids on auction properties via app or SMS. The traditionally paper-based and in-person process has been digitized, attracting a new generation of qualified buyers. Hubzu has helped to advance the digital revolution by facilitating the marketing and sale of over 212,000 homes via its transparent online marketing and auction process since it launched in 2009. 

Placing bids via SMS or mobile app 

Real estate buyers can utilize several different channels to participate and place bids in online auctions, including the Hubzu website, SMS and via a mobile app. Hubzu users can further engage and interact during the search and online auction phases by receiving real-time notifications regarding auction outbids, auction end times, foreclosure auction alerts, auction bid prices and new properties. Bids can be placed directly through the mobile app and via SMS, an industry-first feature – providing users the flexibility they need to remain connected during an active auction. Much like other bidding sites (think eBay), this allows bidders from anywhere to put in offers on a property and allows sellers to communicate directly with their bidders. 

The Hubzu marketplace includes features that take the friction out of the home buying process for buyers who want to purchase bank-owned homes. The platform provides the ability to discover upcoming listings before an auction begins. This can give buyers a better and more thorough idea of what the properties are like in order to create a strategy that sets them up for success during the auction. When auctions start, just like on eBay, buyers can see who else is bidding on the same property. Buyers can set automatic bids, which allows the Hubzu system to bid up to the buyer’s max bid limit, whenever there are competing bids being placed. Compared to conventional realtor fees, buyers on Hubzu are charged a low flat-rate technology fee or a Buyer’s Premium that never tops five percent of the bid amount. 

Hubzu works closely with RentRange, a provider of information in the single-family rental sector, to estimate the potential rents for various investment properties, which allows investors to define the right bid amounts based on projected profits. 

Next 10 years to provide as much change as the last decade

While online auctions have been part of the real estate industry for some time, this sector has expanded rapidly over the last decade. As the auction process has become more streamlined, Hubzu has seen users’ enthusiasm for it continuing to grow.

Over the next decade, we see technology continuing to allow for better research for buyers, more access to interested parties for sellers and a more automated process for both parties.

With the Internet and the option for mobile-auction capabilities, sellers are provided with an expanded buyer base, which is one of the most important factors in successfully selling a property.

To download Hubzu’s mobile app through the iPhone App Store click here and for Android click here.