we think we got “taken” by some partners that we are investing with. Our partners were at the auction and got as house at under $ 90K for the opening bid price. They told us to come down and pay with a cashiers check for the bid amount, but they also said that we needed to pay an addl. $5K to give to the auctioner, becuase he basically "gave " them the property for the opening bid amount. We are rookies in all this and do not know if that is comon for investors to do, these investors are there at the auctions almost daily and know what they are doing. We were not there as the transaction took place. please anybody with any insights it would help.
These are public auctions so it is impossible for an auctioneer to “give” someone a property for a penny over the opening bid.
Know that paying off an auctioneer to give you the property without allowing others to bid or paying other bidders not to bid is likely illegal and it is our understanding you could face up to $1M in fines and 10 years in jail.