What Auction.com does

Auction.com, founded in 2007 and headquartered in Irvine, California, is the self-described nation's largest online marketplace for foreclosure and bank-owned (REO) real estate auctions. The platform connects institutional sellers — primarily banks, mortgage servicers, and lenders — with a fragmented buyer base that includes professional investors, local developers, and a growing cohort of first-time homebuyers and owner-occupants (18% of participation in 2026, up from 8% in 2022). Buyers access distressed-property inventory through self-service search, real-time bidding, and a Remote Bid feature that enables participation without physical attendance; sellers are supported through a dedicated enterprise field-sales team and custom solutions including the SmartSale sub-brand for pre-foreclosure and fast-sale scenarios.

The core technology stack is a real-time online auction platform with property search, listing management, bidding, and transaction processing, accessible via web and native iOS/Android applications across all 50 U.S. states. Notable proprietary elements include the Remote Bid capability and a partnership with FoxyAI (announced August 2024) that layers AI-driven property valuation and auction analytics onto the marketplace. The company is privately held under PE sponsorship from THL Partners and Stone Point Capital and operates under a co-CEO leadership structure (Ali Haralson and Jason Allnutt) formalized in April 2026.

Auction.com's revenue model is entirely transaction-based. The company charges a Buyer's Premium / Transaction Fee on closed sales, earns seller auction fees on listings placed by institutional counterparties, and collects cancellation/earnest-money deposits that function as both participation gating and ancillary revenue. Cumulative scale includes approximately 8.1 million registered accounts, 553,000+ properties closed, and roughly $69 billion in residential property sales transacted through the platform since founding.

Name

Auction.com

Legal name

Auction.com, LLC

Website

https://auction.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

2007

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

501–1,000 employees

Short description

Auction.com operates the largest U.S. online marketplace for foreclosure and bank-owned real estate auctions, connecting banks, mortgage servicers, and homeowners with 8.1 million registered buyers across all 50 states via a transaction-fee-based auction platform.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Online Real Estate Auctions / Foreclosure Marketplace

NAICS

Offices of Real Estate Agents and Brokers (5312)

SIC

Real Estate Agents & Managers (For Others) (6531)

akta.pro primary industry

Foreclosure/REO & Distressed Property Auctions (BPAJAEAF)

akta.pro secondary industries

Foreclosure/REO & Distressed Property Brokerage (BPAJAAAI), Online/Virtual Real Estate Auctions (Marketplace Platforms) (BPAJAEAJ), Real Estate Auction Services (FSAEAJAL)

Keywords

• Foreclosure property auctions
• Real estate auctions
• REO property sales
• Distressed property marketplace
• Online property bidding

Headquarters

HQ city

Irvine

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B and B2C

Offering type

Digital Commerce or Content

Cost components

Technology or R&D, Marketing or Sales, Personnel, Operations

Revenue model

1. Buyer's Premium / Transaction Fee: When a Property Page states that a buyer's premium or transaction fee applies, the winning bidder pays this fee in addition to their bid amount at closing. This fee defrays seller's costs including auction fees and brokerage fees.
2. Seller Auction Fees: Auction.com conducts auctions on behalf of sellers (banks, lenders, servicers, homeowners) and earns fees from these arrangements, though specific fee structures are not publicly disclosed.
3. Cancellation Fees: Participants may be required to place a deposit (Cancellation Fee) upon registering for an auction event to secure compliance. This fee may be charged if participants breach the participation terms.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion2 records

Distribution channels4 records

Marketing channels4 records

Core offering

Auction.com operates an online marketplace for foreclosure and bank-owned (REO) real estate auctions, connecting individual buyers and professional investors with sellers such as banks, mortgage servicers, lenders, and homeowners facing foreclosure. The platform provides real-time bidding, property search and listing tools, remote bid capability, and transaction management across all 50 US states. A sister sub-brand, SmartSale, offers property selling solutions for distressed and pre-foreclosure situations.

Product overview

Auction.com operates as a unified online marketplace platform for distressed real estate transactions, comprising its core Auction.com product for foreclosure and REO auction services alongside the SmartSale sub-brand for property selling solutions. The platform offers Remote Bid functionality for remote auction participation, all accessible through a unified ADC Account system that works across Auction.com and SmartSale properties.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• SmartSale: A service powered by Auction.com for sellers, offering resources for situations including selling a home fast, facing foreclosure, avoiding foreclosure, selling a distressed property, and selling a home as-is.

Products and services

• Auction.com Online Marketplace The nation's largest online marketplace for foreclosure and bank-owned real estate auctions. Connects buyers (individual investors, owner-occupants) and sellers (banks, mortgage servicers, lenders, homeowners) with distressed property opportunities across all 50 states, providing real-time listings, bidding tools, property search, and transaction support.
• SmartSale A property selling service powered by Auction.com, offering resources and solutions for homeowners in distressed situations including selling a home fast, facing foreclosure, avoiding foreclosure, selling a distressed property, and selling a home as-is. Provides 'sell before auction' options as an alternative to foreclosure auction for individual homeowners.

Quantifiable outcome

• 553K+ properties closed through the platform
• +4 more outcomes

Named customers3 records

Segments4 records

Ideal customer profiles3 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature2 records

Partnerships

One partnership is on record.

• FoxyAIstrategicTechnology or Integration · 13 August 2024Partnership to elevate real estate auction analytics with advanced AI integration. FoxyAI provides AI technology that enhances property valuation and investment decision-making capabilities on the Auction.com platform.

Scale indicators6 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights6 records

Direct peers

• Hubzu: Hubzu is a direct online auction marketplace for residential foreclosure, REO, and bank-owned properties, serving a similar two-sided audience of buyers (investors and owner-occupants) and institutional sellers (banks, servicers). It is the closest head-to-head competitor to Auction.com in online foreclosure auctions.
• Xome: Xome operates an online real estate auction marketplace for foreclosure and bank-owned properties, overlapping directly with Auction.com's buyer experience and seller-side servicing relationships. Both platforms target similar distressed-property flow from institutional sellers.
• Bid4Assets: Bid4Assets is an online auction marketplace for distressed and foreclosure real estate, government-seized properties, and tax-defaulted assets, providing a competing channel for similar buyer pools (real estate investors) and overlapping seller types.
• RealtyBid: RealtyBid is an online real estate auction platform focused on foreclosure, REO, and short-sale properties. It targets the same retail and investor buyer segments as Auction.com with a comparable timed-online bidding model.
• Williams & Williams: Williams & Williams is a traditional live and online real estate auctioneer handling foreclosure and bank-owned properties, with overlap to Auction.com on seller-side supply and investor buyer demand across multiple U.S. states.

Broad incumbents

• Zillow: Zillow is a broad real estate marketplace that surfaces foreclosure, pre-foreclosure, and auction listings within a much larger consumer search experience. While not a pure-play auction platform, it competes for buyer attention and downstream seller relationships.
• Redfin: Redfin is a national residential brokerage and portal that increasingly surfaces distressed inventory and competes with Auction.com for both buyer traffic and a portion of distressed seller flow through partner programs.
• Realtor.com: Realtor.com is a major U.S. residential listings portal owned by Move (News Corp) that includes foreclosure and auction listings, giving it overlapping buyer-side audience reach with Auction.com's 8.1M registered users.

Emerging players

• Opendoor: Opendoor is an iBuyer that competes for the same distressed and pre-foreclosure seller pool that Auction.com's SmartSale targets, and indirectly for buyer attention in the broader distressed-home transaction funnel.
• Offerpad: Offerpad is an iBuyer offering direct cash offers to sellers that would otherwise consider foreclosure or auction alternatives, positioning it as an adjacent competitor to Auction.com's SmartSale sub-brand for pre-foreclosure sellers.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/about

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles3 records

Subsidiaries1 record

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Auction.com