Hudson & Marshall Online Auction real estate shill bidders Dallas Texas

I worked at Hudson & Marshall for just under 4 years in both their Dallas and Los Angeles offices. My role there was to co-ordinate bids and make adjustments to offer contracts. I left because of the widespread use of "shill" auctions. Although the company protects themselves from this corrupt practice by burying the details in their terms of agreement, the result is placing phony bids to artificially raise auction prices.

This is done to increase commissions and close sales to satisfy sellers higher asking prices. Listing agents are rarely consulted and buyers are jokingly referred to as "pawns". In many cases buyers who were outbid by planted bidders were then offered "a chance" to buy a property at an even higher amount. And rarely questions were asked by the 2nd or 3d place bidders about why winners of auctions did not bother to purchase. A joking slogan around the office was that another "pawn was played and out paid".

Happily more of these are becoming know to the public and maybe regulations will be put in place to protect consumers from fake real estate auctions. Until then I strongly urge people to avoid online auctions especially with Hudson & Marshall.