The Real Estate Bloggers noted an interesting trend of buying real estate online, sight-unseen. They reference a New York Times article entitled “Some finding perils in online real estate”, about people being duped after buying homes on Ebay and the internet. The online sites have become perfect places for unscrupulous sellers who have bought dilapidated houses at, say, foreclosure auctions, to resell, or flip, them quickly for inflated prices.

The Walk-Through, the New York Times blog, also discusses the growing popularity of real estate auctions.

This comes with the announcement in yesterday’s News Tribune on their blog “Open House” that breaks the news that our area will be having an Ebay-type auction for condos. In today’s Seattle P.I., Deborah Bach covered the story of the Madison Lofts holding an auction . Potential buyers must register on the development’s Web site, Madison Lofts and attend informational meetings starting March 22, at which they will be able to see renderings of the building and receive a CD with an electronic “fly-through” tour of the development, slated for completion around the end of the year.

Redfin, of course, has tried to lure people into buying homes online, but so far, has had very limited success. Let’s see if the Madison Lofts auction can do better.