ServiceLink Auction (Formerly Hudson & Marshall) Review, How It Works and What Buyers Pay

How Does Bidding on ServiceLink Auction Work?

Bidding on ServiceLink Auction is a reserve auction where the seller confirms the sale afterward, and the auctioneer may bid for the seller until the reserve is met. Those rules are in the Bidder Terms that apply to every current auction, and you register separately for each auction event.

The site runs 3 programs, and they work very differently:

• Foreclosure sales. Trustee and sheriff sales for lenders and their attorney firms, mostly held on site, with some online. Remote bidding at these sales goes through eBid, which needs a verified profile with ID and selfie checks, bank details and a signed Bidder Agreement.
• CWCOT auctions. Online auctions of recently foreclosed homes under HUD’s Claims Without Conveyance of Title program, run by region.
• Bank-owned (REO) auctions. Homes a lender already owns, sold in a nationwide online auction.

Every listing is a reserve auction, which means the seller has an unpublished minimum price, and none of the 5,810 listings checked was an absolute auction. The listing text, in ServiceLink Auction’s public listings data, says ServiceLink Auction may place bids on the seller’s behalf up to the reserve and stops once the reserve is met. So a rival bid below the reserve may be the seller, not another buyer.

You can place a Proxy Bid, where the system bids for you in set increments up to your maximum, or a Direct Bid, a single bid at a set amount. If the reserve is not met, the seller can still accept a lower bid, reject it or ask the top bidder for a Highest and Best offer through its Bid Review team. Before an auction opens, you can send one sealed pre-auction offer, and competing offers go to a blind highest and best round.

Some auctions are Buyer Exclusive. Under ServiceLink Auction’s Buyer Exclusive terms, only owner-occupants who agree to live in the home as their main residence for 12 months, approved nonprofits and government entities can bid, which keeps investors out of those auctions.

What Does ServiceLink Auction Cost Buyers?

ServiceLink Auction’s main buyer cost is a 5% buyer’s premium with a $2,500 minimum on bank-owned homes, while CWCOT and foreclosure sales list no premium. The premium is set in each listing, so the amounts below are what the live listings showed when checked on October 16, 2026.

The premium is added on top of your bid. A typical bank-owned listing, such as this Erie, Pennsylvania home, says the 5% or $2,500 premium “will be added to all winning bid amounts to determine the Total Purchase Price.” On a $120,000 winning bid, that adds $6,000, so your price is $126,000 before closing costs, and earnest money would be $6,000. On a $40,000 home, the $2,500 minimum works out to 6.25%. The same $120,000 bid on a CWCOT home costs nothing extra, which is a real saving if you can meet the cash and occupancy limits that come with many of those homes.

The title rule is worth a look too. On 111 bank-owned listings, the seller pays for title insurance only if you close with the seller’s chosen company, so using your own title company adds a cost.

Can You Finance a ServiceLink Auction Property?

You can finance some ServiceLink Auction homes, but every program is sold with no inspection or financing contingency, and most foreclosure and CWCOT homes are cash only. In the October 16, 2026 listings, 136 of 311 bank-owned homes, 1,758 of 2,385 CWCOT homes and 2,363 of 3,114 foreclosure sales were marked cash only.

The site’s FAQ, part of the ServiceLink Auction website, says homes marked Occupied or Cash Only cannot be financed and must be paid in full with certified funds at closing. Where financing is allowed, the listing says it is subject to the seller’s discretion. The Bidder Terms add that you must have the money, or access to it, when you place the bid. Contracts run on a 30-day period, and going past it needs an extension amendment.

After the seller approves your bid, the process moves quickly. You wire the earnest money and upload the receipt, then a purchase and sale agreement arrives by DocuSign, and you must sign it within 24 hours. You also upload proof of funds, which must be dated within 45 days, cover the full purchase price, show your name or your company’s name and name the bank. If you are financing, include a loan pre-qualification letter.

Foreclosure eBid sales work differently. You wire money into an eBid Wallet and assign it to a listing before the sale starts. After the auction, ServiceLink Auction wires the required minimum to the attorney firm handling the sale, and you wire the rest straight to that firm. Unused wallet funds can be refunded on a signed request.

What Happens If You Back Out on ServiceLink Auction?

A ServiceLink Auction high bidder who cannot show adequate funds can have their registration deactivated and be barred from future auctions. If the purchase and sale agreement is not signed, the Bidder Terms let the property go to backup bidders, and any earnest money you paid is then subject to the seller’s contract.

Sellers keep wide room to change course. Every sale is subject to seller confirmation, so the top bid is not final until the seller accepts it, and the auctioneer can move a scheduled auction date at any time. On 350 CWCOT listings, the sale was also subject to a right of redemption, which in some states lets the former owner reclaim the home for a period after the sale. Check for that wording before you bid, because it can delay or undo your purchase.

Is ServiceLink Auction Legit?

ServiceLink Auction is a legitimate auction site owned by ServiceLink, a subsidiary of the publicly traded Fidelity National Financial. Fidelity National Financial completed its purchase of Hudson & Marshall, LLC on May 22, 2017 for $53 million, according to its quarterly report filed with the SEC. ServiceLink then launched a foreclosure and REO auction product built on the Hudson & Marshall platform, including CWCOT auctions for HUD lenders, as National Mortgage News reported.

The Better Business Bureau record is thin but clean. The Hudson & Marshall, LLC profile, at the same Dallas address the auction site uses, was not rated, not accredited and had 0 complaints in the last 3 years when checked on October 16, 2026. The parent company’s ServiceLink profile is rated A+ but not accredited, with 21 complaints in 3 years, none of which mention the auction business. They center on title and closing delays, field crews at occupied homes and long phone holds.

One April 29, 2026 review did concern an auction purchase. The bidder found a $33,000 city lien on the property and could not get a clear answer about whether it would be paid, and ServiceLink replied that the issue had been clarified. The lesson for any auction buyer is to run your own title and lien search before bidding, especially on foreclosure sales.

How Big Is ServiceLink Auction?

ServiceLink Auction had 5,810 live listings on October 16, 2026, which makes it about 7 times the size of RealtyBid’s 835 listings that day. Of those, 3,114 were trustee and sheriff foreclosure sales, 2,385 were CWCOT auctions and 311 were bank-owned homes.

Pennsylvania had the most listings with 436, followed by Michigan with 392, California with 348, Arizona with 346, Colorado with 311 and Illinois with 285. Among the CWCOT and bank-owned homes, 2,197 were in active auction, 391 were in pre-auction, 72 were in bid review and 34 were waiting on a signed buyer contract.

For buyers, the mix matters. More than half the inventory is foreclosure sales, where 0 of 3,114 listings offered interior access and 2,082 were marked occupied, so you are bidding on homes you cannot see. ServiceLink also manages foreclosed homes for lenders, and its asset managers sometimes market the same home on ServiceLink Auction and the regular MLS at the same time, according to ServiceLink’s August 17, 2026 blog post. The parent company’s REO work is covered in the profile of ServiceLink.