Hey, that's my job

The housing downturn continues to keep the gavel falling at Hudson & Marshall auctions around the nation. When we last checked in, the Dallas-based auctioneer had six auctions scheduled for May and June, with more than 500 homes up for grabs in Michigan alone.

At the moment, Hudson & Marshall has 400 homes in northern California up for sale at a half dozen auctions. Up next is Ohio and Pennsylvania (more than 350 homes beginning July 24) followed by Colorado and Nevada (250 homes to be auctioned off in the first week of August) and then Indiana and Illinois (more than 400 homes on the auction block for grabs between Aug. 14-19).

All told more than 1,400 homes could change hands, in many cases without the assistance of real estate brokers (Hudson and Marshall says it "encourages buyer-broker participation" but that it's not a requirement).

The company says it sells more than 90 percent of properties that are put up for bid. While you might think properties find buyers at auctions because their owners are desperate to unload them and willing to take a price cut, Hudson and Marshall says auctions are as much about giving a property better exposure as slashing prices.

"Often times we find that the price is not the reason why a property doesn't sell. The primary cause often is it has not been marketed effectively and, therefore, the property has experienced insufficient exposure," the company's Web site claims. "The auction process is the best way to revive interest in the property and obtain offers at current market value."

Wait. Isn't marketing a property and obtaining offers at current market value a real estate agent's job description?

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