I read REAL ESTATE AUCTIONS-LEGAL CONCERNS FOR AN INCREASINGLY PREFERRED METHOD OF SELLING REAL PROPERTY. The link to the paper is: http://www.acrel.org/Documents/Seminars/Hammond%20Good%20Real%20Estate%20Auctions.pdf My question is about the Misinformation about Seller¿s Right to Cancel an Absolute Auction. The authors conclude that the sellers have a right to cancel an absolute auction if the cancelation takes place before the bidding starts. It is legal to cancel the absolute auction provided that the sellers instruct the auctioneers to do so in a manner that is clear and un mistakenly. I talked to an auction company located in alabama about the possibility of cancelation and they told me that it is illegal to cancel. I would like to have a legal opinion of who is right or wrong. Who should I contact to get one.

I am not aware of any statute in the Alabama Code that either allows or prohibits the cancelation of an absolute auction.  That does not mean there is not such statute.  Without performing any research on the question, I would guess that the answer would lie more in the contract provisions governing the transaction.  If the auction company uses a contract that allows cancelation on certain terms, then it would be allowed if those conditions were met.  If an auction company uses a contract that forbids cancellation after a given point, then no cancellation would be allowed.  an auction company makes a heavey investment in an auction.  It incurs substantial costs for advertising, preparation of advertising materials, hiring agents to handle various aspects of the sale, arranging for security, etc, etc.  Certainly it would be unfair to allow the auction company to incur all those costs and then cancel the sale without some means of payment.  If you want or need a more specific response, I recommend that you confer with a competent real estate attorney in your area and ask him to do a bit of research on the question.  You can expect a charge for doing the research, but we normally have to pay for getting the benefit of someone else's work product.