Online Auctions Going Strong.

Jim Case, a highly experienced real estate investor, thought there needed to be a better way to put buyers and sellers together, so he created FastHomeAuction.com to market REO properties.

The innovative approach has resulted in generating thousands of hits from foreign buyers.

During the real estate boom, Mr. Case recalls the incredible time he experienced buying and selling properties, sometimes well over 100 a year. It was not uncommon for him to buy a property in the morning and make money the same evening on the sale.

Later, he decided to expose more homes to the market through the creation of FastHomeAuction.com in 2005.

"The market was so good we didn't have to go with the first person that came along and wanted to pay our price," he remembers.

With the online auction platform, the Tampa, Fla.-based company built a database of investors throughout the country. A lot of California investors were investing in Florida for a while. Now they are taking their money and moving it to North Carolina and South Carolina.

"There always seems to be some area of the country that will do well," he said. "What's happened recently is that overseas investors seem to be coming in and becoming members on the site, due to the weak dollar and what we can get. Brits are signing up heavily in Florida and the Panhandle area. In Georgia and the Carolinas, along the Gulf. It's very appealing to them."