Selling at auction

NewHouse_3

Does anyone know what the procedure would be to put a private property up for auction? Do I need to contact an estate agent or just speak to an auction house direct? How would I find one? What fees would be involved? And how quickly would a sale complete?

I need to sell my flat quickly in order to put an offer in on another house and I have only had 1 offer on my flat that is any where close to what I need, but the buyer cannot give me a definite answer until "some time next month".

Thanks in advance for any info,

Jaz

hethmar

http://209.85.229.132/search?q=cache:gNYJfELq0mEJ:www.rics.org/Services/Usefulguides/Consumerguides/buying_selling_real_estate_at_auction.htm+SELLING+PROPERTY+AT+AUCTION&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=3&gl=uk&client=firefox-a


http://www.home.co.uk/guides/selling/sellingatauction.htm

http://www.primelocation.com/guides/selling/how-to-sell-a-property-at-auction/

LisaLou1982

It depends on the auction house as to how much they will charge you to put it through the auction. As far as im aware we charge 2.5% of the final selling price plus an entry fee of £400 but this could have changed since i last recommended a vendor go to auction.

Not sure about where you are in the country but some of the big auctions are:

Countrywide
Graham Penny
Bagshaws/Sequence

Lots of Estate agents have their own auction houses now so you would be best to go in to them and see if they can advise you better for your local area.

NewHouse_3

Thank you both for the advice and the links, it was very helpful. I have found 2 local property auctioneers and will contact them with regards to fees, etc now I have a bit more info. Sounds like it could work well for me.

Thanks again,

Jaz

pmcx9

NewHouse wrote: »

I need to sell my flat quickly in order to put an offer in on another house and I have only had 1 offer on my flat that is any where close to what I need, but the buyer cannot give me a definite answer until "some time next month".

Why would you assume putting it through an auction you would get near the price you want? Read threads on here and other sites about average actual auction price figures. Many properties are selling through auction at 2003 HPI figures meaning have a look what your flat was worth in 2003.

jason106gti

House's seem to be selling very cheap at auction at the moment, a house local to me (price 3 years ago £288k) got repossessed and put on the market cheap, when it did not sell they dropped the price to £180K, it was on the market for a couple of weeks before they opted to send it to auction, it sold for £136k :-(
Have a look on this site and view the old auctions

www.mustbesold.com

Jason

Darth_Marty

I have had experience of auction properties and as an example we sold one last year which was previously on the market for 169k, had offers of 155k but for some reason the seller didnt go for it. Anyway to attract interest at auction the guide price was 100-120k, the reserve was set at 125k and it sold at 135k.

Its a rare or unique auction property that sells way over reserve.

NewHouse_3

pmcx9 wrote: »

Why would you assume putting it through an auction you would get near the price you want? Read threads on here and other sites about average actual auction price figures. Many properties are selling through auction at 2003 HPI figures meaning have a look what your flat was worth in 2003.

Thanks for that useful tidbit. I will take a look and see what I can find out. My thinking was that in an auction the flat will find it's own value and I can set a reserve on it of what I need to move, rather than having random buyers guess at what it is worth and making endless offers that are no good to me. Also if it goes into an auction, hopefully that will be sale complete and I won't be let down.

Jason and Darth Marty, thanks also for the info. I'm not really expecting the flat to make much over my reserve and to be honest I don't really mind as I just want to get moving. Yes it would be nice if I had the time to put it on the market and achieve a higher price but I don't, and I will be happy with just getting my reserve price. I think it is a fair reserve given similar properties currently on sale and recent sales in the area. The prices on the website Jason gave don't seem too bad at first glance but I have emailed 2 local auction houses for info and will take their advice on guide prices, etc.

Thanks again to all that have replied.

martindow

LisaLou1982 wrote: »

It depends on the auction house as to how much they will charge you to put it through the auction. As far as im aware we charge 2.5% of the final selling price plus an entry fee of £400 but this could have changed since i last recommended a vendor go to auction.

Does this mean that you can have a go at an auction for only a few hundred pounds with a reserve set where you wish, or are there other costs?

macaque_2

NewHouse wrote: »

Thanks for that useful tidbit. I will take a look and see what I can find out. My thinking was that in an auction the flat will find it's own value and I can set a reserve on it of what I need to move, rather than having random buyers guess at what it is worth and making endless offers that are no good to me. Also if it goes into an auction, hopefully that will be sale complete and I won't be let down.

Jason and Darth Marty, thanks also for the info. I'm not really expecting the flat to make much over my reserve and to be honest I don't really mind as I just want to get moving. Yes it would be nice if I had the time to put it on the market and achieve a higher price but I don't, and I will be happy with just getting my reserve price. I think it is a fair reserve given similar properties currently on sale and recent sales in the area. The prices on the website Jason gave don't seem too bad at first glance but I have emailed 2 local auction houses for info and will take their advice on guide prices, etc.

Thanks again to all that have replied.

Ouch, I sense a big learning curve ahead. Your house has not sold because you are asking too much money for it. Your can sell at auction but you need to set a realistic reserve. I have a hunch this will be around 50% of your current asking price.

NewHouse_3

Very possibly but I don't think I am being unrealistic. The last similar flats to sell sold for £48,000 and £55,000 and both were above ground floor without gas central heating. Mine is ground floor, GCH, DG and recently refurbished. There is a similar first floor flat for sale at the top of the street with an estate agent at offers over £52,000. I am asking for offers in the region of £45,000 but need about £42-43,000 to enable me to move. So far the highest offer I have had is £40,000. I may well have to take it and find an alternative source of the extra cash. Will be difficult but do-able.

Do you have experience of buying/selling at auction and what my chances might be of getting the sale price I need?