House Selling by Auction; Experiences?

Tycho_2

I've been looking in to selling by auction, mainly as a means of escaping chains etc. Some of the reasons often cited for using auctions do apply to my house;

1. it's hard to value, every house on the street is different and I bought it 20 years ago
2. It's ripe for development; smallish house with big garden, it's the only house on the street which has not yet been extended
3. Some 'modernisation' is (over)due.

I'm in a village in north oxfordshire which has a particularly good primary school, so popular with locals with young kids.

First auctioneers I contacted was CarterJonas who proved to be the snottiest high-handed bunch of individuals I've met in a long time, which was a discouraging start.

Wonder what sort of experiences other may have had with auction selling?

Tycho

phoebe1989seb

Not good personally......

A few years back (2008?) we contacted Countrywide Auctions with a view to selling our house.

We believed it to be a prime property for auction - a (non-listed) detached Tudor house that had been dismantled in the 1930s and moved to a different county where it was rebuilt and added to in the Arts & Crafts style (so a bit of a one-off ) and which was now surrounded by ugly modern bungalows. We'd bought it in a terrible state, done half the work to restore it but now wanted to sell quickly in order to move closer to ageing, ailing parents.

The Countrywide guy came out, enthused over the house, said it was perfect auction material and that he'd get back to us within a couple of days with a valuation as the auction deadline was fast approaching - I was delighted as my mum was ill, my dad was struggling to care for her alone and we were three hours drive away. We never heard from him again. When we chased via phone and in person, Countrywide made all sorts of excuses and promises to get the valuation to us in time but never did. We eventually made a formal complaint in writing about the (lack of) service we'd received but even this went unanswered.

I should add that we also made initial enquiries to two other large property auction houses - Allsop was one, can't recall the other. Neither of these even bothered to return our call.

In the end, despite our family issues we decided to complete the renovations and sold in 2011 via a local high street EA making a stonking loss in the process as the market had fallen apart in that area, but hey ho

OTOH, when we did market via regular methods we accepted an offer within two weeks and tied up both the sale and another purchase within less than three months, so by pricing realistically we got things moving pretty quickly.

Incidentally, the house we ended up buying had been to auction and failed to sell as did another after we withdrew from the purchase. Mind you, these were both character houses that required masses of work and deep pockets. I guess they weren't typical FTB properties and both were deemed unmortgageable. So not all houses will sell at auction for a variety of reasons......

Tycho_2

Thanks Phoebe; does sound like that was a "character-forming" experience :think:

jackomdj

We almost sold at auction.

When we came to sell they had introduced mundic tests as standard in our area for the age of property (they being mortgage companies, and mundic being concrete cancer). We had an almost asking price offer within a week, but when tests came through the house was unmortgageable.

We decided to auction it, but continued marketing it whilst waiting. We got an offer from a structural engineer (so he knew what he was buying) and told him if he could exchange before the date of the auction then we would withdraw it, otherwise it would go to auction.

Think from his offer to completion was about three and a half weeks! (We ended up exchanging and completing on the same day!) we were not in a chain as we had already completed on our new house.

Tycho_2

Mundic !?! I must go look that up; I've never heard of it before. However, if the lack of response to this thread is anything to by, selling property by auction is still very much a rare thing.

moneyistooshorttomention

I think auctions are seen basically as where unwantable houses get offloaded. That, I think, will be a bit of a self-fulfilling prophecy, as those going to auctions will normally be going not for "lets get it over with quick" reasons but for "lets get a bargain" reasons. I would be scared to put my own "averagely wantable" house into an auction in case bargain hunters tried to pay me less than its worth - so I'd just be wasting my time, as my house would probably not reach its reserve price (ie what I'd expect for selling it the normal way) anyway.

mrsmchapman

I've no experience at auction but do also live in Oxford, and property does move fast if its prices right. If yours is in need of you say an update, or extension I think I would still go via an ea, there is a very good chance it will see to a developer with cash, there are many of those people around Oxford.

Are you looking to buy elsewhere? Or would you be the end of a chain which also appeals to many people.

Help4UKHomeSellers

Phoebe, thank you very much for sharing your experience. It was very insightful, as TV series promoting sales through auctions can make it seem so easy.

Overall, the key to selling your home quickly is just price. This is what an auction effectively boils down to. If you price is right, you will get the right responses.

Tycho_2

Asking the right price is indeed key but that's one reason why I was interested in auctions. When estate agents cannot get a guide price from looking at selling prices of identical property close-by, then they are just guessing. As they want to sell, they go low in my experience, and it's that experience that I really do not want to repeat.

I am leaving Oxfordshire and will probably rent somewhere initially, so I am not in a chain at that end.

Old_Git

it is all down to location location location .
I sold an inherited house at auction in November .
Value 2005 £170,000
Probate valuation 2012 £110,000

auction guide £70,000
auction Reserve £75,000
Sold £83,000 .
At the time that was realistic I could never have got £100,000 on the open market

Tycho_2

Old_Git wrote: »

it is all down to location location location .
I sold an inherited house at auction in November .
Value 2005 £170,000
Probate valuation 2012 £110,000

auction guide £70,000
auction Reserve £75,000
Sold £83,000 .
At the time that was realistic I could never have got £100,000 on the open market

Where was that house located that it apparently lost so much value since 2005???