Selling property by auction?

[dott]

Anyone done this and can tell me how it works and pros and cons? I have a house in London to sell - 3 bed terrace SE London

I've bought but never sold at auction. The pros are that it's quick and relatively unobtrusive - you arrange a couple of slots where the house is open to viewers in the fortnight before the auction; most auction buyers are used to places that are complete dives so you don't have to go out of your way to titivate the property; if it sells on the day then it is properly sold - contracts are exchanged and that's that (or it used to be, I think there are more and more cases of people being unable to complete within the time frame and so losing their deposit).

Cons are that you usually sell for less than you would in a "normal" sale. This might be because a lot of the houses are blighted in some way - unmortgageable or have sitting tenant or some legal problem - so it may not be comparing like with like, iyswim. But auctions are seen as a way of disposing of "tricky" properties so a completely normal, family home might sit quite oddly with the other lots.

We tried to sell our last house by auction, when we got bored of estate agents. That was a 4 bed terrace in SE London.

Our trouble was that the auctioneers wouldn't take it on - there was no "angle" to attract attention at auction. It didn't need extensive refurbishment, didn't have sitting tenants, hadn't previously been used as flats etc. So the issue about a possibly lower price didn't arise. We tried a few auctioneers as well, and after we'd sent the agents particulars through (so they had some idea of what we were selling) none of them would even reply to calls.

Andrews and Robertson have a big south London auctions practice, residential rather than commercial. If you have free time they have an auction on 21 September at the Grand Connaught Rooms WC2, and you can just wander in and sit on your hands.

Thanks fridayschild so how did you shift your house in the end?

We just had to hang on for a private sale.

Swapped agents. I don't know if that helped TBH.

I have only been twice to a auction of residential properties so I am by no means an expert.

Most of the properties were not your typical family homes and the few that were fetched very low (to my eyes anyway) prices.

i sold my dead mothers property at acuction, i wanted a quick sale and the property market had just crashed AND it was upnorth where prices are shit anyway.

in your shoes ( i think) with the property being in london, and the market kinda ok, i would use an estate agent