Going to Auction

[cookielove]

Hello all,

I posted a few months ago asking for advice about selling my mothers home, she has had lots of viewings but still no offers. She is now thinking of going to auction just to try to shift it.

She has spoken to some estate agents some are pro auction others not. Has anyone been to auction? Would you recommend it? Did you get what you wanted? What was it like?

This is my previous post.

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/_chat/4808990-please-judge-this-house?page=4&reply=127232006

This is the house

https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/144267992#/?channel=RES_BUY

Thanks all

Oh I remember this one, lovely little house but overpriced because of the train line.
I would guess max 650k at auction, probably would sell on the traditional market at 750k.
It's just the price I'm afraid, someone will see past the railway line at the right money. Its been for sale for so long you must be aware of that by now ?

@cookielove "I posted a few months ago asking for advice about selling my mothers home, she has had lots of viewings but still no offers. "

Lots of viewings and no offers suggest that something is wrong. Not so wrong as to stop viewings though. What has the feedback from the EA been about why viewings but no offers?

Everyone loves the house. The train line is a bit of an issue but those that know the area know that its there.

The biggest problem is behind the house is a large field that was sold on the Internet years ago as plots of land for house builds. But its green belt with no planning permission on it. So lots of pissed off people. Someone who owns one of the plots has set up something back there and are hostile to anyone who questions them. The last few viewings have mentioned this.

My mum has never spoken to them so she hasn't had an issue with them but i can see why it would put people off.

There is no way she will sell at 650k that is an actual joke 🤣 but thanks for the imput.

I put my hard-to-sell London flat up for auction via purple bricks awful auction arm. It was an unadulterated shit show.

The thing is, if you go to auction, people with cash are
only looking for a massive bargain and they don't want to pay anything like the market price.

My flat went on the market initially at 525k. Happy to sell at auction for 450 so agreed to start at that. Sold for 380. They fart arsed around for months and MONTHS of me chasing them by which time- quelle surprise!- the bidder admitted he didn't have the cash and had basically lied about having it and then failed to get the mortgage he thought he would.

By which time, as I was not in the country, the state of the flat had deteriorated significantly and it eventually sold through a GREAT local agent who really knew his market and put it out to all the people he knew who were cash buyers looking for a project and sold it in a week BUT for 320.

So please congratulate me on being the only person in history who owned a London flat and made a loss 🎉😬
(So pleased I didn't fight for money in my divorce because 'it'll be fine, me and the kids have my London flat... 🙄🙄🤦🏽‍♀️🤦🏽‍♀️🤦🏽‍♀️)

Anyway apologies for the massive derail but no- find someone who really knows the area, gives an honest (not aspirational) valuation and knows the market well enough to sell it quickly.

It looks a lovely house by the way!

And with my massive misery moan- I didn't say- the main thing is be realistic, what is the absolute lowest your mum could willingly sell it for? (Not what she'd like to)

I had to have £340k to pay off the mortgage and other costs but honestly in the end I needed speed and was 'happy' to lose the money to get rid of the bastard place.

But all the 'money in the house' is pie in the sky until someone will pay it.

@mynamechangemyrules

Gosh that sounds absolutely awful for you. Glad its all behind you now!!

Yes your not selling auction to me 🤣

I should add, i did in my other post that the house did actually sell. Last year m, was all pushing through and then the buyers had a long winded issue with their property and lost their buyers. Took a few more months for them to finally pull out. Was awful for my mum as she was ready to be gone.

This is our childhood family home, she is still grieving for my dad who died not that long ago. She is such a lovely person and she deserves so much. So much love and care has gone into this house.

@cookielove but you still haven't said what the EA are saying to you. What they are suggesting you do?

In this market with interest rates going back to normal that isn`t a joke.

"But all the 'money in the house' is pie in the sky until someone will pay it."

Exactly, a house isn`t like a bank account, you need a buyer.

@cookielove it must be hard selling a loved family home. I hated the London flat but it represented something which I'd lost and the emotions definitely tie into it all.

Prior to going for auction I had 3 sales fall through. It was various covid and govt upsets plus personal circumstances. I paid my solicitor for the equivalent of 5 sales.

It will be difficult to be hard-nosed about it but for speed and ease I hoped going to the lowest I could cope with (hoping with your mum it isn't such a drop as mine) and averaging it with what a savvy Estate Agent said and just moving forward was the easiest. (She says still dwelling on it nearly a year on! Liz truss was the final fucking insult as their disastrous budget meant the last vestiges of hope left plus my internationally banked mortgage cost me lots more to redeem as the pound smashed through the floor again!)

It is incredibly tough out there so your DM will have to hold on to the memories and hope for the best price she can afford to take.

I live not so far away, and in the last month, sales locally have really picked up. Two houses in our road that had been on ages (overpriced, in my view) have both finally gone. I'd hold out for a bit longer, then reduce the price, before going to auction.

How much land is there? If the plot adds up to, say, half an acre, I'd put that in the blurb. When we were looking, I searched with the key word "acre" in Rightmove, when we were looking for a large garden.

We bought a house for my daughter via the modern auction method and it is a rip off. Don’t let your mum be persuaded to go that way! The fees for the buyer are astronomical (4.5% of purchase price which would be £38500!!! in your Mum’s case and it’s not a deposit it’s a fee to the auction company paid by the buyer). The buyers will definitely reduce their offer by the fee. The modern auction companies also pressurise the seller to accept low offers. Read some of the reviews about them before committing to sell it like that! We only bought the house as it was cheap and cash sales only and already empty but we would have been prepared to pay the seller more without the extortionate fees.

Yes, avoid the modern method of auction at all costs! Were you thinking of a traditional auction?

I know the area and I really don’t know how anyone thinks it’s £850k.

one way or another I think you’ll have to drop substantially.

Looking at houses currently on offer in similar location it seems massively overpriced.
I’d say price it at 750k

Don’t bother with auction. Chances are you will sell for less than you could have gotten if you had just lowered the price in an open market to allow for competition.
A lot of people are put off by auction as well so you reduce potential interest selling that way

I for one will never go through auction again. I had such a traumatic experience with auction 2 years ago

So do you mean there's a illegal camp or something on the field behind the house?

I haven't read your other thread but does your Mum want to downsize? Is she in a hurry to sell? It's not a great time with the whole country waiting for a general election.

The thing about auctions is that I can’t understand why anyone would buy via that method unless it was very much cheaper than a traditional EA sale. Obviously you could set a reserve, but if no offers reached the reserve you wouldn’t sell and you’d be back where you started.
I think you’d do better to reduce the price now and carry on with an EA. You need to find the price for which a buyer will be able to overlook the thing that’s going on in the field behind the house. It sounds as if that’s the problem.

Yes 850k looks very ambitious to me.

Are you using PropertyLog OP, potential buyers will be.

Your mother needs to be gently encouraged to reduce the price by 5% and if that doesn’t work, reduce it by another 5% in a couple of months.

No point going to auction she won’t achieve the best price that way. Keep reducing it via a traditional EA until the price it will sell at is revealed.

It's a lovely home, which suggests that it must be over-priced if it has been on the market for so long (though I don't know the area so may well be wrong). I think you will get a better result from reducing the price than going through auction.

From the 850k starting price 5% cuts will barely register with buyers, you risk becoming seen as a non-serious seller and being scored off people"s viewing lists.

I admit I would go slightly above 5%.

5% of 850k would be just over 42k but I would round that up to 50k and reduce the price to 800k to hopefully generate some new interest.

5% reduction is a rule of thumb for a property not selling but you also need to take into account the Rightmove bandings.

It's a spacoius home on a huge plot in a very desirable town. Maybe the railways or whatever is going on in the field behind will have an effect on price but they won't make it in sellable. The only thing which makes it in sellable is too high a price.
Why not drop the price by a big chunk to sell through the agent rather than sell at auction where you'd have to accept a big drop anyway.