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

You also need to take into account that most people are now using apps like PropertyLog, if you are not discounting the price like the competition then you will get no views. 800k isn"t realistic for this property, sorry OP.

It's overpriced. I remember your last thread as I thought it looked like a pub.

If she reduces it by a good chunk she'll get shot of it.

Property Log makes more sense if you’re looking at rows of similar houses in a street. I don’t see that it’s applicable here, as there doesn’t seem to be anything directly comparable.

You can compare size, location, layout, number of rooms/bathrooms, garden size etc. IMO trying to avoid the elephant in the room - the price is not realistic- just wastes everybody"s time, people won"t view if they think you are out of touch with the reality of the market.

The house is getting viewings, which means that you’ve got it at the right price point for that part of the market — people who can afford 850k.
However, when they come to view, there is enough about the house that they don’t like that they won’t make an offer— there are other houses at 850k that don’t have those disadvantages.
So what you want to do is price it essentially at a step lower on the ladder, so that people who never dreamt they’d be able to get that much space will be in with a shot. They will be happy to overlook the negatives because there is nowhere else nearly as good that they’ll be able to afford.

Our house failed to sell at auction, we were not there due to my Father in Law dying of cancer in another part of the country and needed to sell asap, auction company aware of this, after no offers supposedly the auctioneer ended up buying it at way under the valuation they had put on it, it still upsets me years later but we were so desperate we had to take the offer. The knock on effect was that we had no deposit then to buy so have been renting ever since.

we are looking at the moment, but any property which is in as an auction purchase is automatically ignored by us. It would have to be the bargain if the Century for us to even look at it. From our perspective they are too risky and we are cash buyers prepared to look behind a survey. Suspect we aren’t the only buyers who think the same way. So going auction may well not only reduce the pool of buyers but reduce the price substantially too. Fwiw a lot of properties locally fail to sell at auction and are back on the market at lower prices.

sorry op but it is the price on what is a beautiful property.

No offers = wrong price, viewings don`t mean much in isolation.

Nonsense. You won’t get any offers at all if no one views, and the price is part of the marketing that attracts viewers.
However, deciding on the right asking price, especially for a large, expensive, and unique (I.e. not in a street) is more nuanced than just ‘it’s overpriced: drop the price’.
If you’d read my post properly you’d see that I was suggesting a price reduction, but through considering the profile of the successful buyer.

"Successful buyer" LOL, sorry those days are long gone, people are not going to compete to overpay any more.

In that area it is too expensive. My suggestion (as an agent) would be to take the house off the market completely, get new photos done, and then relaunch to market at 750k. And be more definite about the size of the plot.

Yes I agree with this. And if it still doesn’t sell then reduce again but a 50k reduction on an 850k property may hopefully be enough, time will tell.

I know the area a bit. It’s overpriced, £750K would be my guide price. Also as others have said it’s not 4 bedroom it’s 3 with the box room. It’s a pretty house but the train line (no matter how quiet OP says it is) would put me off too being so near.

Do you have a link to the last one that sold at 750k?

Can you take the sign off the front ? Because that makes it look like a conversion of a commercial property, which would put some ( okay me ) off right away.

Agree that this is not a four bed, one of the bedrooms is downstairs and also labelled family room, one if tiny. It’s better to slightly undersell and give people a nice surprise rather than raise and dash their hopes.

Selling at auction, ‘modern’ or traditional is really best left to the ‘professionals’ , it’s a minefield. If you can go to an auction in person, it’s an eye opener!

For me it is a nice enough house. But that isn't a minor train track if I know my train tracks correctly, I would guess it is the midlands main line, which if it is will probably have intercity trains whoosing along it at 125 mph. I don't know what the frequency would be.

The EA presentation looks OK, so it is probably the price.

It looks like it sold in 2013 for 750k. I'm afraid I think she over paid then. I'd lower it to 799 to capture those buyers with an 800k cut off and see what happens.

You’re not a very sophisticated thinker are you? I was using successful to mean that the purchase succeeded — in other words, that the buyer and seller agreed on a price, that a mortgage (if necessary) was approved and granted, the process continued etc.

Hello all,

She isn't going to go to auction, she will reduce it down.

She didn't sell in 2013, the neighbours house did., these are 2 houses that sit along side each other.

The house is a Victorian railway cottage, the signage outside is the original and i doubt very much they would remove it.

I don't know what the estate agents feedback is as they haven't said much.

My mum didn't value the house herself she was told this is how much its worth by serveral estate agents.

I had never heard of that track before but after a quick google you are right.

They do zip by quite fast, here and then gone in a matter of moments. Barely noticeable once you are use to it!

@cookielove Ask the EA for their opinion on why lots of viewing but no offers. You are paying them, make them do their job. They should be asking for feedback and/or they should have their own idea what the reason is.
If the reason is a real problem it isn't always easily solved by reducing the price.
Good luck.

I do agree you quickly get used to the sound of a train rushing past as we have friends that live very close to a train line and even just staying there occasionally, I no longer notice the train noise though it seemed loud at first. However, buyers don’t know that so I do think it will put a lot of people off the house unfortunately.

Anyway, glad to hear your mum is reducing the price. We all tend to trust the valuation that our EAs give us but valuing a house isn’t an exact science plus they always tend to value on the high side to win the business. So it is sensible to reduce the price if it isn’t selling.

What is the lowest price your Mum will accept? Decide what that is and add on say £20k and see what happens. If no offers on that, then you are going to have to rethink your lowest price or take it off the market.

Remember that the agents aren’t giving you a valuation, they’re playing to greed in order to win the listing from other agents who may be more realistic about price.

its quite routine to do this then “manage you down” on price.

I think this is a tricky one because its not really comparable with other houses locally. I think it will definitely be the location (for several reasons) rather than any specific thing about the house itself that is making it difficult to sell.

It looks rural...but won't be as quiet as one might expect in the countryside due to the trainline (its used by both East Mids mainline and Thameslink so 10+ trains/hour during peak time) That may well be something you get used to but it's likely going to put some potential buyers off.

It's 3/4 mile from suburbia and near to decent schools...but not quite close enough or convenient to walk to schools and shops

Its a mile from a village which would have pubs, shop, cafe...but be quieter without the railway