When you first hear the word “auction”, what do you think of? Run-down homes? Repossessed properties? Buy-to-let landlords looking for a bargain? While all of these answers may have been true in the mid-1990s, they aren’t any more.
At Open Door, we have proven time and time again that there is no such thing as an “auction property”.
In fact, since opening our first office in 2012, we’ve sold three-, four- and five-bed houses of every conceivable type, with guide prices ranging from £15,000 to £850,000. So “auction” is no longer about the type of property.
Rather, auction is about the seller and what they’re looking for. And most Open Door vendors are looking for one or more of the following:
1. The right price. Although our auctions use lower guide prices to generate interest, every property has a reserve price to make sure that the vendor is protected. And, of course, there’s nothing to stop bidding going higher than the reserve price!
2. Less time-wasting. At Open Door, we vet all viewers and auction attendees to ensure that they are in a proceedable position with a 10% deposit. This means less hassle and less time wasting, for both agents and sellers.
3. Greater security. On the traditional open market, you run the risk of being caught in a complex property chain and don’t normally secure financial commitment until two weeks before completion. At auction, sellers receive a 10% non-refundable deposit and exchange contracts within 24 hours of an offer being accepted, so “sold” really does mean “sold”.
4. A quicker selling time. We host auctions every 8 to 10 weeks, with 95% of properties selling within two auction cycles (16 weeks). This means that potential buyers need to act quickly, before someone else does. They can’t sit behind a laptop and wait for the price to fall – which ultimately leads to a quicker sale.
Although modern property auctions sometimes feel like an “unknown quantity”, they are growing in popularity every single year. So if you have any questions that you’d like answering, please leave us a message and somebody will contact you shortly.
