Questions to ask an auctioneer when selling your Woodford property
You might be thinking about using an auction to sell your Woodford home, and these can sometimes be profitable if several people are interested in purchasing your property and keep outbidding each other at the auction by offering ever-increasing prices for it. But it’s also possible that your home will receive no bids, which means that it does not sell.
Or your property might only get a bid at the reserve price, which is the least amount of money at which you’re willing to sell. You must choose a reserve price that will ensure you can still make a profit on the sale even after paying the auctioneer their fees, because a winning bid on your home at an auction is considered a legally binding agreement to sell that the buyer can enforce.
Do some research in advance of selling at an auction by searching for company names online, because this can reveal whether there are any negative customer reviews or news articles about the business, which can help inform your decision about how to sell your home.
You should also consider emailing or calling auctioneers to ask them some questions that might shed light on their ability to sell your home. We’ve provided some sample queries below, along with what you should be looking out for in the answers that the auctioneers provide.
The typical auctioneer will charge sellers commission often based as a percentage of the final property sale price. This fee will be taken out of the proceeds, which will reduce the homeowner’s profit. It’s possible that you might be able to have the auctioneer pass the burden of paying some charges on to the winning high bidder, so find out if this is an option.
This is a vital question for learning whether or not an auctioneer is likely going to be able to find a buyer for your home. If they have never sold your specific type of home, there is the possibility that they could struggle with knowing how to market the flat or house. And if that’s the case, you might not have any bidders at the auction and your property will remain unsold.
Most auction houses will give the winning high bidder about 28 days to complete their required steps for purchasing a property, although some companies might set shorter deadlines and others may give the buyer extra time. It’s important to ask this question so that you can accurately plan the timeline for moving out of your home after it sells at the auction.