6th August 2021
How we value your property for auction
The first step towards selling a property by auction is to get a valuation. Here valuer Carl Finch explains how he values your property.
When you talk to us about selling a property, our first step is to provide a free, no-obligation auction valuation. This can be done using online resources but we can also visit your property if you prefer.
What are your circumstances?
We begin by chatting to you about your circumstances, to establish your selling timetable, your price expectations and what type of auction sale is right for you. We offer three ways to sell your property:
- Monthly live-streamed National Property Auctions with an auctioneer on the rostrum;
- Timed Auctions, which can be started at any time on our website, so are ideal if you need to sell sooner rather than later;
- Buy It Now sales if you prefer to sell at a fixed price.
Researching your property
Next we research your property, analysing its location, checking sold prices for similar homes nearby and digging deeper into your local market.
We begin with the simple steps of studying Google Street View to see the other properties on the road and nearby, then checking sold property prices using various websites.
All of this information is available to anyone but, as property professionals, we have access to additional sources, too, such as Rightmove Plus. This not only shows us how much similar properties in the area have sold for but crucially which ones were marketed and then withdrawn. This can happen as a result of a property being priced too high, so is really useful information to have. We can also access sales information about every property sold by auction across the country from The Essential Information Group.
If your property is a refurbishment project, we will assess the cost of any work against the value of the property once any work is completed.
Who will buy your property?
We also use our experience and expertise to predict who will be interested in your property, as this will affect the selling price.
If we believe your property will appeal to landlord investors, we will research rental incomes and yields for similar properties, using these to guide our valuation. On the other hand, a private buyer will be less driven by short-term profit and may be led by their heart rather than their head.
All this information we gather enables us to build up a picture of your property and location to calculate a value.
How auction pricing works
Many factors have an impact on the valuation but ultimately we need to be able to offer your property at a price which will attract interest from bidders. Therefore, be prepared for our valuation to be lower than any you receive from estate agents.
Whether you sell through an estate agent or an auctioneer, the price is just a starting point. When selling a property with an estate agent by private treaty or on the open market, potential buyers will usually negotiate the price down. Even though any problems with the property will have been taken into account by your estate agent when setting the asking price, buyers will still use these as bargaining tools.
In an auction, however, we aim to drive the price up by encouraging competitive bidding, which is why we will start from a lower price point.
Once we have our valuation, we will work with you to decide on two different prices for your property; the reserve price and the guide price.
The reserve price is the minimum you are willing to accept and protects you from having to sell for less than you are happy with. If the reserve isn’t met, the property doesn’t sell but we will continue to market the property afterwards. Most of our unsold properties will sell after the auction, many on the same or following day.
The guide price is the price we advertise to potential buyers. This is just what it says it is; a guide. Because the guide price must always be within 10% of the reserve price; higher or lower, it gives bidders a realistic idea of how much you are willing to sell for. For example: If your property’s guide price is £200,000+, the reserve must be between £180,000 and £220,000.
If you have a property to sell and would like to find out more about selling by auction, please call our friendly team on 0800 046 5454 or click here to request a free, no-obligation auction valuation.