HOW WE WORK
How does the Property Auction Process Work?
Leave Your Name & Number. Our Agents Will Be In Touch
We Auction Any House UK
Listed below is information that details how our property auction process works from start to finish. Contact us today for more information and a friendly no obligation chat about how we can help you.
FAST Cash Sale
Sell in 7-28 Days
BEST Prices Paid
No Estate Agents Fees
ZERO Legal Fees
ZERO Stress
How the Property Auction service works
Step 1
Get in Touch
Contact our professional team to discuss your property and to consider all of your options.
Step 2
Auction Options
If your willing to wait a little longer than a fast cash sale, our auction partner is an excellent alternative.
Step 3
Completion Date
Normally; an unconditional sale is 30 days after the auction sale or you can choose the 60 day option.
Step 4
Get Paid
On your chosen completion date, the sale is legally completed and the money is transferred to you.
How We Work: Property Auctions
Initial Phone Chat
An open discussion about the sale of your house.
We will start by having a discussion about your current property sales situation. The aim here is to find out whether selling at auction is genuinely the best way forward based on your circumstances. For instance, we sometimes see that our fast house sale option may work as a better alternative. Please feel free to ask any questions you may have with regards to our auction process. Do note our auction partner is the UK’s most successful live-streamed auctioneer using a state of the art auction platform designed to achieve you a quick and highly efficient sale.
Property Fact find and Valuation
Our sales executive will ask some headline questions regarding your property’s condition and other specifics.
The more information you can provide here the better. We will then be able to undertake detailed house valuation research and come back to you with recommended guide and reserve prices for auction.
Decide on 30 Days or 60 Days Unconditional Auction
You decide how urgently you're looking to sell.
There is 2 options for a Fast Auction sale: 30 days or 60 days. Both are unconditional and both exchange contracts immediately. Some clients simply want to sell quickly or are looking for cash buyers only. In these circumstances, the 30-day unconditional auction is the better option.
Others are happy to wait longer and open their property to retail buyers (i.e. those that will typically buy with finance.) Here; our 60-day sale would be the better option as its likely this option will attract more bidders.
Why Do we do an Unconditional Auction? Because it benefits You.
An Unconditional Auction means that once the property has been sold to the highest bidder, there can be no negotiation and the seller is legally bound to the purchase, with the deposit being held as security. This erases the possibility of being gazumped, and greatly reduces the chance of a buyer dropping out (and losing their deposit).
Suggested Guide and Reserve Prices
The guide and reserve prices are usually based on whether you choose our unconditional 30 day or 60 day auction.
As there is more time with the 60 day unconditional sale, we would normally suggest a guide price of 90% of the market value with a reserve of 85%. However, it’s not uncommon to see properties sell for 100% of their market value.
With our 30-day auction sales, we usually recommend a guide price of 85% and a reserve of 80% of the valuation.
Agent Viewing
We can visit the property 7 days a week at a time convenient for you.
Sometimes, especially if the legal pack is already prepared, it makes sense for us to take photos and produce a floorplan at the same time. We can also organise the Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) if necessary.
This means we can get your property listed on all the portals quickly.
Independent Survey (RICS)
You are under no obligation to book a Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) valuation.
It can, however, sometimes encourage more potential bidders as more feel comfortable with proceeding and things are being kept transparent.
Sales Agreement
Once you are happy with everything, we will send you our auction sales agreement via email.
This needs to be ‘e-signed’ by all owners for us to be able to move forward with the marketing of your property.
Set-Up Fee Payment
SellTo will require a set-up fee to get started on the auction process.
We charge this amount as there is a lot of work behind the scenes. Note that; for no extra cost, you can opt to pay this fee upon completion.
Terms & Conditions / Legal and Operations Guides
We will also send you a copy of the terms and conditions (these are in line with 4th Edition of the ‘Common Auction Conditions’ reproduced with the consent of the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors).
You’ll also receive copies of our legal and operations guides which run through all the necessary procedures that will be followed when selling at auction.
We are, of course, completely available to answer any of your questions.
Legal Pack
We rarely suggest moving forward with an auction sale without a legal pack in place.
Extra information will also be required if you’re selling a tenanted, pre-repossession, inherited/probate or commercial property / land.
Omitting this key information often means that buyers will feel less confident about the purchase and bid lower (or not at all).blog
SellTo have conveyancing partners we can put you in touch with who offer competitive ‘pay now’ and ‘pay later’ options.
Please check out our property auction sellers legal guide which explains how things work in this regard.
Photography, Floorplan and EPC
If this process was not undertaken during our initial viewing, we’ll get these organised with one of our professional partners in your area.
Please not there are no extra charges here (even for the Energy Performance Certificate if you do not have an up-to-date version).
We would also suggest preparing the property as best you can (check out our 101 tips to sell your property quickly).
Advertising for Auction
We take pride in providing high-quality listings and your property will be published on all the major portals to draw in the maximum amount of attention (see where we advertise). Rest assured, this is what we do best!
We typically recommend marketing the property for 21 days before starting the bidding process. However, we are happy to adjust this as circumstances dictate.
Viewings and Open Days
Our viewing experts are available 7 days a week to host viewings.
In many cases, we run open days where we invite multiple buyers to view the property. This often serves to create a competitive environment when it comes to the bidding process.
Provided that you are comfortable with handing the keys over to us until completion, we are happy to take full control of this process to keep things completely hassle-free for you.
We will also make ourselves fully available to answer any questions relating to the property and can run second viewings when appropriate to do so.
Bidder Registration
By law, we are required to formally register potential buyers before allowing them to bid on our portal.
This requires us to undertake full identification and Anti-Money Laundering checks to ensure that there is nothing untoward. Undertaking this process saves a lot of administrative hassle once the auction process concludes.
Let Bidding Commence!
Bidders and Investors are ready to buy your property.
Prior to the bidding process we will send all qualified buyers our operations guide (different to the one sellers receive) and an explanatory video which explains the entire process to avoid any confusion. They will also receive regular reminder emails.
You will also be able to see bidding activity directly on the Auction Partners portal. There is no limit to the amount buyers can bid up to, we will be sending the alerts when their bids have been beaten. This also means that the sale cannot be gazundered (i.e. see a drop).
SOLD!
At the end of the bidding period, the virtual hammer will fall and the sale price is confirmed.
You will be able to see the final price on the portal itself but we will be getting in touch to confirm things as well.
We will also be communicating with the winning buyer to confirm the next steps, completing the Memorandum of Sale and moving things forward.
Exchange of Contracts
Once the hammer has fallen, the chances of things falling through are slim to none.
With our 30 and 60 day unconditional auction, the terms and conditions state that exchange of contracts happens at the fall of the virtual hammer. This means that the buyer (unless otherwise agreed) must pay a deposit of 10% and complete on the sale within 30 or 60 days. Failure to do so could mean the loss of the reservation fee, deposit paid alongside other financial penalties and abortive costs.
Conveyancing
Although much of the legal work is already completed pre-auction, there will be some final processes to undertake.
You will also be sent legal documents to sign to finalise the sale.
Completion and Post-Sales Assistance
SellTo will be available to help with any plans you have made once the property is sold.
We are also glad to help with any unexpected problems as a result of the sale.