Top 4 tips for choosing a London property auction when selling your house

There are many ways that homeowners can try to sell their freehold or leasehold flats or houses, and each method has its own pros and cons. Knowing how to decide between the various options can seem overwhelming, especially if you just want a quick and profitable sale.

You could consider using a Propertymark registered estate agent, and relying on their expert knowledge of property sales to hope that they’ll swiftly find you a buyer. But selling this way can often take many months and, in worst case scenarios, more than a full year. Plus you’ll have to pay the estate agent fees for their work, which will therefore reduce your overall net sale profit.

Or you could contact a quick homebuyer, like LDN Properties which offers London owners a speedy and straightforward way to sell their houses or flats. There are a few pros of this approach, including the fact that reputable quick buyers don’t charge fees and are often able to complete the entire process of purchasing your property in a few weeks.

And there’s also a third option of using a property auction, which can be a great way to sell your home if several bidders are interested in buying it. They’ll keep trying to outbid each other with ever-increasing price offers for your home, and therefore using an auction can be a wise choice for boosting your sale profit under the right conditions.

Use these 4 tips to find the property auctioneer that’s right for you

Still, there are some potential downsides to using a property auction and that’s why it’s important to consider all aspects of the sale before deciding on which company to use for auctioning off your London home. Consider the following 4 tips to help guide you in sorting through the list of auctioneers so that you can find the best match for your home sale:

1. Ask about the fees that the auctioneer might charge

Almost every auction house in London will charge fees for the work that they do in selling your home. This includes marketing the listing to get potential buyers interested in your home, hosting the auction, and overseeing the completion of a sale to a successful bidder. 

You might be able to negotiate lower charges by calling specific auctioneers and asking them. And in some cases you might be able to pass some sale fees on to the winning high bidder.

2. Find out whether the auctioneer can sell homes in your area

This is a two-step process, the first being to call or email auctioneers to ask whether they are able to sell properties in your part of London. Although many auction houses are able to consider selling homes anywhere in and around the city, others are limited to certain areas.

It might seem like a very simple step to take, but it’s a free and easy way to help reduce the potentially lengthy list of auctioneers from which you will have to make a final choice.

3. Ask about the auctioneers’ past success with homes likes yours

If an auctioneer can sell homes in your district, you should ask if they have any experience with selling your type of property. If your house or flat has a unique feature, for example extensive subsidence or another structural problem, some auctioneers might lack the skill to know how to advertise the property and get any bidders interested in it. Auctioneers should not be reluctant to share with you the success of past sales of properties like yours, and if they are then this should be a warning sign because they might struggle to get anyone interested in buying your home.

4. Find out the auctioneer’s deadline for completing sales

If you succeed in selling your home at auction, you might still have a lengthy wait ahead whilst the buyer completes all of the paperwork and other steps involved with purchasing your property. Many auctioneers will set a deadline of 28 days from the date of the auction for this process to be completed, but some companies might allow more or less time.

It’s important that you have some certainty about the speed of the auction process, particularly if securing a swift timeline for selling is your number one priority. You should get in touch with specific companies to ask about their post-sale deadline, as well as to ask whether they would consider imposing a shorter deadline in order to help with accelerating the sale.