Real Estate Auction fails to draw buyers
http://www.billgemmill.com/blog/articles/8/1/Real-Estate-Auction-fails-to-draw-buyers/Page1.html
Bill Gemmill
REALTORRealtor
By Bill Gemmill
Published on 11/23/2008
A client of mine decided that putting their home up for Auction might just be the ticked to selling the home faster in this down market. There was to be an Auction in Phoenix with hundreds of homes auctioned off to the highest bidder in mid November 2008! The sales pitch sounded great as they told my client that open houses would now get 10-20 additional people from the auction to look at the home. We had both heard both positive and negative comments about a Real Estate Auctions in the past. So what really happened at this auction?
A client of mine decided that putting their home up for Auction might
just be the ticket to selling the home faster in this down market.
There was to be an Auction in Phoenix with hundreds of homes auctioned
off to the highest bidder in mid November 2008! The sales pitch
sounded great as they told my client that open houses would now get
10-20 additional people from the auction to look at the home. We had
both heard both positive and negative comments about a Real Estate
Auctions in the past. So what really happened at this auction?
We held three open houses after the home was also listed with the Auction company. I was waiting to see lots of new faces come through my open house, since the open houses previous had only a few people at best going through my clients home. The Auction company even sent yard signs to give us more exposure and listed the home on their website. I had one couple go through my clients home in the last three open houses, and they did not find it from the Auction company (I asked them!). Score of zero for Auction company sales pitch number one.
We had heard from the Auction company that on average over 1/3 of the homes sell before the Auction, 1/3 sell at the Auction, and 1/3 sell after the Auction. When we got to the Auction, the paperwork for the bidding showed 3 homes sold already, but there were a total of 130 homes on Auction today! The Auction started late, with about 100 individuals in the room for the 130 homes. The Auction had some great deals, and a few not so great deals, but not one person bid on a property. No homes were sold at the Auction. Where were all the buyers, were all the people sitting in the room sellers? Score of zero for Auction company sales pitch number two.
The sad thing is that my client, along with the other 130 homeowners had to pay a fee (in the thousands of dollars I might add) to have their home put on this Auction. Only 3 of those sellers were able to sell their homes with the other 127 waiting to see if the Auction company can sell them in the next 60 days, without the benefit of an Auction. If all the Auctions have the same results as this one, I would say to sellers, save your money!
We held three open houses after the home was also listed with the Auction company. I was waiting to see lots of new faces come through my open house, since the open houses previous had only a few people at best going through my clients home. The Auction company even sent yard signs to give us more exposure and listed the home on their website. I had one couple go through my clients home in the last three open houses, and they did not find it from the Auction company (I asked them!). Score of zero for Auction company sales pitch number one.
We had heard from the Auction company that on average over 1/3 of the homes sell before the Auction, 1/3 sell at the Auction, and 1/3 sell after the Auction. When we got to the Auction, the paperwork for the bidding showed 3 homes sold already, but there were a total of 130 homes on Auction today! The Auction started late, with about 100 individuals in the room for the 130 homes. The Auction had some great deals, and a few not so great deals, but not one person bid on a property. No homes were sold at the Auction. Where were all the buyers, were all the people sitting in the room sellers? Score of zero for Auction company sales pitch number two.
The sad thing is that my client, along with the other 130 homeowners had to pay a fee (in the thousands of dollars I might add) to have their home put on this Auction. Only 3 of those sellers were able to sell their homes with the other 127 waiting to see if the Auction company can sell them in the next 60 days, without the benefit of an Auction. If all the Auctions have the same results as this one, I would say to sellers, save your money!