How to successfully sell your home at auction

An auction room can be a scary place. It’s a competitive environment where the strongest person wins (but not necessarily the one with the most money). There are psychological games people play with each other to get ahead, and it can all be a bit much – if you’re buying, that is.

Selling your Gold Coast home at auction can be a rewarding experience in more ways than one. It’s exciting to see what the market value for your home is, and if a bidding war erupts for your property, the winning bid could be significantly higher than expected.

Getting your home to that point requires in-depth planning. So what do you need to do to sell your home at auction?

Market your home to the right audience

In order for a barrage of bids to come in, you need the right people in the room on the big day. If buyers don’t know about your home, they aren’t going to throw their money at it, so you need a sound marketing strategy. That’s where the team at Ray White Surfers Paradise comes in.

With years of experience and a long list of buyers, our agents know how to attract a crowd. We’ll work with you to find the strengths of your home and play on those – it might be a perfect opportunity for a renovation, or the best first home a young couple could ask for. When the right people know about it, you have a much higher chance of selling.

Set a date for the big day

After you’ve had some people walk through your open home and get a feel for the place, you need to choose a date to hold the auction. This is one of the biggest decisions you’ll make, and not because the date really makes a huge difference (unless your home isn’t on the market long enough for people to have a look and make a decision about it).

It’s important for you to choose the day because that’s when you’ll either face a buyer who hits your reserve and is ready to settle, or you’ll find that your reserve isn’t met and you may have to accept a lower offer post-auction in order to move on. It’s an emotional time, but your property agent will help you through the whole process so you know what to expect.

Choose your reserve wisely

Surrounding properties of a similar value are the easiest way to tell how much your home is worth. The capital value of your home is another good indicator, but doesn’t take into account recent changes in demand for your street or suburb.

If a similar home down the road just went to auction and sold  for $1million, that’s a fair reserve to put on your home. It wouldn’t be realistic to expect $1.2million, but the bidding might take it to that level anyway. Whatever the bidders put forward is the market value of your home, so be prepared for whatever that is on the day.

Be willing to negotiate if your home is passed in

The bidding might not take your auction beyond your reserve, so your home will be passed in. That’s okay, it doesn’t mean you can’t sell. It does mean people can come forward and lodge a private sale offer however, which you can negotiate.

While your heart was set on the reserve, the market might not be willing to pay that much. The highest offer on the day might be the highest offer you get no matter how many times you go to auction, or you could have some success a couple of weeks down the track with a cashed-up buyer who hasn’t been in the room before. Listen to the advice of your real estate agent when a post-auction offer comes in – they’ll tell you if they think an offer is worth taking or walking away from.

Selling your home at auction is exciting and terrifying, but it can also be financially rewarding. For more information about the process, get in touch with Ray White Surfers Paradise today.