Case Studies

Having been on the market with an agent for nearly a year, we sold this house with its very dated interior 6 weeks after instruction for £10,000 more than the best offer through the agent.

This house was asking £385,000 through an agent. It was empty and it then had a bad water leak which caused considerable damage. The keen asking price helped it achieve the pre-damage price!

Another 1 bed flat in the block had been on the market with another agent for months with an asking price of £475,000, and had not sold. Our clients were therefore delighted when we were able to quickly sell their flat at our auction for a higher price!

Having suffered subsidence and with an ongoing insurance claim, our client was hoping to achieve between £420,000 - £450,000, so he was delighted with the result.

The sellers wanted a buyer who wouldn’t pull out or try renegotiating after they accepted an offer, so they chose to sell at auction. They were even more happy when the bungalow sold for £25,000 more than any of the valuations they had previously received.

This house included a shop, and also benefitted from planning consent to extend. With so many options and little to compare it to, auction was the sensible means to establish the value.

Under offer through an agent at £370,000, the buyer pulled out. Afterwards this empty house was vandalised and boarded up, so to then sell at auction for £55,000 more was a remarkable achievement!

The seller was a Charitable Trust, and the Trustees understood the importance of an open and public sale that only auction can deliver. Auction also delivered over £100,000 more than the direct offers previously put to them.

A formal surveyor’s valuation recommended to the solicitors acting as executors to sell at auction. The surveyor thought the property was worth £230,000, which was almost spot on.

The widowed elderly owner now felt vulnerable in such a remote setting and wanted a quick hassle free sale. This she achieved through auction and also achieved more money than expected.

The seller had purchased this unusual property through us a year earlier, but trying to deal with the planners at the local authority had drained his enthusiasm. Expecting to lose money, he was delighted when the keen guide price helped to deliver a profit.

Asking £550,000 through the agent, the best offer was £520,000 which went nowhere. Desperate for a quick sale the owners chose auction and got the fast result they wanted. They also got another £46,000!

So badly fire damaged, the insurer’s surveyor valued the remains of the property at plot value less demolition costs. Auction found buyers willing to pay a lot more.

Other flats in this block had failed to sell through agents. As property investors search through auction, the owner realised that investment properties like this student flat would sell best at auction. With a great pre-auction bid, the seller sold just 2 weeks after instructing us.

Our client was a surveyor with experience of auctions. Consequently, he understood that the only way to sell this unique parcel of land within the Green Belt was through auction. The sale price at over double the guide price didn’t disappoint.

Having had a planning application refused, then refused again at appeal, the owners of this agricultural building with land were hoping to achieve their surveyor’s estimate of £200,000!

Our client knew that other wooden frame buildings in the road had struggled to sell with agents and the final sale price of those that eventually did sell were disappointing. Choosing auction delivered a fast sale with a better than expected sale price.

Under the Charites Act, charities are under an obligation not to undersell. Therefore, unusual properties such as this really can only be sold at auction because there is nothing else to compare to, and through competitive bidding, auction delivers market value.

Suspecting there to be interest from a neighbour but wanting to avoid a long, protracted sale, the seller was more than happy to sell prior to auction, still under auction conditions, to that neighbour.

With an awkward layout, dated interior and being Grade II listed, there was plenty to consider with this hotel that had ceased trading. An auction sale was fast and avoided buyers offering and then later changing their minds; an all too common occurrence under a private treaty sale.

Less than a year earlier, the same size house next door but one had sold for £175,000. That house was in a good condition and our seller, an executor to the late owner’s estate, thought hers would need at least £40,000 spending to bring it up to standard. Auction delivered her a sale price £75,000 more than she expected.

This former chapel, without any place to park nearby, was in a very poor condition. It was also a very emotive sale for our client, so we were particularly pleased when he was delighted at how smooth the auction process was and how much the property sold for.

Having been used to cultivate cannabis for over a decade, this house was in a shocking condition. The executors just wanted it sold, which it did, to a buyer who chose not to view before buying. Asking for the keys on completion, he was advised that he just needed a cordless screwdriver to remove the screws of the plywood covering the front door!

Not wanting to incur the wrath of all their neighbours by seeking planning approval to convert this barn into a house, yet still wishing to benefit from the hope that it could achieve a planning consent, the sellers realised auction attracts buyers willing to pay for hope value.

With planning consent for a pair of semi-detached houses, this plot attracted builders who were then forced to compete against each other in the open environment of an auction room. Having put the hammer down, the builder who won had no opportunity to drop the price; an otherwise common occurrence.