A plot of land in Walthamstow, London, with a guide price of £7,000 was sold by Auction House London for an unexpected £23,000 – more than three times the guide – in its latest sale.
Auctioneer Andrew Binstock said, “The sheer potential of this triangular plot of land raised the temperature on bidding in the room. Although it’s a site where planning permission has been refused in the past, a number of people were obviously willing to take a risk.”
Two other lots also attracted fierce bidding. A large detached house in Eltham, south London (pictured), really captured the imagination of buyers.
Binstock said: “It’s a pretty property built in the late 1920s or early 1930s, and with a guide of £475,000 we sold it for £564,500.
“Similarly, a house in Tipton in the West Midlands was a surprise success, selling for £114,000 having started out with a guide price of just £60,000. This boarded-up, unmodernised house needed total refurbishment and was considered unsafe, so no one was even able to view the property before the sale.”
At the auction 13 lots were sold out of 18 offered (73%) with at least two further sales expected. The total amount raised was over £3.1m.
Comments
"......I have nothing to do with the auction room mentioned but people are so up their own arse on this site its a joke."
Certainly one seems so!
lol, the story has been edited. I assume the quote about achieving true value isn’t so true then.
the whole point of seemingly low Auction Guide pices is to ensure there is more than one bidder in the room. An auction with one bidder doesn't work.
The formula hereabouts is; Auction guide price = expected value X .66. Autions are great for markets with lots of stupid purchasers swilling around and propertioes where there is genuinely more than one potential buyer, but it is a cop out instruction winner tactic for agents who are either lazy or not very good at their job. Greedy vendors all too easily get sucked into the thrill potential of an auction.
Its business FFS, if a corporate client instructs him to put it on for a certain price (which is below market value), he's not going to turn it away. Neither would any other estate agent on this site. So why do you feel the need to poke your high and mighty noses in and criticise him.
Guide Prices are low to get people into the auction rooms. They are not the value of the property. If they were, nobody would turn up and no houses get sold.
I have nothing to do with the auction room mentioned but people are so up their own arse on this site its a joke.
@Andrew Binstock.
That is the exact reason why the auction model is so perfect. It sets the exact price any property/site is worth".
A very plausible but rather ‘sugary’ effort advertises your 'goodness' which will go down well with possible private vendors. I doubt it cuts it with repos as the money lenders WILL set the minimum price they can get away with for you to sell at just to cover their exposure and that is not necessarily its worth.
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'That is the exact reason why the auction model is so perfect. It sets the exact price any property/site is worth.'
I disagree Andrew. I think once a property has been marketed widely enough, with all media available to agents, open to all types buyer, (not just cash buyers that can complete in 28 days) with varying deposits amounts, maybe then you could can suggest you sold it at its 'worth'.
Why would an auctioneer want to have a low price, they have little interest in what the achieve for the poor unfortunates who have been repo'd. They just sell and hide behind "it was a public auction so therefor the best price " when anyone who has been in the industry and actually can tell the truth, know thats a complete lie.
Shame on you, at least be honest, rather than think you can con people on this site that actually know you lie. You took the fee and ran. Full stop.
How about a lender publicly coming out and explain how this can satisfy TCF, I thought the FSA audited files, most auctioned repos should then fail.
I read your comments with interest and, as the auctioneer in question, feel compelled to respond.
Quite often when acting for corporate clients (asset managers, banks, probates etc) we are asked to sell a property at a particular price. We may advise on price if requested to do so. But often we are told what guide price and what reserve price the client wants and we either take it or leave it. Occasionally, a property sells way above it's reserve price and the vendor will be pleasantly surprised. Sometimes the property fails to sell because the property was too expensive. With unusual properties (like the one in Tipton) which we were unable to inspect, or small plots of land, it is impossible to gauge the market price in advance of the auction.
That is the exact reason why the auction model is so perfect. It sets the exact price any property/site is worth.
Our guide prices are there to give an indication to buyers as to what the reserve price is - it's nothing more than a helpful piece of info. It certainly isn't an exact prediction of the final sale price. Often fresh info comes to light between the catalogue being printed and the auction sale which can dramatically affect the property's value.
To conclude, we didn't "undervalue" any property. We would never give a vendor a deliberately false appraisal on their property. However, because we have such a wide reaching audience and we often take properties on purely with the clients prices set in stone, we exceed their expectations - sometimes by a lot. This is down to having a brilliant auction team and working extremely hard to make sure every possible buyer is in the room bidding. The very reason more and more vendors are now coming to us.
Vendors should not be 'guided' solely by auctioneer valuers or estate agents (remember they have a vested interest in a quick sale - also it does not sit easily with the view of many on this site who keep on about 'over' valueing)
There is plenty of info. out there nowadays to enable vendors to use their 'noddle' about reserve or asking prices, whatever 'advice' they receive.. They should do so - if they can actually afford to move at this time because many cannot because of outstanding mortgages..
@Industry Observer - your point about fees is valid and at least they should consider a reduced percentage fee if they get it that wrong!
Peculiar isn't it?
Estate agents and/or their vendor clients are being constantly criticised for seemingly consistently to overvalue properties, or at least be very optimistic.
Auctioneers almost always seem to under value on reserves, and often by large amounts and not just on property sales either. Not by as much as this lot (no pun intended!!) though.
Did Auction House London take their fee for this work - or have the decency only to take it on their original estimated reserves?
How can any professional auctioneer undervalue by 200%, 18% (which almost looks respectable in comparison with the other two) and 47% respectively?