Selling your home at auction in Hampton Roads is a growing practice throughout America, because it offers an opportunity to sell your house fast, without paying real estate agent fees, and often with a profit.
However, as with all things, there can be downsides to auctioning your home rather than selling it through the traditional real estate sale process with an agent or to a real estate investment firm like HR House Buyers.
In this article I’ll dive into some of the do’s and dont’s of auctioning your house in Hampton Roads and surrounding areas and discuss the question of “Is Auctioning Your House A Good Idea in Hampton Roads VA?”
Is Auctioning Your House A Good Idea in Hampton Roads?
If you’re looking at auctioning off your Hampton Roads house, keep in mind that there are several preparations that you must make before the actual auction starts.
The “Do’s”
- In order to actually get your house auctioned off, you must first find an auctioneer in Hampton Roads.There are many auctioneering companies out there today, so do your research before picking one to represent your house. One place you can start is your local phone book, a referral, or head over to the National Auctioneers Association website and do a quick search for auctioneers here in our area of VA.Look for those with plenty of experience, and even try attending an auction or two, just to get a feel for how they run things. Make sure to find out their fees that they charge for their services, as they can sometimes run quite high. In some instances they may take up to ten percent of the houses cost, greatly reducing the amount of profit that you will receive… sometimes much lower.Or heck, if you don’t want to hire an auctioneer… you can do it yourself. A good auctioneer can really help drive the price of a house up with their skill… but you can run the auction yourself as long as you’re clear about the rules of the auction with bidders, the starting bid price, whether they have to have cash and a deposit at the auction, etc.
- Decide which kind of auction you want to run – Absolute or Reserve?Once you feel that you’ve selected the house auctioneering company in Hampton Roads that’s best for you, establish which kind of auction you want it to be, absolute or reserve.In absolute auctions there is no minimum limit that your house must earn in order to be sold. This means that whatever the highest bid may be, is what you’re going to get.Reserve auctions are those that have a minimum limit, and if it doesn’t reach that limit, it doesn’t get sold.
Although it seems like a clear choice between the two, don’t assume that reserve auctions are necessarily better. Sometimes if bidders aren’t willing to reach the limit, it will never be sold and you’ll be sitting on a house that you don’t want. Also, auctions that are “no reserve” (or absolute) tend to attract more potential bidders to the auction looking for a great deal… and if one of them gets wrapped up in the bidding frenzie… that could mean the difference between selling the house that day and not selling it.
Think carefully about making a decision, and try to decide what it is that you want more. If you want to sell your house as quickly as possible in Hampton Roads, then doing an absolute auction is the quicker option. If not, then perhaps a reserve auction would be more in your goals.
- Don’t leave out any faults about the house from your auction descriptionA really important step in selling your house at auction here in Hampton Roads is to list all the problems that your property has. Don’t leave out any faults about your house, because if you do the buyers have a right to come after you for any flaws that you didn’t list out before the auction.
Last…
- Don’t go into an auction with fantasies of a bidding war erupting, leaving you with an enormous profit.Place a realistic price that you hope to earn, and don’t be too disappointed if your house sells for less than you think it’s worth. You may have an emotional attachment to the house that the people bidding on the house don’t have.Auctioning your house in Hampton Roads may bring in less money than a real estate sale, but it is relatively quick, and can spare you the heartache and stress of the more traditional approach.
Why Are You Thinking About Auctioning Your Hampton Roads House Anyway?
You landed on this article for a reason… auctioning off your house has crossed your mind.
It may help you sell your house more quickly… so why not give it a go right?
Before you choose to auction off your local house… try another option first.
Our company, HR House Buyers, buys Hampton Roads area houses. We’re not looking to list your house… we’re looking to actually buy it.
- In any condition
- Any part of town and even other parts of VA
- ugly houses, pretty houses, houses in great shape, houses that need lots of repairs
- houses with lots of equity and even houses with little or no equity
We’ll pay a fair price, we can close fast (in as little as 7 days), and you won’t have to fix up the house at all.
If you’d like to see what we can pay for your house BEFORE you decide to auction it off… reach out to us.
You can call us anytime at (757) 498-2101 or just click the link below and fill out the form on the next page to start the process.
So, Is Auctioning Your House A Good Idea in Hampton Roads?… that’s up to you to decide. But if you want to see if working with us makes more sense first before you jump into the “auction” world… submit your info below to get started today!
Get A Cash Offer On Your Hampton Roads Area House Here >>
Here’s another great read that we found when writing this article on some more tips and questions you should ask yourself before you auction off your house.