Q&A with our iamsold Auction Specialist, Debbie

Debbie has worked at iamsold for over 6 years and has been an Auction Specialist for The Property Franchise Group for over 3 years. Debbie has a very close working relationship with many agents in TPFG network and is always willing to go above and beyond to ensure you receive the best service possible.

Which properties are best suited to auction?

There are no particular types of property that are most suited to auction. Auction suitability is determined based on the seller’s circumstances, where there is a motivation to sell quickly and securely. However, properties that tend to see the most success are probate properties, vacant properties, investment properties, and properties with development opportunities i.e. barns, churches etc. We tend to see highly competitive bidding in these circumstances.

What’s the best way to position the auction service with our vendors?

Highlight that the Modern Method of Auction provides speed and security that they would not get through private treaty. The sale will adhere to a very structured timescale which is not controlled by solicitors, everybody will work towards the same deadlines. Over a 3-month period we have completed on over 1000 sales, whereas the current running rate for private treaty sales is up to 6 months.

Why don’t all of our instructions go to auction?

Sometimes we’ll get a property through where the vendors are wanting to go with auction. However, when we look at the figures and circumstances, we may determine that auction is not the best route at that time. For example, a property purchased in peak of the market for £100K, latest selling prices for properties in the area might be £80K, the vendor still owes £90K on a mortgage and must achieve at least that. We know by listing with auction and adding a reservation fee, the likelihood is they are not going to sell the property as they will be looking for more than its current market value.

Unfortunately, the vendor’s initial circumstances for purchase make it unrealistic to put through auction. We would advise them to bring it down on the open market to help the agent get a more realistic figure to sell. What we won’t do is take a property on, knowing full well we’d struggle to sell it and it’s not going to be of any benefit to the vendor.

What do you do when we submit a lead?

Our Partner Agents give us a really good background on the properties so the first thing we do is read through your guidelines. We also look at when the property was purchased and the purchase price, whilst trying to find out some information about the area and local selling prices.

We would then ring your vendor and explain the full process of auction and give them the various options i.e. conditional or unconditional, vendor paid or buyer paid. We then run through our advice on how the property should be marketed for auction and send them a contract. Once they are happy to go ahead and sign the contract, we create an auction pack for them through our auction pack department.

We market the property and do all the follow-up from the viewings and contact the vendor on a weekly basis. Once the property is sold we hand over to our sales progression department and conveyancing department. It will be chased on a weekly basis by the sales progression department until completion, ordinarily within 56 days or 28 days for unconditional.

Why do we need to upload viewings to the iamsold system?

As a business, we will follow up all viewings. We take care of your seller contact for you, so once you record your viewings we can ensure we follow it up on your behalf.

When we follow up a viewing, we also get the perceived value, for example, if there’s a property on for £100K and 20 people are giving feedback that it’s only worth £90K it’s something that we can have a conversation with the vendor about and realign their expectations.

Also, if the viewings are on our system and the vendor sold privately, we have a record of it and will pursue the vendor for the reservation fee.

Do we need consent to pass you information on viewers as well as sellers?

For data protection, because you’re passing the details of an individual to a third party i.e. iamsold, you do need to have consent. What we always advise is if someone rings up saying they would like to book a viewing, you must inform them that you are passing their information on to the auction department and that a 3rd party will be in touch with them.

To find out more, call 0345 646 0302 or email enquiries@iam-sold.co.uk