Go to auction for a quick property sale

If you need to sell your property quickly, the best way could be via auction. But there are caveats, and selling a property at auction isn’t all good news for vendors.

"As a way of selling your property, [an auction] beats any other method hands down in terms of excitement," say Cherry Maslen and Lucy Denyer in The Sunday Times. Of course, excitement may be the last thing you want when selling a house but with the market drying up, it is one of the few ways left more or less to guarantee a quick sale. One benefit of auctions is that once a house has been won, the sales rarely fall through. Buyers must have finance in place before they can bid, and have to put down a 10% deposit on the day, which they will lose if they pull out of the deal.

Selling a property at auction isn't all good news for vendors, of course. There's a reason why, in more normal circumstances, the only properties sold at auction are either repossessions or those needing serious renovation. The average buyer at auction is a serious bargain-hunter, so you must "be realistic about the price you can expect to achieve", warns Jo Thornhill in The Mail on Sunday. But with property prices dropping fast, a quick, low-ball sale at an auction could still get you the same price as you'd get, or more than you would have got, after six months on the open market.

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Ruth Jackson-Kirby

Ruth Jackson-Kirby is a freelance personal finance journalist with 17 years’ experience, writing about everything from savings accounts and credit cards to pensions, property and pet insurance.

Ruth started her career at MoneyWeek after graduating with an MA from the University of St Andrews, and she continues to contribute regular articles to our personal finance section. After leaving MoneyWeek she went on to become deputy editor of Moneywise before becoming a freelance journalist.

Ruth writes regularly for national publications including The Sunday Times, The Times, The Mail on Sunday and Good Housekeeping, among many other titles both online and offline.