Property Auction Blog

If you thought real estate auctions where only for emergency liquidation, foreclosure or bankruptcy, think again. In today’s challenging real estate market real estate property auctions are a growing trend and one of the fastest growing weapons in the quiver of tools that home builders, lenders, developers, as well as single family home owners can use to get the price they want, faster and with less worry then ever before. 

Real estate property auctions are the fastest growing method of real estate transactions in the USA. Any negative stigma is changing due to a combination of trends that impact the way people think about auctions. The quip, “Yeah, I bought it on E-Bay”, has become a party joke punch line, yet it tells of a growing acceptance of auction as a legitimate way of doing everyday business and finding what you want at a price you want to pay.

On March 25th, Arizona Republic reporter Dianna M. Náñez wrote, “More than 50 percent of the 88 Valley homes up for auction Saturday in downtown Phoenix got bids that met or exceeded the sellers’ minimum price.” According to Náñez, all sellers got to approve the final bids.  “As traditional real estate sales came under pressure in the recent slowdown, property auctions for houses have become one way for sellers and brokers to generate both buzz and, hopefully, closings.” Prior to any slowdown, auctioneers reported that a non distressed real estate auction communicated to the buyers properly fair just as well, if not better, than a traditionally negotiated transaction through a real estate broker and certainly a lot better than a for sale by owner.

RSI Media reports that real estate auctions are coming of age in Maine. The RSI Media article offered auction enthusiasts positive comments. “With an auction, you get a higher price — fair market value or better,” said Farmington real estate broker and auctioneer Adrian Harris, owner of Harris Real Estate, Appraisal and Auction Service. The report went on to say that, “His wife, Debra, said many sellers prefer the auction method. It eliminates having to constantly show your property. There are two open houses and a showing on the day of the auction and that’s all. People like that.”

While the traditional real estate broker contract and MLS sales listings won’t disappear any time soon, real estate property auction is a real estate sales technique that is here to stay, in good times as well as bad. Now when you show your new home to admiring friends, in the middle of the tour of the master suite and that clever built-in entertainment center, you may find yourself saying, “yea, I bought it at a property auction”.