Has anyone sold their home at auction?

I haven't but found this:

Selling property at auction is not a cheap process, and is considered one of the most expensive routes when you need to achieve a fast house sale. Generally, there are no hidden costs, however homeowners should expect to pay the auctioneer in the region of 2.5% of the sale price. One factor to consider is that even if your property doesn’t sell, you are still liable to pay the auctioneer fees. It is also advisable to check with the auction house if there are advertising costs when selling, as this may be an additional cost to consider.

Are you trying to sell your home via convention high street and online sales companies? It may well be that you need to target more specifically i.e. to rail enthusiasts through clubs and associations.

Have you considered renting it? You could take a buy to let mortgage on it that would free up money for a deposit on your new place,The rent from the buy to let should pay the mortgage and some of the new mortgage if you need one .Speak to a good financial adviser or a decent mortgage broker..not a bank .I dont know where you are based but although we're in Scotland we use a mortgage guy in Poole in Dorset I can pass his name onto you if you think he could help .Good luck with your plans .

Thank you for the information Fountainpen. I am with a local estate agent, who advertise on Zoopla only. I have had seven viewings this year, about six last year.

I have also paid to advertise in the Jan/Feb issues of Railway Magazine. Only three brochure requests from the ads, unfortunately.

Our post lady stopped me today and said if she won the lottery she'd buy it - but I'd probably have to wait for a rich b__ from the south to come up. I don't think she realises we moved up here from Twickenham!

Thank you paddyann, a great idea but I can't do it here. The house needs too much work done to rent out unfortunately, when my husband became ill he lost his strength, and didn't want workmen here. When he died it was like the house died too, everything went wrong at once.
I've tried to keep on top of the minor repairs I can afford but the roof situation is becoming desperate.

Sorry for your situation. Just wanted to say the property sounds wonderful

as its listed why not crowd fund to fix the roof and get rail enthusiasts involved in helping with the work it needs done.There are always people looking for something to do with their time .Maybe your local paper could run a story on it and see if anyone comes forward to offer help .Good luck with it I hope it and your sanity can be saved .

My son sold his house by auction (although not in Uk) but he got more money than he was expecting
Why not advertise it to a wider audience if your local chap is only using one avenue Lots of advertising about Purple bricks and Rightmove at the moment are they any use to try
If it’s a listed building surely there is a local scheme to help with funding to get the roof done have you checked this out

I think selling a house when on your own must be terribly stressful

you need to be with an EA who subscribes to rightmove, mosaicwarts. RM is often the only site that buyers look at. I can see the attraction of an auction, gets rid of quickly and no long drawn out process. If you can afford it then do it, always better to move on with life, even if it costs money.

I am in selling process right now, almost finished but I had to drop by 11% to sell in good time. Depends on your age but for me, well life is too short to hang about and it sounds as though you need to be out and settled into a new home for next winter. Do it, get it over with

There are some specialist estate agents for this type of propertty. I did a google search and came up with this:

www.railwaystationcottages.co.uk/railway-properties-for-sale/

I'd be inclined to go for another agent (but do make sure you exit your present arrangement properly - there can be problems if its not done correctly). Your unusual property needs careful handling and a wider audience.

P.S. stay well clear of the likes of Purple Bricks as mentioned by another poster. They are having financial problems and with any fee upfront organisation there strategy means once they have your money they have no real incentive to do any chasing. Unusual properties need very pro-active agents, someone who searches out potential buyers by advertising widely and vetting its potential purchasers.

There are companies that guarantee to buy your property immediately but do offer less than market value. This is an answer to moving quickly if you can afford it (and if they will accept a specialised property like yours).

Friends of ours with a very unusual house found an agent who found buyers privately and it didn't take very long to sell. It was in vg order however.
Mine would be like yours.

Another friend changed their EA after 6 months with no viewers. The new agent took better photos and was on right move etc. It sold.

Have you thought of putting an ad in one of the magazines for railway enthusiasts? We have a narrow boat and regularly see ads in the back of related magazines for canal side properties for sale.

Are you sure it's realistically priced? I know it's not so easy to know with one-off properties, but from experience of relatives trying to sell - two cases of on the market for absolutely ages and sold only after a fairly hefty reduction - unless there's something intrinsically wrong with it (e.g. next to a noisy pub) it's usually the price.

It's quite common for estate agents to value 'optimistically' in order to get the business, which is what happened in both those cases, I'm sure.

I do think a property should be on both Rightmove and Zoopla - first ports of call for most people looking to buy.

Auctions, free of an unreasonable reserve, can stop the agony.

Your Energy Performance Certificate for your old railway station will probably show that it is too energy inefficient to rent out.

Bite the bullet and get it sold so you can enjoy the rest of your life.

Advise your estate agent of the upcoming auction date so they have an opportunity to redouble their efforts to sell it for you.

Gook luck!

Good

You definitely need an agent who uses Rightmove as well as Zoopla . Having moved quite recently I know it was always Rightmove we looked at first as they had a larger section of the market. Good luck, it is the most stressful thing to do but keep in mind that you loved the house once and there will be someone else who feels the same, it’s just a question of finding them.

We bought our house at auction. We were lucky as had good advice from our bank manager who did the bidding for us. We did pay more than the asking price so it can be quite lucrative for the seller. You can attract potential buyers by giving a low and high price guide but the bidding can exceed that. It worked for us as buyers and I think it was good for the seller too. We're still here 40 years later.

I agree with others - you need to get the property on Rightmove. Sorry to ask but what kind of cheapskate / amateur EAs are you registered with who don't even do that? As others have said, some buyers only look on Rightmove. So, in your shoes, my first move would be a different Agent (just check the exit agreement with your current one). Maybe ask around for recommendations for those who have recently sold a property in your area? Also, think about more specialist agencies - i.e. those who specialise in properties in a higher price range (you may have to look at the County at a whole to find them - not sure where you are, but there are often "Country Life" kinds of magazines where such estate agents can be found advertising - they don't mind travelling quite long distances to view expensive properties). Good luck.

The OP agent seems to be doing a good job based on the numbers of people viewing the property. Zoopla is a well known site and many potential purchasers look there as well as Rightmove. Zoopla also advertise on the TV. You can simply ask your agent to advertise on Rightmove. Several years ago, I had a house up for sale with an agent (pre-internet) who was not advertising where I wanted them to. I told them what I wanted them to do, They said they didn’t do that. I told them that I would then have to change to another agent. They then agreed to advertise where I chose, with no extra charge.

Anyone who buys at auction is looking for a bargain. You will get less than market value and then you have lots of fees to pay.
I would say that your best bet would be to lower the asking price with your agent to get more interest. Or change your agent before doing this. You need an agent who will put the effort in to getting people through the door.

Post link for on here OP and we will give honest feedback!

I had an unusual house that I was having trouble selling. I approached our local, very well known, auction house and they weren’t interested. I sold after two years for £60000 less than the valuation.