# selling house at auction



## gellert (18 Jul 2011)

Hi,
I wrote here before about my plans to sell the house and try to repay most of my debts. I got some good responses, so thanks to all who contributed. 

I put the house on the market in March and have had 2 viewings. Obviously the market is dead.

I'd like to ask people's opinion of selling at an auction. Having made the decision to sell, we'd just like to get on with it and move on with our lives. The estate agent put a value of 270000 on our house. The mortgage outstanding is 253000. At an auction, as I understand it, the reserve would a lower figure than what is asked for in a private treaty situation. I have spoken to one auction house, who say they have an auction upcoming in the autumn. They want 800 euro initially and 1.8% of sale price.

What do you all think?


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## aristotle (18 Jul 2011)

Given the state of the market (and leaving aside the fact that your house has probably dropped 50% in value since the peak) if you can sell your house and come out with a small profit then that is a great result. 

Even if you break even or have a small loss its a small price to pay for moving on with your lives as you stated it. Its either do that or wait for many many more years to make a bigger profit and rent it out in the meantime, or dont move at all.


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## Bronte (22 Jul 2011)

If an auction is what it takes to sell it then that is what you need to do.  You have to be realistic as to price.  My understanding of the recent Cork auction is that the sellers were not realistic.


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## choccy (22 Jul 2011)

how does yuor asking price comapre with others in area ?

if you've only had 2 viewings even in this market you might be- over priced or else not presented well on daft/myhome.....
if yuo want quick sale make sure you're the lowest in your estate and house is well presented, garden pretty etc. 

if yuo just want to sell and move on you could consider putting it up at 259 to cover mortgage and legal costs, small profit  and get quick sale as you won't necessarily get more at auction


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## dereko1969 (22 Jul 2011)

Presumably you'd have to get the agreement of your Bank to the reserve you set? How does that work?


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## Bronte (22 Jul 2011)

choccy said:


> if you've only had 2 viewings even in this market you might be- over priced or else not presented well on daft/myhome


 
My thoughts too.  

Dereko, OP doesn't need banks consent as long as they can pay back the mortgage.  It's nothing to do with the bank otherwise.


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## Brendan Burgess (22 Jul 2011)

> The estate agent put a value of 270000 on our house. The mortgage outstanding is 253000.



This suggests that the minimum reserve you can put on your house is €253,000.  

If you have say €13,000 cash you could put a reserve of €240,000 on it. 

I see little point in putting a house "valued" at 270k up for auction at any reseve less than around €160k.  I know you want to move on with your life, but do you want to take such a hit? 

If you can't afford such a hit, then you can't sell your house at auction.


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## dereko1969 (22 Jul 2011)

Bronte said:


> My thoughts too.
> 
> Dereko, OP doesn't need banks consent as long as they can pay back the mortgage. It's nothing to do with the bank otherwise.


 
How does title transfer at/after an auction?


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## gellert (22 Jul 2011)

I agree that the reserve price is critical and that it cannot be what the house was "valued" at by the estate agent. 

The difficulty is that I no longer can afford to pay the mortgage due to a large paycut that I originally took in 2009. I've struggled for the last two years, but I'm out of saving and my unemployment benefit. If there is a shortfall, do banks come to agreements? It will not be possible to continue serving the existing mortgage "going forward".

A reserve of 253000 will not work. It will have to be sub 200K, I think. I have no savings to make up the shortfall.


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## choccy (25 Jul 2011)

if you are desperate to sell it might be worth getting a friend to assess how your house views, take some new pics, review your price and do a 'relaunch' with another estate agency- the one you currently with obvoiusly not doing the business for you 

things to consider when your ad is not trainslating into viewings - after asking price of course:

Does your house have very strong paint colours ?
Is garden , tidy and well kept,
any sign of animals- alot of people put off by dogs, cats, birds etc
is the house clutter free?
too much furniture making rooms look cluttered?
is furniiure too big for rooms eg huge sofa or bed ?

finally- is toilet seat up in your pics ? - women always notice this one


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## Bronte (2 Aug 2011)

gellert said:


> The difficulty is that I no longer can afford to pay the mortgage due to a large paycut that I originally took in 2009. I've struggled for the last two years, but I'm out of saving and my unemployment benefit.
> 
> .


 
You will have to start talking to your bank. Their opinion on what you can and cannot afford will be different to yours. They will probably ask you to do a statement of all your income and outgoings. And that of your partner as well.

It might be a good idea for you to do the money makeover thread.


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