Commission When Selling At Auction

When you sell your house conventionally you have to pay your estate agent a fee. This is because you are effectively getting someone else to do all the work. You don’t want to traipse around town advertising a house for sale. You don’t want to always have to be available in case someone wants to come and view your house. You have other things you need to do. Estate agents take care of all this, leaving you free to get on with the rest of your life.

For this reason estate agents take a fee. You usually pay them a commission from the money from the sale of the house to the estate agent for his or her work on organising the sale. This is similar when buying a property at auction.

What Do I Pay At Auction

At auction you will pay the vendor at the auction house a commission from the money you make from the sale. This is usually between 1 and 3 %. You will pay this once the property has been sold at the auction. The vendor and the auction house will decide on the commission. It varies between each auction house.

The seller may also have to pay a fee for the cost of marketing the properties on offer at the auction. Advertising costs a lot of money and the auction houses often charge the seller a fee, in addition to the commission they receive, to go towards the cost of marketing the property and preparing for the auction.

Why Do I Pay For Someone To Sell My House At Auction?

The reasons sellers must pay a commission to the auction house and vendor is much the same as why they would pay an estate agent. The auction house is a business and it has to make money someway. By conducting the sale and attracting potential buyers with marketing etc the auction house is providing a service to the seller, a service the seller must then pay for.

How To Avoid All Fees

The only way the seller can avoid paying any commission is to organise the sale themselves. If they do not use an estate agent or an auction house then they will not have to pay anyone anything for the sale. However they will have to do all the work themselves including marketing the property, organising and being there for the viewing's and everything else that is involved in the sale. If you have time to do this and don’t want to spend money unnecessarily then taking care of the sale yourself is the best option for you.

If you do not have the time and decide to go ahead with selling the house at auction, look for the auction house offering the lowest commission rates. Look online for local auction houses and see what commission the auctioneer will take. However don’t always let this be the deciding factor, a good auction house with an experienced auctioneer is worth the extra cost in commission.