Auction service Iamsold says a small-sample survey it conducted of agents suggests that increasing numbers are looking favourably on auctions as a sales method.
The online operator surveyed 117 agents last month and has told Estate Agent Today “they were asked how receptive agents are to new approaches and attitudes towards buying and selling houses in a post-Covid context and the solution auction offers.”
Jamie Cooke, the company’s managing director, says: “We’ve been living in a once in a generation event that is likely to have long-term repercussions on the behaviours and attitudes within the UK housing market from agent and client alike.
“Those agents who initially looked to auction for an online solution during lockdown, or for speed of sale to make the stamp duty holiday deadline are now realising that auction isn’t just for those novel circumstances, but a real solution for the future.”
Cooke says his company - which is known for the so-called Modern Method of Auction, a system which has been criticised because of its fee structure - is adding more agent partners each week, as well as having entered into partnerships with Rightmove and Zoopla.
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Minimum six grand fee ultimately borne by the vendor. Attractive option for the selling agent - 50% of the non-refundable reservation fee passed to them. Plenty of more cost-effective for the client auction options out there, they're just not as attractive to agents.
These are not proper auctions of course but conditional auctions. Traditional auctions (nearly all online too these days) provide the security and fairness that buyer and seller expect and the buyer is not ripped off with a massive premium that goes into the agents' pockets. Trad auctions still outnumber conditional by far and are increasing too, but without hype.
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