Selling property at auction

Selling property at auction is a quick, stress-free way to sell your home or offload assets from your portfolio. Whether you’re an experienced seller or this is your first time considering selling at auction, we’re here to help you every step of the way.

Cheffins is one of the largest property auction houses in East Anglia, with property auctions taking place four times a year from our dedicated auction house based in the heart of Cambridge on Clifton Road. If you’re looking to sell your property at auction, there’s no better choice than Cheffins.  

What kind of properties sell at auction? 

We work with sellers of all kinds to help get their property sold at auction, from first-time residential sellers to landowners looking to sell paddocks, farmland, or buildings with development potential. 

Typical lots that cross our auction block include: 

• Residential property: Homes in need of refurbishment often sell well at auction, and this can be a much more efficient route to go down than a private sale

• Mixed use: Properties that include a variety of spaces, such as residential homes joined to commercial premises, attract a wide range of buyers at auction

• Commercial property: We have vast commercial experience to help find you the right buyers when selling commercial property at auction

• Investment opportunities: Properties in varying states of disrepair attract commercial interest at auction, resulting in prices that often exceed expectations

• Agricultural and development land: Grassland and areas prime for development are regularly sold at auction and garner interest from all kinds of buyers 

Our property auctions feature properties throughout Cambridgeshire, Suffolk, Norfolk, Essex, Hertfordshire, Bedfordshire, Lincolnshire and Buckinghamshire. Our East Anglia presence is convenient for all locations and accessible to London buyers, too.

Sell your property at auction

How can I sell my property at auction? 

The process of selling a property at auction is straightforward, and often much more efficient than trying to sell privately; most of our clients sell their properties in eight weeks, from first listing the lot to completion of the sale. 

We’ll work with you to get the best possible price for your property, and the process for doing so looks like this: 

1.  Appraisal, guide pricing and legal packs

Once you get in touch with your property details, a member of our team will appraise your property and let you know a guide price that we would recommend. If you’re satisfied with this guide price, then you’re ready to sell your property at auction. 

If you decide to go ahead, you’ll need to pay our Entry Fee and agree to the associated terms. This fee is non-refundable and ranges from £300 - £600 (including VAT). The terms also include our auctioneer’s sales commission, which is deducted from the deposit paid by your buyer. 

Detailed legal packs are then produced by your solicitor, which include information about: 

• The title of the property

• Legal searches

• Information about you as the seller

• Fixtures and fittings

• Planning permissions

• Any Special Conditions of Sale that need to be included in the contract

This legal pack will give prospective buyers more confidence to bid on your property at auction. 

2. Marketing and your reserve price

Next, we work to market your property to the widest audience possible. This is carried out through national, regional, and local advertising, as well as on our website, Rightmove, and EIG – the UK’s largest property auction website. We may also advise that you promote your property in some specialist publications, and we can discuss the associated fees with you if this is suitable. 

Viewings will also be scheduled with potential buyers, and the level of interest that your property receives will help us to determine a reserve price in line with your expectations. This is the minimum price at which the property will be sold for, though it isn’t typically disclosed with buyers once the auction gets underway.

3. The auction and completion

You’re now ready to sell your property at auction. On the day of the auction, our auctioneers will take the lead and make sure that everything runs smoothly. We’ve carried out many, many auctions with a high success rate, so you’re in safe hands. 

The auction will typically conclude in one of two ways: 

• Bids meet your reserve: In this instance, the fall of the auctioneer’s hammer creates a legally binding contract. The clerk will sign the Sale Memorandum, collect the deposit from your buyer, and we’ll deduct our sales commission from the final price (typically 1.5% - 2% plus VAT)

• Bids don’t meet the reserve: We’ll speak to you after the auction concludes about the next best steps, which will often involve a number of offers that are presented post-auction. If these don’t meet your expectations, we can discuss remarketing your property or going down another avenue, such as working with our estate agency teams

We’d recommend notifying your solicitor as soon as your property has sold at auction, so they can begin the process of completion. This typically takes place 28 days after the auction, but may vary.