Question: what do kitchen extensions, long-distance train travel and selling a house have in common? Answer: they can all be gruelling, disrupting and take far, far longer than expected.
Wouldn’t that be a terrible cracker joke? Unfortunately, this is a reality for many homesellers in the UK. And the very worst scenario is that, after months of investment, your sale falls through at the last minute. In the first quarter of 2016, more than 1 in 4 sales (28%) collapsed - a staggeringly high figure!
The traditional open market simply does not offer security, either to buyers who can be gazumped, or to sellers who can be let down. We don’t think that’s right, and it’s one of things that we’re hoping to change.
The chance of an auction sale falling through is much reduced – at Open Door, our fallthrough rate is less than 2%. Why? Well:
1. We qualify all viewers to ensure that they are in a good position. This cuts out of a lot of “time wasters” and “tyre kickers” including people in property chains;
2. We take a 10% non-refundable deposit from buyers within 24 hours of an offer being made. Nobody wants to part with this amount of money on a whim;
3. We exchange contracts within 24 hours of an offer being accepted, binding the vendor and buyer together much earlier in the sale process.
As a result, we believe that modern auctions offer much greater security to both the vendor and buyer who know that an auction “sold” board really does mean sold.
If you want to find out more about auctions, check out our other blogs on the topic:
As always, you can also sign up for our Property Supertips emails using the sign-up box on the right-hand side of the page. Until next time!
