So you’ve entrusted your agent to sell your home…the number one asset you’ve been in control of for a period. You saved hard for the deposit, you negotiated as best you could and believed you bought well and now you’re going to throw your wish price on it, hope for the best and see what happens? Sound familiar?

It is familiar, and flawed.

What’s the minimum you’d accept for the property? Have you heard that?

Here’s my question to you – what is the most you’d accept for the property?

Crazy huh, but did your agent, your professional negotiator and trusted advisor ask you this question? My guess is in that many instances, they ask what the least you would accept for the property was and base their asking price slightly above that so they have ‘room to move’.

Let’s confront the elephant in the room – auction.

1. You can sell it prior to auction day if the offer is good enough and a buyer wants to eliminate competition on auction day.

2. You can set up a competitive arena at an auction event and let the buyers battle it out.

3. Oh, here’s what they didn’t tell you. You can actually sell it after the auction too.

Here’s what to consider if you put your home on the market and use the method called - private treaty.

1. You are potentially limiting what an emotionally charged buyer would pay to secure their dream home by capping it with a price. Conversely, you may also hear crickets from the buyers because you’re simply being greedy. Either of these outcomes are flawed strategies, one eliminates buyers based on your greed and the other, caps the price they would have paid because you asked for too little.

2. You may have to pay more marketing because you got the price wrong. You told your agent one price, they showed you evidence that pointed to another price but you did it your way. Wherever you assign the blame, you’re now one month down and not happy because your agent wants more money to market it more, as you heard nothing or little from the buying public.

3) Whichever way you look at it, you have no idea when you’ll sell the property because you’re now in a stressful situation due to the fact you didn’t listen to your agent, didn’t follow their advice and you now have no real clue as to when it will sell.

What’s the alternative? Auction.

Let the buyers buy prior, on the day or submit their offers directly after the auction once they have an established foundation for the basis of their negotiations.

If your agent does not propose that you run a three to four week campaign where you can accept an offer prior to auction or let buyers compete on auction day to secure the property… I put it to you that they are only doing one third of their job and not working in your best interests.

Yes, you can put a price on it up front and hope for the best, or after the other two stages which have every chance of securing a premium price for the property.

Once you have gone through the other stages, you can then put an informed price on the property that will see it attract buyers and get you a positive result.

Can you wait 21 – 28 days to potentially achieve a premium price for your biggest asset?

I can. I would.

Simple.​

Read more about auctions:

How to win at auction – every time

Auction is a process, not a day

Four tips for winning at today's auctions