A client asked me about Sequim real estate auctions and do we even have them? First, let’s be clear on what we are talking about when we use the word “auction” in real estate sales. I read an article written by another real estate professional, and the author intended to write about auctions, but it went on to describe the foreclosure process. Oops! Unfortunately that author got it wrong and mixed up two entirely different real estate topics. A foreclosure ends in a Trustee’s Sale where people can bid on the property at the Clallam County Courthouse on Friday’s at 10:00 a.m. An auction is a horse of a different color. An auction in real estate sales today refers to a process where an owner puts a property up for public auction to the highest bidder, but it is not a foreclosure sale.
Sequim Real Estate Auctions
Sequim Real Estate Auctions v. Foreclosures
You can read more about foreclosures in the many articles I’ve published on this site by searching foreclosures. I have detailed descriptions of the entire process, including the foreclosure checklist and timeline I used when I practiced law and did foreclosures myself. Here are some of the many articles on Sequim foreclosures: Sequim Foreclosures.
Auctions are different. Because the real estate recession has hit many home sellers so hard and because buyers are few and far between, private real estate auctions have become the latest fad. The truth is, as with so many gimmicks, they make more money for the people promoting the auctions than they do for home sellers. But in some areas, and I mean only a few around the country, private auctions have sold homes that simply could not get sold otherwise. As you might guess, this means those homes were typically sold at garage sale prices. But what about Sequim real estate auctions?
Sequim Real Estate Auctions Not So Much
Several people have tried to do private auctions in Sequim and failed. One was a past client of mine who went through the whole process of signing up for and paying one of the prominent national auction companies. After a lot of hope and high expectations that this would finally sell the home they had not been able to sell for about two years and was not threatened by a possible foreclosure, this couple tried a private auction. It did not work. They never got the bids high enough. Not even close.
I’ve seen several others try private auctions, but to my knowledge, all have failed to get a reasonable price in the Sequim and Port Angeles areas. There are not enough qualified buyers in our small market to make auctions work. At least up to this point.
Whatever you decide to do to sell your home, make sure you understand your options and how each of your options actually work, including marketing your own home as a FSBO, listing it with a Realtor (yours truly), or trying to do private Sequim real estate auctions.
Last Updated on September 4, 2011 by Chuck Marunde
