Here at Windsor Auctions, we have, and at our sister auction house Lyme Bay Auctions, countless years of experience in auctioneering. Both Harry and Simon along with their teams of valuers have a broad range of knowledge when it comes to the valuations and selling of fine art, jewellery, antique furniture and a myriad of other eclectic items. And yet we didn’t have a clue about buying and selling property at auction, despite it being one of the most popular forms of auction. This was before we spoke to property maestro Ben Temple, however, who has over 30 years’ experience in the property industry and he hosted a property auction course for 12 years. Ben, who runs his own property agency called Rocket in South West London, talked us through the process on our podcast The Gavel and The Gabble, explaining the benefits, potential pitfalls and all the intricacies that come with property auctions. So, you can either listen to what he had to say on The Gavel and The Gabble podcast, or you can read about it here: What are the benefits to buying property at auction? Of course, there is the obvious benefit that is true with any form of auction that you could end up finding yourself a bargain and paying well under market price. Just last week, for example, I attended an auction on behalf of a client who was hoping to buy a particular property for £525,000 and was willing to go as high as £550,000, but we managed to purchase it for £520,000. But, it’s also worth exercising caution in this regard as I have seen people overpay significantly on a number of occasions in the past. Aside from potential bargain hunting, another key advantage to buying property at auction is the speed and certainty of the purchase. Roughly 50% of property transactions through estate agents will fall through at some stage for various logistical reasons. Whereas, at property auctions, as is the case with any other auction, when the gavel falls, the deal is done. There’s no delay in signing contracts for six months as is the usual procedure with buying property, you exchange there and then on the day and pay...
Read MoreOur current opening hours are 10am – 4pm on weekdays and customers are welcome to come and collect items that they have bought at auction any time within those hours. But, we wanted to take this to our customers and ask whether these opening times and our collection policy are flexible enough for you. Our thought process with these hours was that post-pandemic so many people work from home at least a few days each week that popping into collect items during the working week is now more accessible. And we try to remain as flexible as possible for customers by allowing collections to take place at any time during our opening hours, even without an appointment. With that being said, when customers turn up to collect their items unannounced, it can sometimes take a little while to find it in our storage facility. So, we recommend giving us a quick call before you head down and then we can get the item prepared and make the process as efficient as possible when you turn up. The same goes if you have arranged a courier to come and collect, which is usually the case with larger items, if you can give us a rough time-frame when they might arrive, then it makes everyone’s lives easier. Occasionally, we can accept people coming to collect what they have bought at auction outside of our advertised opening times if it has been pre-arranged and we have someone available to meet the customer. Sometimes this is possible on auction days when we are around anyway. Of course, if you attend the auction in person and buy something then there is no need to arrange a time for collection, as you can take your item home same-day, so that’s always what we encourage first and foremost. For those of you who are unable to attend, however, are our opening times and collection policy reasonable or do we need to give it a rethink? Let us know by dropping us an email at sales@windsorauctions.co.uk or message us on Instagram....
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