Why we stopped holding Auctions and switched exclusively to Private Sale

Until 2008, Whale & Co. conducted many successful auctions for sellers and achieved a consistently high clearance rate. We discovered, however, that auctions have a downside for both buyers and sellers.

For one thing, a lot of buyers really dislike auctions and won’t even participate. So some people, who might have been perfect for a house, aren’t even in the picture – and they could have paid a good bit more than the one who bought it at auction!

Yet private sale still allows for competition between buyers, through the offer and counter-offer process. And this method also gives both buyers and sellers more time to think about their decisions.

We’ve found that buyers who’ve been given all the help and advice they need are better able to make a good decision about buying. So they’ll often pay a little extra, just to make sure they get the house they really want. Buyers will happily pay a good price if they’re absolutely certain that the house is ideal for them (within prudent financial limits, of course). And this is one of the key reasons why our clients’ properties have been sold on average in around 28 days – instead of the industry average of 43 days.

Of course, we have to admit that selling by auction was much less work for us than selling by private sale. Particularly when the market was trending upward as it’s done for the past several years. Virtually all we had to do was hold open for inspections and then let interested buyers sort it out in a few minutes at an auction. No wonder agents generally promoted the idea to their clients.

So while private sale is more work for us than auctions, we firmly believe it’s the best way to sell a home—so now that’s what we do exclusively. And our buyers and sellers are much happier.