Richard Greener, Northampton

There is no faster way to sell your residential property, mixed use, commercial property or land. The whole process from instruction to completion can take as little as eight weeks.

Auction gives you a better chance of selling your property than by estate agent alone. In recent years, Auction House has sold on average 75%-80% of all lots offered, which gives you a much greater chance of a sale.

Once the hammer has fallen, you have exchanged contracts with your buyer and they are legally committed to the purchase. On average, one third of sales through estate agents fall through after they have been agreed, so selling by auction is a far more secure way to sell.

We have developed a targeted database of local, regional and national buyers, so your property can be proactively sent out to these people. Your property will also be featured in online property portals such as Rightmove and Zoopla, our high quality catalogues which are mailed to prospective buyers, sent via email to our database of contacts, as well as shared with thousands of interested people via our website and on social media.

To help develop the potential for competitive bidding, we organise Open House viewing days. These are short time slots which allow any prospective buyers to come and look around the property, guided by a member of the auctions team who is on hand to answer any questions they may have, as well as being able to assess their interest. By doing this, the team can help to guide you in setting the right reserve price.

The aim of an auction is to generate interest from two or more prospective buyers, which will lead them to bid against each other in the auction room, and will help your property to achieve the best price on the day. Sometimes those buyers are so keen to acquire the property that they put in a pre-auction offer, and if this figure is higher than we would expect to reach in the auction room, we may recommend accepting the offer under standard auction rules, with contracts needing to be exchanged prior to the auction day.

Properties for sale at auction will often achieve a final sale price in excess of the original guide price set, and regularly the result is in the region of what might have been acceptable for sale through an estate agent (Private Treaty sale). What you can guarantee is that it has achieved the best price on the day. This is a key point for properties coming to auction via probate, as the executors of the estate have a duty to achieve the best price possible.

With private treaty sales through an estate agent, the offer price agreed is not necessarily the price you will finally receive, with discounting due to any survey findings or last minute gazundering. With auction, there is no room for negotiation after the hammer falls; it is the buyers' responsibility to fully research the property before bidding.

If you are looking to sell your home or property quickly, then auction is probably the best option for you. From the time you instruct the auctions team to list your property, you will know the date that is will be up for auction, and legal completion is usually set for 28 days afterwards. This is a fixed timescale and is legally binding for both parties. This means auction is the best option for anyone with time constraints, such as those relocating, under financial pressure, or wanting to dispose of an investment property.

If you are looking to sell an investment property, there is no need to sell with vacant possession, as we have a large number of buy to let investors looking to buy. By retaining your tenant, you will continue to receive rent until the completion date, and the purchaser will receive income from that date onwards. Auction House sells a variety of occupied properties with tenancy agreements in place, including assured shorthold tenancy (ASTs), regulated tenancy, assured tenancy and commercial lettings.