It's done commonly here and quite often to settle estates. You are just as likely to see a house tied up in probate at auction as through a realtor.......in fact, more likely. Why? The time element. Nobody wants to perpetuate the probate process any longer than it already is, especially if there are multiple heirs. So, eyebrows are not raised when they go in estate auctions. You sometimes get people who are semi-interested and there for the fun of it, who end up getting caught up in the bidding and buying it. LOL. Many homes in estate sales are also not up to date cosmetically, because face it, the occupants are usually elderly and feel good to even keep it up structurally. Auctions here sell these homes "as is" for the most part and the parties interested in bidding come with proof of funding and their ducks in a row. Getting serious, isn't every prospective home buyer looking for a deal? Estate auctions can be a good hunting ground. Typically the homes are older and often well made, but there are updating issues and sometimes code issues. You likely will not have a chance to have home inspections done.....but some auctioneer/realtors will take you through the house for showings or have open houses so the public can get a better look at the property. Yes, of course you can set a minimum sales price. You prolly have already had it appraised for estate purposes. And I really, really would rather have an independant appraiser give me their input than a selling agent. The appraiser is going to get paid a flat fee with no numbers influenced by possible commissions. If you have a good appraiser, and you get out of the home what it was appraised at, then you can usually walk away from the sale feeling confident you at least got a fair price and the buyer a fair deal. The thing is, your prospects are all standing there bidding, and essentially a captive audience. There are no games and no waiting and no counter offers. It's surgically clean.

We've sold a number of houses and each time, if we were not at work, I would take the dog for a walk and my wife would go sit out on the front porch. She would tell the realtor if they had any questions to ask away and left them alone. The last house we sold worked quite well. The buyers came out and sat down with my wife and just had some generic questions. When they came back for another look, I was there too. We all sat on the front porch and we talked about the community, how well the roads were plowed in winter, the neighbors, etc. They stayed for almost an hour. The following day we got a full price cash offer with no contingencies. No inspection, no nothing. It's been over 12 years, and they're still there.

I've been watching our old neighborhood in SoCal (Orange County) since we moved to another state last November. We had originally listed for $600-615k. After our first buyer fell out in escrow, we had many showings but no offer for about another month. Finally sold our house for $589k minus $12k closing costs (they're high in California) after about 2 months on the market. The house directly behind us, which was bigger but on the same size lot, was also for sale. Their list price for a long time was $650k. They didn't start reducing the price until several months after we'd moved. Now it's still on the market and they've just reduced the price another $20k - it's now at $460k - $190k below their first asking price. According to zillow, they bought the house in 2004 for $475k, so they'll sell it at a loss. BTW, the zillow estimate for that house is currently $622k, so their value estimates are way off base for that area. I know some other sellers in the neighborhood were upset with us for selling at the price we did, but we needed to move so we did what it took. We were in a rapidly declining market and wanted to stay ahead of it. Others, who waited, have now lost more money or have taken their houses off the market. We were fortunate to have an experienced realtor (17 years in the business) who had seen ups and downs and knew how to price accordingly. And we took his advice, and I had read a lot of information here on this forum that also helped us sell. Declining markets are hard ...

I plan on interviewing at least three agents who advertise and have successfully sold homes in my immediate area. They are all from separate companies. Does anyone have a list of questions that we need to ask? What considerations have you used to hire your own agent or wished you had? Sounds like you know who you want to use... Depending on your area, you might consider whether they advertise on realtor.com, have enhanced listings there and / or whether they do paper advertising. You also may want to know what sites they are registered on and whether they keep up with their info or not. Take the real estate book, if it applies to your area, can the agent edit the entries? While advertising on realtor.com is great, or using an experienced agent is also good, at another place I posted to, some of the newer agents got a little upset about my "experience" questions because they said that some older agents don't use email or do web pages but they do. Finding an agent is hit or miss and hard work to find someone that you click with that will also do the job. The link to the original post is below. If someone suggests questions, I try to edit it and repost in that link. Agent Questions Name - ____________________________________________________________________________________ Office Name ________________________________________________________________________________ Office Phone ________________________________________________________________________________ 1) How many homes have you sold in my area? ___________________________________________________ Do you cover other towns / zip codes? YES NO Explain: ___________________________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________________________ 2) How much is your commission? _____________________________________________________________ 3) What percentage do you give a buyers agent if you do not bring a buyer in? __________________________________________________________________________________________ 4) Is it negotiable if you bring a buyer? ___________________________________________________________________________________________ 5) What if I bring in a buyer with advertising I do? __________________________________________________ 6) How long is the contract going to be? 3 months ____________ 6 months__________ 7) If I am not happy for any reason will I be able to break the contract? YES_____ NO_____ 8) How long will it take for the contract to be voided? _______________________________________________ 9) What is the proceedure that needs to be followed if I am not happy? ________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________________________ 10) Where do you rank on the MLS? ___________________________________________________________ 11) Where do you rank on the office team? ______________________________________________________ 12) Do you work with the military?______ Yes _______ No ___________ 13) Are you or your office listed at base housing? ________Yes _______No__________ 14) How long have you been in the business? ____________________________________________________ *Note - if the agent is new, ask about their background.... Do they have marketing knowledge / training? ___________________________________________________ Do they have web site training? _______________________________________________________________ 15) Are you full time, part time, do you work another job? ___________________________________________ 16) How many houses a year do you sell__________how many do you list______________________________ 17) Do you do OPEN HOUSEs or AGENTs OPEN HOUSES / LUNCHEONs? YES / NO ___________________________________________________________________________________________ 18) If we have an open house, when should I expect feedback? ________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________________________________________ 19) Will the feedback be a phone call or email? ____________________________________________________ 20) How often will you touch base with me to give me information about our listing? ___________________________________________________________________________________________ 21) Do you have your own web site, in addition to the agent link on the office web site? YES / NO Web site URL _______________________________________________________________________________ 22) How much of your business comes from the web site? ________________________% 23) Do you use email? YES ______ NO ________ 24) Do you pay for enhanced listings with multiple pictures on Realtor.com? ____YES____ NO _______________ 25) Do you do featured listings on realtor.com? YES / NO _____________________________________________ 26) What kind of advertising do you do and where? __________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________________________________________ 27) Do you advertise in the newspaper? If so which ones? ___________________________________________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________________________________________ 28) Do you advertise price drops in the paper (Sunday only)? YES / NO 29) Do you advertise open houses in the paper (Friday Sunday)? YES / NO 30) Do you use an info box? YES / NO 31) Do you have an assistant? YES / NO 32) If an assistant: who is the one I would be dealing with for questions, feedback and such? Explain assistants role ___________________________________________________________________________________________ 33) If I need to speak with the listing agent for something, how is that handled? ___________________________________________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________________________________________ 34) When an offer comes in, who does the negotiating, the agent or the assistant? 35) How much would you list our house for? _______________________________________________________ 36) Who takes your photos? ____________________________________________________________________ 37) Would you consider using a profession photographer for photos? YES / NO 38) Do you use virtual Tours? YES / NO 39) Do you use a stager? YES / NO 40) Do you feel there is something we can do to make the house more desirable to sell? ___________________________________________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________________________________________ 41) Anything else you would like me to know? ___________________________________________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________________________________________