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How to sell a house? Five reasons to auction it.

2. You can track the marketing results

Rick Bowmer/AP/File
This Feb. 23 file photo shows an auction sign in front of a home in Salem, Ore. A good auction company works with clients on a marketing plan.

  • By Pam McKissick Contributor

You want to know how your money’s being spent and what the marketing is designed to deliver. Smart, targeted marketing is the hallmark of a great auction company. The firm should let you approve your marketing plan in advance of listing, obtain periodic progress reports, as well as track phone calls, Web traffic, open house attendees, social media conversations, newspaper ads, signs, and articles generated for your property.

The auction itself is the ultimate marketing event, and a good auction company should be able to stream that auction online, so people can bid interactively and remotely in real time. Our Auction Network, online bidders win 29 percent of the time. This competition between live and remote bidders drives our average home sales price up by 9 to 11 percent.

In March, the average number of days on market for homes listed through the traditional method was 190. Auctioned homes are marketed and sold in 30 days. Auction commissions vary by company but are comparable to real estate agent commissions.

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Mark Sappenfield
Editor

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

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