Real Estate Auctions an Important Tool in Home Sales During a Transitional Market

New Orleans, November 11, 2006

Today's real estate professional may likely rely on auctions as an important part of their real estate practice, particularly in a transitional market.  More and more, Realtors® are seeing auctions as offering sellers an advantage in the current housing market.

In the forum held yesterday at the 2006 REALTORS® Conference & Expo, a panel of experts told Realtors®  that auctions can provide an enhanced level of service for today's seller.

The latest statistics by the National Auctioneers Association report that growth in the auction industry has increasingly come from residential real estate auctions, which grew by 4.5 percent in the third quarter of 2006.
 
"Many Realtors® increasingly work in a full-service environment that may offer insurance, title and property management along with brokerage services," said NAR President Thomas M. Stevens of Vienna, Virginia.  "Auctions should be seen can be a part of an array of services Realtors® offer to their customers and should not be seen as competition to the existing range of services provided by a traditional brokerage. Auctions keep Realtors® at the center of the real estate transaction."

"Auctions are a fair and speedy process of selling or buying a home," said Ben Anderson, chair of the NAR Auctions Committee and president of Anderson Auctions in Destin, Fla.  "For homes that take a long time to sell, using auctions creates a sense of urgency about the property often helping to sell a property before it goes to auction."
 
Panelists included Bill Sheridan, Mason, Mich., president of the NAA; Lynn Gardner of the Institute for Auction Learning, Purcellville, Va.; Craig King of J.P. King, Gadsden, Ala.; Tracey Clay of Clay and Co. LLC,  Miramar Beach, Fla. 

The National Association of Realtors®, "The Voice for Real Estate," is America's largest trade association, representing more than 1.3 million members involved in all aspects of the residential and commercial real estate industries.