1 Answer

Different countries may have different ways of selling by these 2 means.

In Queensland Australia the following applies.

SALE BY AGENT.  The agent you appoint normaly has a sole agency agreement where they are the only agent to try and sell and if the property is sold by any other means but by them they are still entitled to their full commission that they would have received if they had sold the property.

You as the vendor may be expected to pay all or part of the advertising of the property for sale.

A lot of agents use the ploy of saying they can get a top price for your property just to get it on their books. Then after failing to sell at this high price the agent will approach with. "I think we should lower the price" where the "WE" comes into it I`ll never know. Your putting the price not the agent and you are the one not to get what you thought you would.

The agent charges a commission on sale at a fixed scale which you can ask about BEFORE listing your property for sale. I did know the scale but have forgotten but it would be a high percentage on say the first amount say $50k then a reduced percentage on the selling price thereafter.

The next ploy sorry "suggestion" the agent comes up with is "I think we should try at auction" again the use of "WE"

If the agent sends the property to auction and it fails to sell the agent has a further sole agency period.

AUCTION>  A property listed for auction can have a reserve price, that is a minimum price you are prepared to take for the property.

If you do not set a reserve the property is sold at the highest bid which may be well under the real price you could expect.

The vendor,you, has to again pay for advertising.

You also have to pay auction fees irrespective of the property selling or not and this can be thousands of dollars.

 The vendor is also responsible for the agents fee for the sale price at auction.

Again if the property fails to reach reserve the agent will, after the auction closes, often go into a negotiation between you and the highest bidder at auction trying to get A) You to lower your price  B) The highest bidder to raise their bid.

In either method the vendor, you, has to pay for any "Open for Inspection viewings"

 As you no doubt gather by now the whole selling process is a win win for the agent who is allegedly acting in your best interests but of course is acting in the agents best interests.

Personally I would go for agency sale and I would not touch auctions with a barge pole unless you have a very very very desirable property with a wide market.