Sellers are looking for Motivated Buyers. Buyers who will make an offer, exchange contracts and then complete, no messing about, just moving through the whole process, and quickly.

On the other side of the coin Buyers are looking for Motivated Sellers and often spend a considerable amount of time, effort and  cash trying to both identify and attract Motivated Sellers by using methods ranging from newspaper ads through Internet sites to leaflet distribution often ignoring the Motivated Sellers sitting inside auction catalogues whose property did NOT sell in the last auction.

Auctioneers reckon they're doing well if they sell 80% of their catalogue in the room, most average in the 70's, some drop-down to early 60's.

But even 80%+ sold of a 100-lot catalogue means there will be 20 very motivated sellers at the end of the auction, all of whom would be more than delighted to talk to you, often with 'nothing set in stone' as far as terms are concerned.

As an example Allsop Residential's London auction on December 17th included 226 lots from the four corners of England & Wales stretching from Worthing to Brixham (Devon), up through Swansea to Seaforth, Liverpool, across to County Durham and then down through London to Margate in Kent.