Here at Smart Auction UK, we wanted to make our process as easy and streamlined as possible so that our the buyers that are serious and ready to buy, can get their keys to their newly found treasures fast.

We believe that the house buying process shouldn’t be a stressful, time consuming or dreaded process for anyone. It should be a straightforward, streamlined and gets you to the end goal of receiving your keys in a reasonable time frame.

This is exactly what we do here at Smart Auction UK. Check out our simple buying process below.

The buying process

It can be summarised into 5 simple steps. In a nutshell:

1. Find a property
2. Register with us
3. Bid on a property
4. Pay reservation fee and deposit
5. Legal

And now in a bit more detail:

1.     Find a property

Browse through our live bidding platform to see the latest properties that are live. You can filter them by residential or commercial property, location, radius outside location, minimum and maximum price (depending on whether this is still at the starting bid or current bid), number of bedrooms, reception rooms, property type and additional features like parking or garage.

2.     Register with us

When you have found the property you want to bid on, click the “Bid now” button on the left hand side of the property listing, which will prompt you to login or register.

When you register, we will verify your ID and proof of funds, as well as conduct money laundering checks. We aim to approve this within 24h. If you want to bid on a property quicker than that, give us a call and we can speed this up for you. Once we have verified your details, you are ready to bid.

3.     Bid on a property

All bids are visible via our live bidding platform. You can bid anywhere, anytime 24/7 from your computer or smartphone before the auction cycle ends.

Once you start the bidding process, you are committing yourself to buying the property, if you are the winning bid. Please make sure you read and familiarise yourself with all the information provided about each property, as well as the legal documents, so you are making an informed decision about buying with us. Please do this before placing your bid.

Our auction runs slightly differently to a traditional auction. We run an auction cycle for 28 days with a countdown clock attached to each property. There will not be an auction date, time or location for all, or a set of properties. Each property runs on an entirely different timescale, so please watch the clock.

We also want to make the auction as fair for everyone as possible. We realise that in a traditional auction or eBay listing, the most action happens in the last 10 minutes, and people can swoop in at the last few seconds and take a property off the market.

We don't see this as fair, and so we have a slightly different system. Whenever a bidder places a bid within the last 10 minutes of the auction, the countdown resets back to 10 minutes and starts counting down again. This occurs until the last bid comes in.

4.     Pay reservation fee & deposit

When you win a property, you pay the reservation fee and deposit straight away. This is to secure your property and take it off the auction completely. This is a simple and quick process as we have already verified your details before.

5.     Legal

When the reservation fee and deposits are paid, the last thing to do is the rest of the legal work which was started by the seller prior to putting the property up for auction.

The legal contracts are exchanged straight away and the rest of the legal solicitor process lasts another 28 days or 56+ days depending on, if the sale is unconditional or subject to conditions, respectively.

At the end of the 28 or 56+ days, you complete on the property and get the keys (the most exciting part!).

Next steps

Easy process, isn’t it? We have made every effort to make it as simple and streamlined as possible, so that you can bid and buy a property with us, with ease.

If you want to buy a property with us, get in touch or give us a call on 0330 223 6118 to start your registration now.