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Critical Analysis:
When you’re selling your property, it’s of vital importance to know who you’re working with.
In here, you’ll find everything you need to know about Landwood Property Auctions and whether you should trust them to sell your property quickly.
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Auction houses such as Landwood Property Auctions offer a quick and easy way to sell your property. This sits somewhere between selling at full price with an estate agent, which can take six months or more, and selling to a fast cash buyer, which will be quicker than an auction sale, but may get you a lower price.
Auctions will charge commission, plus you will also have to pay legal fees for the preparation of documents both prior to the listing and following the sale. There is no commission or legal fees to pay on a quick cash home sale.
Auctions can generate a higher selling price for your property if there is competitive interest, however there are no guarantees. You may not sell at all if there is no bid matching your reserve price and you may have to withdraw your property or postpone the sale. This can delay your sale until the next auction or beyond. A cash home buyer may not give you as much as you could get at an auction, but your sale will be swift and guaranteed.
Company
Established in
July 2008
Members of RICS
Yes
Members of Propertymark
Not stated
Trading standards approved?
Not stated
Members of TPO
Not stated
Registered with ICO
Yes
How often are auctions held
Weekly
Online auctions
Yes
Fees
Not shown
Complaints procedure
Yes
Customer service
4.4 / 5
Google rating
3.4 / 5 (20 reviews)
Landwood Property Auctions appear to predominantly work selling repossessed property for LPA (Law of Property Act) receivers and similar organisations. They are the only auctioneer that holds weekly property auctions in the UK. They boast a high success rate, although this may reflect the lower reserve prices demanded by receivers to recover at least some of their debt. They also list many properties in need of significant refurbishment, and these too will demand much lower reserve prices.
4 / 5
(source: Companies House)
Landwood Property Auctions appears to be a specialist auction house for repossessed properties, with a large proportion of their lots coming from official receivers, mortgagees, administrators and trustees in bankruptcy. However, they do also sell individual properties, particularly those in need of refurbishment.
They deal with all kinds of residential property, nationwide, with all auctions held online. Properties include tenanted properties sold as investment opportunities, as well as repossessed homes and commercial buildings in various states of repair.
The Landwood Property Auctions website promises a ‘genuinely warm, friendly and professional approach’ with a ‘partner based, top-class professional service’. They claim that a lot of their work comes from repeat customers, which would seem to confirm their status as specialists in the institutional market.
Landwood Property Auctions appear to have found a niche in the lower-priced end of the property market, with the bulk of their properties either repossessed or in need of considerable work. They have a very high success rate of around 90% for their auctions, although this may be partly due to the ‘bargain basement’ sector in which they are operating.
That said, their listings occasionally include investment portfolios running into several hundred thousand pounds.
With a service geared to this niche sector, Landwood Property Auctions may not offer the same consumer-facing service that individual sellers would find at a traditional auction house. What’s more, with buyers drawn to Landwood Property Auctions for a bargain repossessed or run-down home, traditional sellers may not find the kind of buyers, or bids, that they are hoping for.
Nonetheless, their success rate of 90% is not to be taken lightly, and sellers who are more interested in selling fast than selling high may benefit from Landwood Property Auctions’ services.
The Landwood Property Auctions website does not show the logo for Propertymark or any of the organisations, such as the National Association of Valuers and Auctioneers (NAVA) that make up the Propertymark brand.
By using a Propertymark Protected member you are guaranteed to be consulting with a professional who will give you up-to-date advice and guidance. Propertymark regulates members’ activity according to a code of conduct and rules, with disciplinary action for instances of non-compliance.
NAVA Propertymark members adopt RICS’ Common Auctions Conditions for auctions of real estate in England and Wales. These are designed to set a consistent practice for auctions across the industry.
However, they may be NAVA and Propertymark members, but simply not list this on their website.
Landwood Property Auctions do not state that they are members of the Property Ombudsman – the government-approved trade body that protects property sellers. This means that you may not have access to independent adjudication should you have a complaint that cannot be resolved with the company.
It is possible that they are TPO members, but simply do not list this on their website.
Yes, Landwood Property Auctions are regulated by the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors, and they list their RICS Customer Money Protection Scheme certificate on their website.
Under RICS rules, auctioneers selling real estate (incorporating Common Auction Conditions) must ensure that clients are provided with terms of engagement that are fair and clear. These should meet all legal requirements and relevant codes of practice including reference to complaints-handling procedures and, where it exists, an appropriate redress scheme.
Landwood Property Auctions has been registered with the Information Commissioners’ Office since 2016.
The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) is the UK’s independent regulatory body set up to uphold information rights. The ICO also governs all forms of data collection and advertising intelligence. The ICO has a Free Online Checker where you can verify whether a company is registered with them or not.
The Landwood Property Auctions website has a comprehensive privacy policy referencing the GDPR regulations and your rights regarding your data and how it is collected, stored and used. This policy states that their cookies will not collect personal information such as your name or email address.
However, their privacy policy does state that Landwood Property Auctions uses e-marketing and will send you ‘promotional emails about new services or other information which we think you may find of interest’. This is only done with your consent and you are able to change your consent at any time. There is no mention of third parties using your data for advertising purposes.
Landwood Property Auctions have been trading in since 2008 and are a well-established service provider for a number of banks, building societies and other similar organisations.
We use the ‘over/under 5 years trading time’ as a rule of thumb to gauge whether a company is an established entity with a lot of experience under their belt, or just a newly founded business that may not have the expertise or reputation you can rely on. Landwood Property Auctions have proved themselves over a period of more than 15 years, with regular weekly auctions and an extensive history of sales demonstrating their viability and trustworthiness.
Landwood Property Auctions are the only UK auction house to hold regular weekly auctions. These auctions are held online, and cover properties all over the UK, from Essex to Tyne and Wear. Bidders are able to take part online from anywhere in the world, but bidders cannot attend the auctions in person.
To place a bid, you need to have registered in advance and provide compulsory information such as proof of identity and your source of funds, in order to comply with money laundering regulations.
Landwood Property Auctions online sales follow the rules of the traditional auction method. Once the virtual hammer comes down, the sale is then binding, and winning bidders must exchange contracts and pay a 10% deposit immediately. The sale must then be completed in 28 days or less.
Landwood Property Auctions do not disclose their fees on their website.
Naturally, the fees will vary depending on a number of factors, including the type of property, the property value etc. Prospective sellers are advised to contact the auction house directly for an up to date quote on your property or properties.
Looking at their most recent auctions (at the time of writing) Landwood Property Auctions success rate is remarkably high, selling around 90% of the properties listed. This includes a wide range of properties, from an £810,000 detached home in Colchester to a £42,000 semi in the North East.
Not all properties sell, even with the best auctioneers. However, Landwood Property Auctions’ weekly online auctions mean that if your property does not sell, you won’t have to wait weeks, or even months, for the next opportunity, as you would with other auction houses.
This rapid turnaround of auctions makes Landwood property Auctions comparable with fast cash homebuyers and may compensate some sellers for the lower prices these sales sometimes realise.
We didn’t find anything that raises suspicion during our thorough research of Landwood Property Auctions. Our investigators sifted through all of the data and legal records of Landwood Property Auctions, and everything was clean.
However, we’ll redact this paragraph at the first glimpse of dodgy practices.
We never stop researching and our unbending commitment to excellence doesn’t waver. This paragraph is only valid up until the ‘Last Updated’ date of this review, which can be found at the top of this page.
As far as we are aware, Landwood Property haven’t received any additional awards or prizes.
There’s nothing more we could add.
To assess the overall user experience (UX) of landwoodpropertyauctions.com we first analysed their website for ease of use and intuitiveness.
The Landwood Property Auctions website is very simple and rather basic, with a home page intro of just 65 words. This perhaps reflects their focus on institutions rather than the general public.
It provides a very brief guide to ‘Why you should sell online’ and a ‘Guide to bidding’ but it doesn’t give much information about Landwood property Auctions as a company. There is a brief 60 second film about the company included in the ‘Why sell online’ section. This is quite dynamic and hard sell compared to the rest of their website.
The site lists current auction listings and shows previous auctions with the outcome for each property.
There is no click through button for enquiries and no online chat function, again reflecting their focus on professional rather than domestic sellers. Contact is made via landline to a Manchester number, or email. Direct lines and email addresses are provided for all five main staff members.
We calculated their First Response Time (FTR) by messaging them at approximately 9 AM on a non-holiday weekday (on a Friday to be exact) and used a stopwatch to estimate how long it took them to respond.
Landwood Property Auctions responded in 35 seconds.
Which is much faster than the industry average. And a fast FRT is something we consider highly important, especially in this sector.
A faster response time suggests that the auction house is better equipped to deal with customer queries.
And if they’re better equipped to deal with customer queries, then it means they’re investing their resources where it matters the most.
We asked if Landwood Property Auctions offer some sort of ‘Client Satisfaction Guarantee’, and if yes, what would that guarantee consist of.
Landwood Property Auctions don’t offer a Client Satisfaction Guarantee but their regular repeat business would suggest that they treat their clients well.
Most reputable companies will have a formal complaints procedure on their website, where clients can express any disagreements, issues or just plain dissatisfaction with the overall service.
Landwood Property Auctions has a published complaints procedure on their website, although this is listed towards the end of their general Terms and Conditions, rather than as a separate document. This brief mention states that ‘in accordance with the requirements of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) we have a standard complaints procedure, a copy of which is available on request’.
A legitimate auction house that does what it promises shouldn’t have a problem letting you speak to their past customers.
Of course they need to have the permission of the individual involved and provide some kind of proof that it is a genuine past client of theirs.
We strongly encourage all our readers to ask to speak to a past client.
In this section, we’ll discuss what the public thinks of Landwood Property Auctions and what online reviews the company has received.
Keep in mind that online reviews can be easily faked. The company in charge might hire fake review writers to write positive reviews. Or on the other hand, their competitors might hire fake review writers to write negative reviews and tarnish the said company’s reputation.
Also, social media followers can be artificially inflated.
That’s why we deem this section as purely anecdotal.
Landwood Property Auctions’ reviews show that they are something of a Marmite company, with customers either loving them, with a five-star review, or hating them with a single star. Only one of the twenty reviews was not either five-star or one-star. This does not help in assessing the company.
There are no active links to social media from the main Landwood Property Auctions website, but investigations on the platforms directly found a social media presence.
We didn’t find anything suspicious with Landwood Property Auctions’ social media or online presence, nor with their customer reviews.
We also didn’t find anything suspicious with their domain rating and backlink profile nor their unique monthly search traffic.
Landwood Property Auctions has many advantages and some drawbacks. They are a major player in the UK auction market, and the only firm to hold weekly auctions in the UK. This means that if your property does not sell, you will get another chance at the market much sooner than with most auction houses.
They also boast a sales rate of 90%, although this may be due to the low cost, ‘bargain’ style of properties that they tend to list.
However, their recent property sales point to a focus on properties from commercial organisations, such as receivers, administrators and the like. This lack of consumer focus is reflected in a very basic website, which does little to encourage the domestic seller.
That said, they claim to offer a ‘partner-led’ service and use the latest technology for their online auctions, so there is no lack of expertise or ability. However, it is likely that with a focus on ‘distress sales’, following repossession or bankruptcy, and properties in need of significant renovation, prospective Landwood buyers may not expect to pay top prices at their auctions.
Landwood Property Auctions do not disclose their fees, and their website says little about any memberships or affiliations, such as the Property Ombudsman or Propertymark. This doesn’t necessarily mean that they are not members, but neither does it reassure potential sellers. Again, this may be due to the fact that much of their business comes from the institutional side of the market.
On balance, what Landwood Property Auctions lack in style and price potential, they gain in speed and effectiveness, with regular weekly auctions boasting a 90% sales rate. It is up to the potential seller to decide whether this performance is worth the potential compromises on price.
We will be continuously updating this review as we do with all of our other content. If Landwood Property Auctions decide to alter, amend or modify something, then we’ll make sure to adjust our critique and score accordingly.
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Landwood Auctions is just one of the many fast home-buying companies in the UK.
In order to make sure you choose the right one, it’s best if you compare them all.
Look at their strengths & weaknesses, their pros & cons and make an informed decision.
It’s essential to know you’re in safe hands, that’s why we’re here to help.
Use our company comparison table to find a reliable and trustworthy service, and decide whether expediting the sale of your property is the right thing for you.
This review is being constantly screened by our investigator team and will be corrected in line with the emergence of new evidence.
If a company contacts us with a genuine and verifiable piece of information which supports their cause, then we’ll immediately redact the review and point to the new information.
On the other hand, if we discover that a company which we’ve previously praised for a certain industry trait, starts to dabble in dodgy practices, we’ll also redact the review immediately.
We’ll point to our new findings and we’ll adjust the table metrics and scores accordingly.
For this reason, make sure to take notice of the ‘last updated’ date at the top of this page.
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