Not so long ago, the option to sell your house at auction would not have been something that many people would have known about.
But that situation is slowly changing. Now it is becoming quite a popular form of selling your house – and has made for some exciting telly viewing in the form of programmes such as Homes under the Hammer.
Ross Harper, managing director of Auction House Scotland, said: “Slowly but surely the message is getting across that auctions are an attractive way to sell properties, providing a transparent, fast and finite way to sell within a fixed time-frame.
“The popularity of selling at auction has grown considerably in the last year, as doing a property deal in this way becomes more accepted.”
And it seems that the trend has slowly made its way to the north-east as well with two properties up for auction later this month.
I caught up with the owners to find out the history behind their very interesting properties and why they chose to put their homes under the hammer.
Kirkton Mill, Cushine, Alford
It was doing a favour for a friend that led Owen Brandie to find his property.
Owen, who now lives in Lonmay, said: “I was putting an arch into a house which belonged to my friend’s mother. She’d bought an old coach-house but one of the walls didn’t have any windows, so I put two windows in and a big arch.
“When I was doing that, I had said that I’d really liked the place and that I would like something like it for myself. And then I started speaking to one of the local lads and he pointed out this place, which we could see from where we were working, and it was an old mill.”
But trying to find the owner of the mill proved to be a challenge in itself. Having asked a number of nearby farmers about the owner, he finally managed to discover that the owner’s mother stayed in a care home in Alford.
“I ended up going there and tracking her down,” the 41-year-old offshore worker said.
“She agreed to pass on my number to her son and it really escalated from there. He phoned me and I asked if he would consider selling it and he said yes.
“I just loved the location. You are the last house up the glen, the stream is coming past it, and in the summertime, when I first went to see it, the weather was absolutely scorching and it’s just a wee sun-trap.
“At the time, I was living in Ballater, and when it was a nice day, it was all right, but when we went down to the mill, it just felt that little bit hotter and we just thought this is lovely.
“It’s also half an hour to Aberdeen, five minutes down to Alford and you’ve got all your shops there and good schools.”
That was three years ago, and Owen had planned to convert it and make it his family home. But like many building projects, it later had to be put on hold when the financial climate took a downturn.
He later decided to go through with getting planning permission and put the house on the market.
“It would make someone a lovely family home,” he added.
The house itself is a former traditional stone-built mill and the planning permission would allow you to convert it into a two-bedroom dwelling house.
The property is situated close to Cushine in a tranquil location with stunning views over the neighbouring countryside. There are plans prepared for the erection of a double garage (subject to planning permission). There is also a private access road to the mill.
He added that he decided to sell his property at auction after discovering Auction House during an online search. He said he just wanted it to go ahead now and see what happens.
Kirkendale, Lower Cabrach, Huntly
As a developer, Philip Kemp is always on the lookout for quirky projects. And a quick search on the Church of Scotland website led him to his next one.
“It was the price and location that drew me to it,” said Philip, who now lives in Perth.
“The plan was that we would live in it, but when we finished it, we decided to sell it instead.”
Kirkendale was in need of some work to upgrade and modernise it into the beautiful family home it is now. The open-plan kitchen/dining space with contemporary kitchen units leads you into a spacious lounge while upstairs there are three spacious double-bedrooms and an attractive family bathroom with Jacuzzi bath.
Outside, there is a large sweeping driveway and attractive elevated views over open countryside.
It is evident just how much work has been put into this home, a process Philip admits was quite fun.
“It’s quite challenging when you do something like this,” he said. “You have an old building and you are trying to put a new building inside it.
“It’s a very lovely home for someone; it’s got three decent-sized bedrooms and in the master bedroom there is the bell tower window, which is a nice feature. That’s a really fantastic room with an en suite and then it’s got a granny flat as well. That was the old Sunday school bit. It has it’s own door and kitchen and bathroom.
“It would make a good B&B for someone wanting to do holiday lets. It’s got a lot of opportunities.”
Both properties will go under the hammer at Auction House’s event in Glasgow at 2pm on March 27. Kirkton Mill has a guide price of £70,000-£90,000 and Kirkendale is available for £170,000-£200,000.