Value is always an interesting idea. People say market value, a sellers value, but in the end value is what a willing buyer and a willing seller agree upon as the value of a property. Valuers in Victoria are supposed to value within 5% of a properties selling price. On a million dollar property that gives a $50000 variation. In a scenario where the executor wants to buy the property, if all beneficiaries agree on a valuer putting a value on the property and that being the sale price that would be fine as long as all the legalities are done. If there is any difficulty between beneficiaries I would suggest bidding at auction would be prudent to ensure that all is seen to be above board so as not to create difficulties. Of coarse all legalities would have to be done. A reserve price is supposed to be the price at which the vendor is not prepared to sell under. The accuracy of this can be varied and in the old days this was always an interesting discussion with vendors as by law, an agent can bid for his vendor by himself or through his agent. What was to stop a vendor setting a higher reserve and the agent playing games with dummy bidders until the agent felt the real bidders would go no more. Going in for a chat to the vendor and then putting the property on the market. Then the law changed to stop the games and all vendor bids must now go through the auctioneer and be declared. In the end, it is a game. A high stakes game where the knowledgeable have an advantage. It is the professional real estate agent versus the buyer. Funny when the buyer has just as much or more knowledge than the auctioneer.
