Prime Property Auctions, a well-established auction house north of the border, is set to pay out £350,000 in referral fees by the end of this month.
The Glasgow-based firm, which offers listings on residential, commercial and land, was set up in 2022, with founders John Morris and Luis Guarin adopting the referral business model since the company’s inception.
Selling property at auction is becoming increasingly popular, with Prime’s database now sitting at over 20,000 buyers and more than 600 auction lots sold in the UK. As part of the Prime experience, clients are provided with high-quality photos, a video tour and floor plan of their property, all for free.
The business’ fee structure is set at £1500 + VAT, or 1 per cent + VAT, whichever is higher, being paid to referral partners, with the milestone figure set to be passed given the volume of sales scheduled to complete by the end of September.
The auction house, which is headquartered in West Regent Street, has established a growing network of referrers, many of whom are estate agencies seeking assistance with a sale.
The majority are based in Scotland’s major cities Glasgow, Edinburgh, Dundee and Aberdeen, though areas such as Ayrshire, Angus, Perth & Kinross and the Scottish Borders have also seen partnerships struck up.
Co-founder Luis Guarin said: “We want to work with agents, not compete against them. If someone approaches an estate agent with a property which isn’t a fit for them, they’ll come to us and we can help from there. It’s becoming a go-to strategy for estate agents who understand that some properties are better suited at auction. We appreciate our referral partners and want to reward them and by the end of this month we will have gone through the £350,000 total which we have passed to our respective partners.”
Director John Morris added: “We are easy to work with and have built up the company organically by working with estate agents. They may have a property on their books they can’t sell but they will still get paid if they refer their client to us and we move it on at auction.
“The client is in control of the price at all times so unless they get an offer they like, they don’t need to sell. And it’s ‘no sale, no fee’ – they pay nothing if we don’t get the sale.
“We are growing as a business and want to reward our referral partners. In line with our growing success, we have increased our referral fees to £1500 + VAT, or 1 per cent + VAT, whichever is higher.”
