Why do you need a realtor if you are selling at auction? I would contract with an auctioneer and his commission should cover all of the advertising/selling expenses. Make sure the terms are agreeable and all listed in the contract before you sign.

edited to add: The risk of an auction is you either set a reserve price or the property might sell for peanuts. If the reserve is not met, you still owe fees to the auctioneer.

This post was edited by lizbeth-gardener on Tue, Dec 2, 14 at 16:58

We sold a house via auction for a number of reasons--primarily it allowed us to move exactly when we wanted to do so.

Our auctioneer was also a real estate agent and only auctioned houses. We paid some upfront costs of advertising the auction and marketing pieces. For us it was far less than a 5 or 6% commission on the house would have been. We did not pay a commission. The buyer paid a buyer's premium which was the commission. This would have been split if the buyer's had an agent.

Most auctions (not sheriff's sales, etc.) I see in my area have a buyer's premium.

Auction typically brings a much lower price than any other kind of sale.

You might get an appraisal, or at least closely analyze other sales in the area to see what your price should be.

Sometimes I think if I hear one more person say something about a "lazy Realtor", I'll just run out of the office screaming & gnashing my teeth.

No matter what any Realtor does, if the house hasn't sold, it's priced too high, & no matter what any Realtor does, if you aren't getting offers, the price is high enough that potential buyers don't want to even try.

"very outdated and not in the best neighborhood"

country wallpaper or 40 year old appliances/air conditioning/pipes?

area mostly non-owner-occupied (rentals) or crack dealers are open for business on the corner?

An owner/buyer can manage wallpaper, but big-ticket items will kill the possibilities.

If there are mostly rentals & no owner/occupants have bought recently, then the buyer pool is investors, & they don't pay much.

Sit down with your Realtor & have a straight-talk discussion about what you can reasonably expect.

I wish you the best.

sylviatexas--Your statement that auctions typically bring a much lower price is not supported by empirical studies. Google "list to sales price ratios real estate auctions" Empirical evidence suggests otherwise on non-foreclosed properties.

In many real estate auctions the seller can set a reserve price. If the reserve is not met, it will not be sold. This price is often not published. The seller can also remove the reserve during the auction.

Our experience was selling an upper end house, in a shaky market with lots of new houses being built in the adjacent neighborhood. Listed for 6 months. One offer, buying without seeing it, low ball offer, despite relatives and agent telling her that it was worth the list price and more. No other offers.

Auction marketing for a month and then sold on the day of the auction. The sales price was higher than the previously offered price, and we came out ahead because we did not pay the real estate commission. Our selling costs were 1/4 compared to paying a real estate commission. (That would not necessarily be true for less expensive houses. I don't know how much our marketing would have been for a less expensive house.) There were other perks for us: no inspection or mortgage contingencies, buyer had to put down a substantial deposit, and we choose the closing date.

An auction creates a sense of urgency with buyers that most listings don't. The exception to this is when one lives in a hot sellers market (which is not the case with the OP).

sorry, I did forget about the "reserve price" auctions.

but if your reserve price isn't met, then...you haven't sold the house.

Here, auctions always signal a desperate seller or a property that nobody wants (condition, etc).

Like Sylvia says, the property is not priced at a point to even get the "lowballers" to try.
An auction may cost you less fees, but the property is only for sale that one small length of time. An agent is going to market it until it is sold or the parties get tired of one another. Just tell your agent to give you a "30 day to sell" price and do that.

OP at the end of the day the house is over priced for market conditions. Selling a house is a simple function of price and time and a house is only worth what someone is willing to pay for it right now.

It sounds like someone has unrealistic expectations about what the house is worth. This may be your husband/SIL or it may be their realtors or both. Someone needs to sit them down and do an honest empirical assessment of what the house is worth. There is no reason for a house to sit on the market for a year unless there is really weird circumstances.