We have *private treaty" which is when a price is advertised and prospective buyers make offers and negotiate privately through the sales agent with the vendor (owner/seller).

We have auction which is an open forum for bidders to bid to win the property in full view of the other bidders.

We have expression of interest where buyers submit their offers in sealed envelopes by an appointed day and they are opened by the sales agent and vendor (owner/seller) and they select one to negotiate with.

These are the main sale techniques used (for residential sales) but there's others, just less used than the three above.

Banks have to sell repossessed houses (failure to pay mortgage) by auction but these days with the competition so fierce the auction process is very widely used. It also means there's no cooling off period and no "subject to" condition like building inspection or finance. On the fall of the hammer the property is unconditionally sold. It's a great way to sell.

I'm checking other properties and sale prices and auction results/attendance as that will influence what I do with my own when I finally decided to list it for sale. I will definitely use an auction method of sale as the house I'll be selling can be divided into two allotments so is valuable and the buyers will fight over it forcing the price up.

Here, there's no houses for $250-300K. The one day was a standard home in average condition, 3 bedrooms and 1 bathroom and it sold for $813,000. Mine will probably sell for about a hundred thousand more in the current market. I want as much as possible as there's only one chance to get the most.