In Australia it is common practice to sell houses at auction. The house next door to ours was sold at auction Saturday morning. There were two dates for inspections prior to the sale where each potential buyer is allotted a short 15 minute window to determine their interest in the house. There were three parties vying for the house and the value continued escalating with a little prompting. The run down shack you see before you (covered under heritage so that's what they're stuck with) fetched a whopping $687,000.
