When Aspire Property Group looked to optimise its property pipeline for investors, they partnered with our Auction House South Yorkshire team to capitalise on auction’s speed and certainty.
For the last 10 years, Aspire Property Group has been providing an end-to-end property investment service for buy-to-let investors, completing around 1,200 deals in the process. With ambitious plans to scale, the company has recently increased its spend on vendor acquisition.
But with more and more leads not fitting their investors’ usual criteria, Chief Revenue Officer Jamie York sought a strategic partner who could help the business to extract revenue from lower-value properties – and provide a hands-free service in the process.
An approach from our Auction House South Yorkshire team has since developed into a profitable and productive partnership. To learn more about it, we spoke to Jamie about his experience with the team and the advantages of using auction.
Properties to profit
Typically, Aspire Property Group’s investors are on the hunt for turnkey investments or properties in need of general refurbishment and modernisation. But with an increasing number of leads sitting outside of their investment criteria or requiring extensive work, Jamie recognised the need to find a different exit strategy.
“If we get 1,000 leads in and we’re only able to monetise about 60 for our investors, that’s a huge leakage in spend,” explained Jamie. “Finding a way to optimise these leads was therefore important.”
Auction naturally presented itself as a good option: “If a house is £80,000 and needs £30,000 spending on it, auction is a better exit,” he said. “Right now, the market is also a bit chaotic, so auction houses stand out because they provide speed and certainty in an uncertain environment.”
Optimising business time was also a crucial consideration: “When you’re scaling a business, the return on time invested can be underrated. Every minute that I’m spending on something is a minute that I’m not spending on core business functions. So, the question was: how to monetise these leads without investing too much time?”
Finding the solution
Jamie had already had some dealings with Auction House South Yorkshire during the turbulent time following Covid, but the partnership was secured after Business Development Manager Roxanna Gibb reached out.
Despite other auction houses making similar offers, Jamie chose Auction House: “I think Auction House just stood out in terms of speed of communication, professionalism and following through on what they said would happen. In the property game that is rare,” he commented.
The ability of the Auction House South Yorkshire team to manage the property and its sale was another significant advantage. “I can pass it on to the team and it’s just taken care of, and I don’t need to worry about anything. Sometimes I literally just send a WhatsApp message and that’s it!” he said.
“The service I’ve received has been a mixture of personal, professional and smooth. They deliver on time, and they pick up the phone when they say they will. I really like the personal approach: Auction House is a big brand but behind it is a personal service.”
Delivering when sales get tough
“The best way to get a measure of someone is when things go wrong,” Jamie added. “You can never control how someone in a transaction behaves, but you can control how you react to it. And Auction House has reacted brilliantly.”
This was particularly demonstrated during a recent sale. A property was sold at auction with a good margin, resulting in a happy client and buyer. However, the buyer’s behaviour towards the property’s tenants became unacceptable, and Aspire Property Group made the decision to cancel the sale. “It was an awkward situation,” said Jamie. “But Auction House dealt with it so well. We had calls in the evening and on weekends – they really went above and beyond. And then, within a week, they had resold the property, so nobody lost money. It gave both me and the client so much trust in the service.”
Looking ahead
Going forward, Jamie anticipates a continued – and even expanded – collaboration with Auction House: “In a market like this, there is more and more need of auctions because they bring speed and certainty,” he explained.
Currently, Aspire Property Group is aggressively scaling its business and building up its team. As a result, it is aiming to send around 100 properties for sale via Auction House South Yorkshire in 2026.
When it comes to recommending Auction House to others, Jamie is quick to agree: “I wouldn’t hesitate at all – I already refer vendors and businesses to Auction House. I’d recommend them to anyone looking for speed and certainty. I think people would be surprised about how much they actually get from selling at auction.”
Could Auction House be your property partner?
To find out if Auction House South Yorkshire could support you and your vendors, get in touch with our helpful team. You can call them on 0114 223 0777 or send an email to southyorkshire@auctionhouse.co.uk.
