Our analysis suggests buyers are better off checking an automated price estimate than going by the real estate agent’s guide

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On a gloomy Saturday morning in Sydney, a small crowd with umbrellas and raincoats is waiting outside a terrace in the inner west for an auction to start.

The place is completely rundown, with peeling paint and water-stained ceilings. But the guide price online is $1.3m, and the house will sell for more than $1.8m after a six-minute auction marked more by a feeling of inevitability than excitement.

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