In Aust, when the market is fairly strong, you want people to 'commit' fast so you would use the auction strategy and you can accept the highest price (pre-auction offer) if you want (without going to an auction).
If it is a very, very strong market, you wait for buyers to fight it out in the auction as there are usually more bidders than you think. You won't usually accept any offers in a strong market (like what happened 2 years ago in Sydney). Nowadays the market has really cooled off (about 8% off the peak), you would accept a pre-auction offer which is what is happening now. This is called Sold Prior To sale. You won't use auction in a weak market as auction costs can be quite high as you need an auctioneer and a place to hold the auction which may be a hotel conference room. Usually auctioneers have their own office to hold the auction.
In a weak market, you just nominate your price with a For Sale and hope that someone will make you an offer. If you are not happy with what people are offering and you want to sell the property fast, you put a Under Offer in the hope that someone will better that offer. If you still can't get the price you want, you withdraw it from the market. People normally don't want to leave their property too long in the market as this devalues their property price.
Properties that are sold off by the banks because the buyer has defaulted on the loan is called a Mortgagee Sale. This would only happen in a distressed market.

This post has been edited by Garysydney: Mar 25 2018, 06:09 AM