Property Hub - Investment Insights & Inspiration - Realty Talk: Bid with strength – here is how

Episode Date: January 13, 2023

If you have been to an auction and noticed how confident some buyers are when they bid, it is probably because they have done it before and know what they are doing or they have been to the Cate Bakos school of bidding.  Cate is a buyers agent in Melbourne and this is what she does. RealtyTalk is part of the Property Hub podcast channel, your home for property investment insights, inspiration, and stories from Australia’s top property experts, investors, leaders, and analysts. Subscribe now to get every RealtyTalk episode delivered to you each week for free, and also get full access to Get Invested, the leading podcast for Australians who want to unlock their full ‘self, health, and wealth’ potential and get inspired by the stories of investors, founders, and entrepreneurs. Subscribe to RealtyTalk on the Property Hub channel: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Google Podcasts | Email Property Hub is a collaboration between Bushy Martin from KnowHow Property, Kevin Turner from Realty, Andrew Montesi from Apiro Marketing and Apiro Media, and Australia’s largest independent podcast network DM Media. Business and partnership enquiries: [e-mail] omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Welcome to Realty Talk, the show that brings together the country's most authoritative and respected property experts. Follow us on all the socials and subscribe for updates and exclusive offers. Realty Talk is powered by Realty.com.au, connecting buyers, sellers and agents differently. Hello once again, Kate Bacos joins us in just a moment. But have you ever been to an auction and noticed that there are maybe one or two people there who really look comfortable, yet you're shaking in your boots? You're wondering what the hell is going on? That's quite normal because many people only ever go to an auction to buy a property once or twice in their life. Kate Bakos, Kate, I guess this is fairly normal, isn't it?

I mean, you're an experienced bidder. You do this on behalf of other people. what suggestion would you have as to how people can look confident when they go to bid at an auction the first thing they can do is have a plan so know what they're prepared to bid to what their walk away figure is so that they can then bid with confidence and not have to worry about thinking on the fly so when they're standing there and they've got a plan as anxious as they may feel about the task in front of them they don't have to stress about getting it wrong because they already know what they can bid to. That's my first one. Yeah well I suppose having a plan does you know sort

of settle you down as long as you don't forget what that plan is maybe make sure that you write it down so you don't make any mistakes but that's the first part of feeling confident isn't it or even looking confident Kate? Yeah that's right and a lot of it comes down to bluff when people do want to look confident but even down to what you're dressing in. Dressing something that you're comfortable in or confident in that might be that you are a bit more formal and you might be suited up dressed like a professional or you may just be you know in your favorite jeans and you're completely comfortable with your own look and then it comes down to where you stand now if you're hiding behind trees or standing at the back of the crowd and avoiding people you're not looking

particularly confident but if you're standing right at the forefront of the auction and particularly if you can see your competition, you might wish to stand a little closer to the auctioneer or at the side on the footpath where you can see everyone. That gives you a really good vantage position and it certainly makes people think that you're not as intimidated about the task at hand. And of course, in leading up to the auction as well, Kate, if you've made the appropriate inquiries and done your homework and gotten to know the agent and probably even the auctioneer, there's a very good chance that you're going to be front and centre anyway because they'll be hovering around you as they normally do. Yeah, agents sometimes stand with you and offer to help

you bid. And if you're confident you don't need this, but the best thing to do is greet the auctioneer when you arrive, greet the agents, let them know you are bidding so that they'll be watching out for your bid. Not everybody has a loud voice, so they might wish to flag with the auctioneer that they do plan to bid so that their bid doesn't get missed. And then the most important thing to do when you do start bidding is be really clear, be succinct, be relatively quick with your bids. You don't need to have a big bag of tricks and slam bid and apply all of those tactics that you see professionals do. You just have to bid loud and strong and consistently. So what about the first bid? Is it wise to sort of sit back and see what the crowd's doing and

not be too anxious or show your hand too soon? Yeah, good question. A lot of people think that standing back and waiting until the third call at the end of everything is the right tactic. Occasionally it's a good tactic but most of the time it's a terrible idea and if an auctioneer misses your bid there are no late bids they can't undo the auction. I've seen the hammer fall several times before when someone hasn't quite got their bid in and it's quite devastating. My recommendation is if everybody else is looking at their shoes and the crowd is feeling anxious, be the first one to kick it off and kick it off within the range

you're at a level that is probably under the reserve, but confident enough for you to assert your energy and let everybody know that you're there to buy the property. What about the crowd itself? I've heard you talk about reading the crowd. How do you do that? Is it important? It is important, particularly if you're a professional. And when it's the first or second time that you're doing it in your life, you may not be able to read the crowd with confidence. but there are a few little tips that i like to share the first one is if someone's not holding a brochure they may well be a bidder so if they're looking a bit nervous if they're swaying from side to side or smoking a cigarette or picking their nails or fidgeting or pacing anything that looks

a bit nervous or uncomfortable and they're not holding a brochure there's good chance they could be a bidder because bidders who have been through the property and they know what they're bidding on usually decline the brochure when they go through that property at the last half hour so that's the first hint the second one is if people are looking quite relaxed if they're drinking coffee and playing with kids and talking to the neighbors they're probably not bidders so you don't want to be alarming yourself unnecessarily when you're eyeing off people that are not likely to be competition and then the last bidder that you need to be mindful of is the professional bidder and in most cases you'll be able to pick them because they typically dress like they're a real

estate agent or an auctioneer they're dressed for the part occasionally they're incognito but usually you can pick them you mentioned earlier in our chat in this segment about wearing a suit or something that you're comfortable in doing if you do that you don't normally wear a suit you're not going to feel all that comfortable and you're probably even going to look like a real estate agent possibly but you'll have other people shaking in their boots and so it depends on whether you can pull that stunt off but if you are planning to bid I do recommend wearing some glasses it will give you a sense of being behind the screen you'll also be able to cast your gaze at various people without moving your head and if you're just wanting to

look like a strong and determined bidder standing tall like a soldier and firing out bids can be quite intimidating so it just depends on what bidder is comfortable with. Well there you go there's more proof that it's all about theater and i'm glad i'm not bidding against you kate bakos that's all i can say hey when kate comes back in our next segment we are going to have a look at the common mistakes and she'll give us three classics that i'd never heard of before and kate bakos will join us again kate bakos from a buyer's agent in melbourne thanks for your time kate we'll talk to you next time always pleasure see you soon miss something in this week's show or want to catch up on past shows?

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