Property Hub - Investment Insights & Inspiration - Realty Talk: The skill of a good auctioneer

Episode Date: January 27, 2023

We have told you that before you go to bid on an auction you should always be familiar with the methods of the auctioneer who will be conducting the auction at the property you want to buy.  Cate Bakos – buyers Agent in Melbourne – shares the things you should be watching for.  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 the show. Well, in our tip series, we've been telling you that if you're going to be bidding at an auction over the next few weeks, you should always get to know the auctioneer. How does the auctioneer work? You can find that out by firstly asking who will be the auctioneer on the property you're interested in, then make sure you shop them. Go and have a look. Kate Bacos joins me to talk about a few of the things that you should be looking out for. Hi, Kate. How are you? G'day, Kevin. I'm well, thanks. It's great to be back. Yeah, nice to be back too with you. And Kate Bacos, of course, is a buyer's agent. And as a buyer's agent, Kate, I guess this is one of the things that you've got in your toolbox. You understand how auctioneers work.

But for someone who probably only ever buys a property once or twice in their life, what do you recommend they should be looking out for? Well, the first thing that they need to look out for is making sure the auctioneer recognises they're likely to bid. Because if they're a bit timid or if there's a big crowd, saying hello to the auctioneer is a really clever thing to do. And they'll most likely say, are you going to bid today or will you put up your hand? If you make it abundantly clear that you're wanting to be in the runnings, they will look out for you. So that's the first thing. But more importantly, auctioneers all have very different styles and they have very different paces.

and we've all heard it before when the when the property is knocked down and the gavel hits the contract no late bids can be accepted and the auctioneers absolutely mean that because they're fined if they do accept late bids so if you've got an auctioneer that doesn't draw it out and do the first call second call third final call are you all done if you've got someone that says going once going twice sold you you could miss out if you're planning on leaving your bidding to come in a little bit later, that can be a terrible mistake if you're not familiar with the way that that auctioneer likes to call an auction.

Just on that point, they get very robust auctioneers as they get closer to the reserve, don't they? How do you determine, you know, where they are in that cycle? If you know them well enough, do they give you any hints at all, Kate? They absolutely do. And auctioneers have varying terms for expressing that a property is on the market. some might just say ladies and gentlemen just letting you all know we are officially on the

market I won't be going inside the property will be sold and that's about as blatant as they get others will say we're selling others might say we've hit reserve or they might just give a tip and say this is it we're paying for keeps or I'm not going back inside they're the little cues that suggest we are on the market and there isn't going to be a half-time show and a lot of buyers make the mistake of thinking that every option has that half-time break where the auctioneer says give us a moment ladies and gentlemen i'm going to go inside and consult with my vendor i'll be back it doesn't always happen particularly if you've hit reserve they'll just keep it running so you do have to keep an ear out and listen to those terms and if you're in doubt you can say

are we on the market if you make a pest of yourself and you're constantly asking them that question at the early stages of the auction it will get annoying so if you genuinely don't know if we're playing for keeps you can just say are we on the market. Just on that point I've been to auctions and I've actually been an auctioneer and auctioneers are trained when someone asks that question to say something smart like yeah well it's been on the market for the last four weeks how do you respond to that when they throw a challenge back at you? If an auctioneer is doing that you don't want to pick a fight with them publicly you need to have them on side you can smile and say, okay, I understand, but have we hit reserve? They can't duck and wave around the

reserve question. Yeah, because I think what we're unearthing here, Kate, and I know you've got a lot of skill in this area, is so do the auctioneers, but they make a very strong inference of sale, don't they, to try and get that bidder to make that bid, even if it's over the reserve. They They don't have to announce that they've actually reached the reserve. No, they don't. Their job is to elicit bidding and to get a great outcome for the vendor. And we should always remember that. But the other thing that we have to remember is the auctioneer is there to do a job.

They're not picking on us. They really want to see us buy the property. They want to see it sell under the hammer. So picking a fight with the auctioneer, trying to belittle them or tampering with the auction, they're things that won't work in your favour because the auctioneer does hold the power and I know I've said it before on your show they have the right to refuse a bid

to say to a bidder I'm not taking your bids so playing ball with them is really important and they've got a job to do they're standing in front of potentially one or two hundred people and it's a theatrical experience for a lot but for the auctioneer it's serious business so bearing in mind that they've got a tough job to do They're counting foods, they're remembering all of the attributes of the house, they're recalling what the reserve is or they're potentially dealing with a vendor inside who's very stressed and might not yet put the property on the market or might have a moving target with their reserve.

So there's a lot that the auctioneer has to deal with in a very short space of time. It's one of the most intensive jobs going. Yeah, it's a two way street, isn't it? I mean, here we are talking about how it's important not to upset the auctioneer. But by the same token, the auctioneer doesn't want to upset you as the bidder because you could be the eventual buyer. And so it is a two way street, isn't it? It is. If you can be, obviously, you can't tell someone to relax at an auction because for some it's one of the most stressful things that they can do. But if you can try and play ball with the auctioneer, have a bit of fun with their jokes, keep a smile on your face.

They don't mind, you know, some self-deprecating jokes themselves in a lot of cases. because auctioneers are usually really big personalities and they're used to being theatrical and they're not shy, but they're certainly there to help you fit. They're not wanting anyone to feel that they're being put off being. It's a pretty good strategy as a buyer, as I said at the opening of this segment, to find out who the auctioneer will be and then go and visit a few of their auctions, because quite often they will call two or three auctions in a weekend, maybe even more.

so you get the opportunity to see them on several different occasions over a couple of weekends and they get to see you too because auctioneers have got very good memories and they'll remember you as someone who's interested in property generally. Absolutely. If anyone's got facial recognition software in their brain, it's an auctioneer. They're very, very talented at all of those things

and seeing what their style is like, seeing how they start their pre-options feel and really paying attention to their timing, the words that they use how they talk with the agents that are running the campaign all of those are really critical little clues that can just help you be a more relaxed and more confident bidder okay fantastic just before we go your top three tips for anyone who wants to become familiar with how an auctioneer works the first one is go and say hello to them introduce yourself they'll be really pleased to to have someone want to say g'day the second one is if you can find out what

their auction schedule is and just watch them for the a few weeks or you know a week at least prior to the auction that you're looking at doing don't leave it all to the very last minute and finally ask the selling agent before the auction who the auctioneer is don't assume that you know who the auctioning will be because on a busy Saturday they do swap it around. In the final part of our summer series with Kate dispel a few of the more common auction misconceptions. Kate Bakos a buyer's agent out of Melbourne, katebacos.com.au. Kate, thanks for your time and look forward to talking to you next week. Can't wait. See you later, Kevin.