Paul Glossop: So, we get a lot of clients at Pure Property Investment who want to buy their own home. Now, we work as buyers’ advocates for people wanting to buy their own property. We really specialise in everything from just negotiating at auctions, right through to sourcing and securing their dream home – doing all the groundwork, the negotiations, and settling that property for them. 

But, probably more specifically, if you’re going to an auction, and you’re going to be bidding at auctions, a few key tips that I’d always say you want to have in place. The first one is – understand what your limit is. Without that, you’re playing right into the hands of the seller. If you say, “I want that property”, then ultimately you’re going to pay whatever you want to pay for that property rather than what you should be paying for that property. So (a) know your limit, (b) know what the market value is of that property.

Now, just because you want to live in it and it’s you dream home doesn’t mean that there’s not going to be another one that’ll come up in the next few weeks, months or years. Now, you really need to understand that. You need to pay what the market value is, and hypothetically, I would say from our side, we’d like to negotiate a below-market-value price for that property. But, ultimately, know your limit, and then secondly, know what the value of that property is. So, do your comparable’s, and do some airtight comparable’s for the same type of property, the same finishes, the same amount of bedrooms/bathrooms, the same block of land, within about 500 meters of where that property is, with similar views, similar aspects. 

There’s a lot that goes into it, but that is what you need to know. And once you get to the point of saying I know (a), I know (b), then when you get to that auction, I would always want you to start, put your hand up first, go in with a firm auction bid. Don’t wait around. Understand what you’re prepared to pay. Understand your environment and who’s registered. Ask that auctioneer how many registered bidders there are. If you’re up against a bunch, make yourself strong. Make yourself known in the early stages. Put your hand up, put a strong bid in. Don’t go to your maximum, but go strong, so everyone understands where you are. And I personally would then, at most times, probably take a step back and then wait to see who else puts their hand up. That way you know who’s playing the game, and who’s in there for the serious bid business, rather than just making up the numbers. I would try to go in fast, and then I would try to pull back. What I try to do is go in strong, and then go in with smaller, more incremental bids, to really slow down that process, and take yourself right out to where your limit is. Hopefully, you get it before that point. 

Now, that’s kind of one strategy. But, ultimately, I think there’s a lot that goes into bidding an auction successfully. And a couple of those aspects I’ve just pointed out there. But, look, we also bid at auctions for clients.

So, if you do want help bidding an auction, and you do have an auction coming up for a property, we do provide a service where we can do all that work for you, and we’re far more successful than most at getting that property secured. Cheers!