When Cory Boyd and Keron Petzer listed the dilapidated home at 19 Billabong Drive, Crestmead, they had no idea of the chaos that would ensue on auction day.
The Ray White Marsen agents ran a no reserve auction campaign on the four-bedroom, one-bathroom home, which was the epitome of a ‘fixer-upper’ with vandals leaving the house in a state of total disrepair.
But that didn’t stop 161 bidders, an Australian record, registering for the auction, with the property selling under the hammer for $494,700.
“It was pretty chaotic,” Mr Boyd said.
“We had 100 bidder forms and we had to run back to the office to get more.
“We knew we’d get a lot, but we didn’t think it would be that massive.”
Mr Boyd put the success on auction day down to a carefully crafted auction campaign that included not having a reserve price and running a hybrid auction, which means bidders place bids in person and via online.
“I think the campaign we ran and having the no reserve auction, certainly generated a lot of interest,” he said.
“Out of those 161, there were 20 to 25 that were bidding online.”
Mr Boyd said the deteriorated nature of the property, which had holes kicked in walls and air conditioning units ripped from the wall, ment the home was ideal for a no reserve auction.
“Due to the condition of the property, we were always confident that we’d get a great result, but we wanted to get as much exposure on it as possible,” he said.
“Having a zero reserve on it, that gets people talking about it.
“And it worked.”
Mr Boyd also said it was the first time he’d ran a hybrid auction and he did so due to the high number of people that wanted to bid on the property as well as there being significant interstate interest.
The eventual buyers were from Parramatta in Sydney and they had also looked at a couple of other renovated homes Mr Boyd had on the market.
“They plan to do a basic, cosmetic reno on it and they’ll just hang onto it for the time being,” he said.
Mr Boyd said the campaign, and the attention it has generated, had already helped him secure new listings and delivered a number of warm leads.
“I’ve actually listed one on the back of this, which is very similar to Billabong Drive,” he said.
“I’m just waiting to get confirmation if that’s going to be another no reserve auction again.
“That (property) is in Browns Plains and that will be hitting the market within the next week and a bit.”
Mr Boyd said the beauty of no reserve auctions were that they encouraged interested parties to bid.
“You can’t sit back as a bidder,” he said.
“You can’t sit back and wait for it to hit the reserve or anything like that.
“It forces the buyers to bid.
“It went very, very fast, it went from $1 up to $350,000 or $400,000 within the space of 30 seconds to one minute.”
Mr Boyd’s auction was one of just 3383 registered in capital cities over the weekend, according to CoreLogic figures.
That’s almost 1000 auctions more than the previous week.
Of the 2573 results collected so far, CoreLogic figures show a preliminary combined capital city clearance rate of 68.5 per cent, which is well up on the 58.8 per cent rate recorded the same time a year ago.
