Transcript
Steve Carroll: If we go right back to the beginning – so, someone logs on, they’re in research mode and one of the big questions that they they’re asking is “Who am I going to choose?” But maybe in addition to that, “Should I go to auction? Or should I go private treaty?” What recommendation or advice would you give them? So we’re talking sellers.
AJ Colman: Yeah, absolutely. So, I think trust is a must for a seller. They need to partner with somebody that they trust. So how do you get that trust? I think it’s results and evidence. I’m not a selling agent. I’m purely an auctioneer, but I have a lot of top quality selling agents come and talk to my students. It’s interesting to see how the seller decision – when they decide to list – has changed over the last 10 years. So where it used to go, a potential vendor would sit you down, you down, you down, you down and look at all the factors and then make a decision. In today’s marketplace, or what we’re hearing in South Australia, is the potential sellers, because we’re online, well, they’ve already picked their agent before the agent gets into the door How have they picked that agent? Because they’ve done their homework on realestate.com.au. They’ve had a look at some of the auctions. They’ve gone to the open inspections of that particular agent. In your question, “Should they go to auction or private treaty?” Every seller is different and every property is different. So, it’s about the seller picking a good quality agent that they trust, they have seen evidence – whether it be online feedback or at open inspections and or auctions – talking to that agent and letting that agent guide the seller as to what’s the best method of sale to achieve the best price for them, because it’s about the vendor.
Steve Carroll: Yeah, okay. Gents over here?
Alec Brown: I certainly think part of that process now, in selecting auction as a method, is to also understand who’s actually going to be the one representing you both agent and auctioneer and how well is that relationship between the two. You can have a great auctioneer and a great agent but never worked together. It’s not as cohesive as a partnership that has developed over the years.
Stuart Benson: I can confidently say that my agents will go in there, use me and they will say at least, in precedent: “Before you sign with us, but before you sign with them, spend this weekend out in the in the trenches and go watch some auctions and will speak to you on Monday,” and they get the business. We’re a part of their team. We’re an extension of what they do.
Josh Hart: One of the reasons why, in Tasmania, probably hasn’t been harnessed so much that auction process, is because we don’t have any independent auction organisation with in Tasmania. So, usually it’s either a director or a young cadet who’s done some auction training that actually doesn’t understand the fundamentals and the business opportunities. [cross-talk] What I’m saying there is that the public goes to the auction, it is a bit of a fanfare And they rock up and then because your execution isn’t done correctly, they’re going, “Well, that was a bad experience. That was a bad result.” The scary thing is, in Tasmania, if it sells, it’s a success. It might be for a poor price. But if they go sold under hammer, it’s high-fives all around. But it shouldn’t be like that. So in Tasmania, we really need to focus on using the process of auction but doing the right way for the consumer actually has confidence in the industry.
Gavin Croft: That’s related. That experience is related to your branding. And it’s that consistent message that you want to try and send. So, when they’re deciding about whether auctions right, are you comfortable with… and I try not to get the agents to overcomplicate an auction. An auction is just a form of negotiation. All we’re saying is on this day, this is what we’re going to negotiate. It’s just a bit more dynamic. It’s got more speed attached to it than a private treaty. In essence, it’s not too dissimilar, you do the same things. Don’t overcomplicate it. That’s how we’re going to choose to negotiate.
Will Hampson: Another very simple way is, Gavin, if you choose private treaty, it’s a fixed price, and generally the buyers will negotiate dollars down. Worse, with auction, we remove price and negotiate dollars up. Which would you prefer, Mr. and Mrs Vendor? Dollars down negotiation or dollars up and removing the price? I think, as well, third-party stories for consumers. Telling them some stories about auctions or, as Stuart said, inviting them to some of your auctions. So they can see it, feel it. Giving some recent videos of auction that they can see some results that you’ve done for other sellers, and explaining that those vendors were nervous at the time they made the decision. They weren’t necessarily going to go the way of auction. But we spoke to them about a few other recent sales that we conducted by way of auction. We achieved a premium price for the vendor. They then opted for auction and we’re delighted with the result that they achieved, which was far above what they may otherwise have achieved with the bidders on the day. They exceeded their expectation by an extra 50 or 100 thousand dollars, but they may not otherwise achieved had they’re not going to auction.
James Keenan: I think agents can get a little bit bogged down on the auction day. The auction day is really important. Even if the property doesn’t sell, you can still put on a really good show. What is going to transpire over the next 24 hours or week or two weeks is really, really important and a lot of it comes back to what you did on the auction day. You’ve got to set it up for the next stage and that next stage is 10 minutes after the auction and I think a lot of agents get really despondent because, “Oh, we don’t have any buyers. It’s not going to sell tomorrow.” Well, get over it. Be positive. Say, “Tomorrow is a really important part of the whole selling process, because we’re going to sell this property and it is going to sell and it’s going to sell quickly thereafter auction. But what we do tomorrow is really important for what we do next.” You have to be positive and you have to be positive with your owners and your owners have to go into that auction day still feeling good about themselves. You get up, you put on a good show. You make them feel important. You talk about the property like it’s the best property in the world, right? They go away thinking, “Okay. Well we didn’t sell, but we had the auction. We’re gonna continue and we will get it sold.” 95 per cent of them will sell pretty quickly thereafter. Quite often to someone who actually hasn’t even seen the property before auction.
Gavin Croft: And that five minutes or ten minutes that you deliver that, if the seller can live, breathe the market in that five minutes, that there is no buyer at that price right now, and that is powerful. So, the way you execute that, mate, couldn’t agree anymore how important that is. That is so important .
James Bell: For me, a lot of people I believe, in Queensland, don’t do auctions, because auctions is a method will hold you accountable as a real estate agent. They hold you accountable in front of everyone. Yet, from a principal’s point of view, I love it when my staff do auctions, because I know they’re held accountable because they think they’re out on the show. I’ve got one guy, if he’s got an auction, he’s getting a haircut the morning of. [cross-talk] It’s quite a really interesting phenomenon that people are held accountable when they’re running auction.