Our recent sale of 80 Lamorna Road in Parklands marks Team Griff’s run of auction sales under the hammer to twelve. While careful not to toot our own horn too much, in a market where just shy of 60% of properties sell on or before auction day, we’d like to think a run of twelve in a row is kind of a big deal.
Looking back at our past campaigns, we’ve uncovered seven key factors that have contributed to our recent auction successes.
1. Our sellers have invested into the marketing of their home
For each property we list, we present a customised marketing package that we believe will attract interest from the right cohort of buyers. Our experience has taught us which forms of which media yield the best return on investment for our clients. Our marketing campaigns have a particularly strong digital focus, comprising of upgrades on Trade Me Property and Realestate.co.nz, as well as targeted social media advertising to our database of buyers we have met at other similarly priced properties. By investing into the marketing of their properties, our clients can then make their decisions confidently knowing that their property has received full exposure to the market.
2. We respond to the market
In a market that is constantly shifting, it’s important that we remain in tune with the market. If we find that we have not received the desired levels of enquiry on our property, we make a point of reviewing the messages in our marketing to ensure that we’re striking the right chord with the buying public. It may be necessary to adjust the price-point at which we’re pitching the property, or to utilise new marketing methods. We’re not ones to just sit back and hope for a better response next weekend without doing anything differently. If things aren’t going to plan, we’ll sit down with our clients and give our recommendations as to how we can best respond to the market.
3. We hold more open homes than our competition
We’re strong believers in keeping the door open when marketing property. When the vast majority of listings are open once or twice a week between the hours of 12 and 2, buyers struggle to prioritise which properties to look at. We consider three open homes a week to be the absolute minimum – and will often open properties midweek towards the end of the working day to make it easy for people who work normal business hours.
4. The grunt of the Harcourts machine
Of the 12 auctions we sold under the hammer, four of these were sold to purchasers who were introduced by other Harcourts salespeople. There’s also many more salespeople who showed buyers through our listings, and those working with underbidders. Sure, many of the smaller agencies will put their hand up to auction properties as well, but the reality is that they don’t have the network or the infrastructure to support an auction campaign. Harcourts have 450 sales consultants working across the city – and they’re all well incentivised to get buyers through your door.
5. Readily accessible property information – including a building report
One of the major bugbears for buyers in today’s market is the waiting around to receive the necessary property documentation. We believe this should be made freely available – hence we use Agentsend.com which means this info is readily accessible at the click of a button. It also acts as another lead generation tool to help us identify qualified and engaged prospective purchasers. We find that the largest obstacle for a buyer to pursue an auction property is the need to obtain a building inspection report, so we recommend our sellers provide one to make a buyer’s due diligence process as easy as possible.
6. We too feel the urgency of auction
Because auction provides a hard deadline to work towards, we as agents know that we have to do everything possible to get buyers to the auction, and then to get them bidding. Every week at Harcourts Gold, our auction campaigns are reviewed and critiqued by all salespeople in attendance, and this works really well in keeping the property at the forefront of our colleagues’ minds. We do this because we know that we have just a limited period of time before auction day to get things right.
7. We know how to work with a single bidder
It’s easy to think that you can’t have an auction with only one bidder. But the reality is that in today’s market, about 50% of sold auction properties are sold in auctions with only a single bidder. Of the 12 we sold, three were one-bidder auctions. Heading into auction day, we will have a fairly clear idea as to the number of bidders we’re likely to have participating – and if it is only one, we will simply wrap our strategy around that. This often involves sitting down with the buyer prior to the auction and take them through what is likely to happen. Conditional buyers are also encouraged to attend in the event the property does not sell, and we encourage them to take part by letting us know if they would be prepared to pay more than what is being bid – all with a view of providing our sellers with every opportunity to sell.
If you’re looking for a sales team with a proven track record of auction excellence, be sure to reach out – we’d welcome the opportunity to assist.
