Just as students prepare for the new curriculum and challenges of Term 1, auction agents should similarly head ‘back-to-school', ensuring the benefit of the selling process is delivered to vendors in 2019.  

After the boom of 2013-2017 - when Sydney and Melbourne’s auction clearance rate routinely topped 75% - agents were left deflated by 2018. Last year was the toughest 12 months for vendors since the GFC; Sydney’s median house price ($808,494) contracted 8.9% according to CoreLogic, while Melbourne ($645,123) slid 7.0%.

Now, for the hard truth: the boom made many auction agents nonchalant in their auction practices as some Sydney suburbs doubled in value over the period. They were getting results with little more than a hammer, a signboard, and a bundled portal package.

It was reminiscent of primary school, where any kid who kept a tennis ball in their backpack claimed the ‘King’s’ square on the handball court.

But it takes more to be ‘King’ in high school, where expectations and workloads are greater. 

And a soft-market is like the transition to high school: classrooms hold more students (market supply) homework piles up (database mining) and the expectations of parents (vendors) increase.

That’s why agents should be studying up, now, on best practice auction strategies and activities to better serve their customers in 2019. I know seasoned auction agents who brush up on the process and new practices at the start of each new year.

In preparing for the new year, auction agents should be thinking about:

1) Working every day like ‘auction eve’

Have you noticed how working the phone the night before an auction feels like cramming for an exam? And every time you do it, you swear you’ll be better prepared next time? 
Agents should approach every day as though it’s the eve of the auction: encourage offers at each point of contact with a buyer; let buyers know of real-time sales and interest from recent listings in the neighbourhood.

2) Let vendors ride shotgun

 Auction agents have gotten away with minimal and superficial updates to vendors when the market has been firing. Hot markets allow agents to focus their energies on prospecting, assured in the knowledge that buyer competition will take care of auction day and endorsements from happy vendors will follow suit.

But when markets stumble, communication and education to vendors is critical. I've previously called auctions where the vendor has had no idea of the number of likely bidders - or even if there’ll be bidders, at all.

And some agents will overlook providing feedback and up-to-the-minute sales results to their vendor until the latter end of the campaign, creating a real gulf between the vendor’s and the market’s expectations.

3) Being flexible

Auction campaigns typically run for three-to-four weeks, but don’t let an advertising schedule make you second-guess sound sales practices. For instance, if you have 30 groups through your first open-for-inspection and a handful of offers, bring the auction forward to capitalise on the current interest.

Don’t try and maintain heightened interest in an over-supplied market.

Additionally, bringing forward the auction could secure a better result as interest parties respond to the urgency.

See you in the auction classroom.

Related reading:

Shorter auction campaigns would address oversupply

5 ways to improve your chances of selling by auction in a soft market 

Don’t be scared of auctions