An Auckland auctioneer with some 10,000 auctions under his belt is putting his money where his mouth is. He is taking two of his own properties to auction with declared reserves – one just $1, the other $99,000.
Ted Ingram told OneRoof he’s confident to test out a strategy he’s recommended to other sellers. “I’ve called probably a dozen or more $1 reserve auctions in my career and I’ve been calling auctions since 2001.”
Ingram said that he had decided to sell off his rental homes, some of which he’s owned for 20 years, to focus on other projects.
His reason for picking the low prices is firm: “I want to sell them and buyers want to know that they can buy them. We’re saying ‘you come along, you bring whatever money you’ve got and if you’re the highest bidder, you’re going to own this property’.”
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First on the block is a recently refurbished three-bedroom terrace house at 25 Cotesmore Way, in Parnell.
The leasehold property, marketed by City Sales agent James Mairs, goes to auction March 27.
Ingram said the corner property, one of two he owns on the block, was now in “very, very good condition” and had a code of compliance certificate after remedial work was completed following the floods in that part of Parnell last year. In this condition, he said, it would likely fetch $750 to $800 a week in rent.
“People can come along and say ‘wow, this is a really neat property. Let’s have a go because it’s a good property’,” he said.
The auctioneer hopes that the second property he owns on the same block, at number 10, will then sell to the under-bidder after number 25’s auction, otherwise it will hit the open market later in April.
Auctioneer Ted ingram in action. “It doesn’t matter what the market is, the bargain hunters are always there." Photo / Fiona Goodall
The terrace house on Cotesmore Way, Parnell, is being sold vacant. It sits on leasehold land. Photo / Supplied
Ingram said when he coaches agents on using low reserves to bring in the bidders, he gives the analogy of bringing a pot of water to the boil: start an auction with lots of small bidders “and then as the temperature comes up you get the big bubbles. You need the small bubbles to get the big bubbles”.
On April 10, agent Mairs is bringing a second of Ingram’s properties to a low-reserve auction, a three-bedroom apartment in the Mirage Apartments at 201/86 The Strand, also in Parnell.
The vacant place has a $99,000 reserve, with Ingram throwing in a re-paint and new carpet for the new owner. The block has an indoor pool, outdoor lagoon, spa, tennis court, gym and tropical gardens, and OneRoof records show its CV is $950,000.
Ingram said that not all properties suited this auction strategy, with some attracting serious bargain hunters through other marketing tactics. “It doesn’t matter what the market is, the bargain hunters are always there.”
However, not all $1 reserve calls go to plan. Fifteen years ago, Ingram was in Waiuku, calling a $1 auction for a house on Karioitahi Beach. “A little boy called ‘one dollar’. And I said ‘buy that boy an ice-cream’, there was an ice-cream shop next door. Then his mate calls ‘$2’ and I said ‘get him one too’. I sold that property from memory for $287,000.”
The auctioneer is also selling a three-bedroom apartment he owns in the Mirage, at 201/86 The Strand, Parnell, this time with a $99,000 reserve. Photo / Supplied
The popular apartment block is known for its resort-like amenities, including a pool, tennis court, spa and gym. Photo / Supplied
More seriously, last year a four-bedroom apartment on Carrington Road, Mount Albert, had a $1 reserve auction – and sold for just a dollar. The property’s listing agent had warned first-home buyers away from the troubled block which had disconcerting body corporate disclosures, so the vendor was quite prepared to pay a commission and get the property off her hands.
More successfully, last week a two-bedroom house in Clendon Park, Manukau city, described by the agent as the worst he’d seen, sold for $420,000 while last year a virtually uninhabitable three-bedroom house on George Street, Papatoetoe, went for $1.425 million. Its drawcard was the 1429sqm section zoned for apartment density.
However, Ingram is careful to point out that not all properties are suitable for declaring a $1 reserve, and sellers need to know the risks upfront.
“People have to be committed. If they’re not 100% committed, you wouldn’t do it. Nor if they had a mortgage on the property to a certain level, you wouldn’t.
“You’ve got to be mortgage-free or have permission from the bank, who have to release the title. I’d never done a bank one for $1 option because the bank won’t agree to it.”
- 25 Cotesmore Way, in Parnell, Auckland will be auctioned on March 27
