How to put your best foot forward at auctions

Frustrated you keep missing out at auction?

Put your best foot forward and bid with confidence, agents advise.

Edward Pack, from Bayleys Ponsonby, says someone asked him before a recent auction “what would be too much to buy this home?”

It’s a great question, Pack says, because what is too much for you could be different to another person.

If you want to buy a house you need to have a strategy and not just turn up to see what happens, he says.

Talk to the agent as much as possible during the sales campaign so you can learn as much as you can about auction tactics.

“They (agents) have got the vendor’s best interest at heart - but they’ve also got a duty of care to you as a buyer to make sure you’re well-looked after and you’re put in a position to be as competitive as possible.”

John Lantz, from Ray White Remuera, says go hard and bid like you’re going to own the place.

“Be confident in your bidding - don’t delay.”

Lantz advises people to have three numbers in mind.

“The number that you’d like to get it for, the number you think is a fair price to get it for and an ultimate price that you’re prepared to pay - your line in the sand, walk-away, threshold price - and bid confidently up to that.

“I tell people if you are prepared to pay $1m for the property and it sells for $1.3m at the auction, look, you were never going get it anyway.”

The important thing is to go and bid because becoming comfortable with the auction process is important as confidence counts - bidding strongly can intimidate other buyers to the point they might give up, he says.

Diana West, of Barfoot & Thompson’s Epsom branch, says if you want the house you need to be prepared to bid hard.

“Everyone has a limit but I think you’ve got to have the limit plus ‘okay, we’ll go that extra mile and have to live on baked beans and toast for six months’- that type of attitude.

“You’ve really got to push yourself to your absolute max and then some.”

And be demonstrative when bidding, she says.

“Don’t be shy. Don’t wait and look and see who else is going to do something. You’re there to show people that you want this property and if you can psych them out by bidding aggressively and quickly then often they’ll go ‘this guy’s not going to give up, we may as well.’”