Going, Going, Gone | Let the Disappointment At Auction Continue

Today I went to an auction in Raleigh St, Thornbury. The house was an old brick house in need of much work. EJ Love Real Estate-Preston was the agent. The selling price was advertised at $550,000 - $600,000. There was an excellent turn out for the auction on the day. The house was close to schools, shops and transport.

The house sold on auction day for $850,000. That's $200,00 over the price range quoted.

I feel that I have wasted my time yet again. If the quotes given were more accurate, I wouldn't have wasted my time ringing council, architects and attending open house inspections.

As we were walking away, I overheard another couple say what a waste of time it was going to the auction and that they would never had wasted their time going to the auction had the agents/vendor price range been more accurate.

That wasn't the only disappointment today. Earlier this morning we had attended an auction in Clifton Hill. We attended because the estate agent indicated that the property which was originally advertised at 1 million to 1.1 million had been marked down to a price range of 920,000 to 1,000,000 due to lack of buyer interest. My partner and I were willing to pay around 950,000 (or a little more) after taking into account that the property needed a substantial amount of repair and renovation. The auction started rather high with a vendor bid of 950,000 which got our backs up a little and another family present also seemed to get their backs up after the high vendor bid; so neither of us placed any bids. There was only one subsequent bid of 960,000 and with that one and only offering the property was passed in. Later we learned that further negotiations yielded another offer of 1,030,000 which wasn't enough to meet the reserve of 1,070,000. So in other words, although the property's price range had been lowered, the vendor's reserve probably hadn't actually moved at all. It was nothing but an exercise in manipulation to alter the perceived range and generate some buyer interest with a strategy for creeping the property price back up to the original reserve figure.