Confidence high after 71% campaign clearance rate for Ray White Glenroy

THE ONLINE auction market is alive and kicking in Melbourne after Ray White Glenroy recorded a 71 per cent campaign clearance rate on Tuesday night selling five of seven properties under auction conditions.

Using Google Hangout and Bidtracker, Ray White Victoria | Tasmania chief auctioneer Matt Condon said the results show that there was still a lot of confidence in the auction market.

“The team ran multiple auctions at once which created a lot of energy and encouraged buyers to actively bid - the hype around it was exceptional,” Mr Condon said.

“People were happy to wait online and a lot stayed to watch the whole thing from the comfort of their own home because of both the excitement and just seeing the great results coming through.

“We’re also noticing that everyone comes to the auctions with their own bidder strategies so clearly buyers are still doing everything they can secure a property.”

The first online auction off the block was the three-bedroom home at 42 Cassinia Crescent, Meadow Heights (pictured above) that garnered 15 bids from three of the six registered bidders, selling at $459,000. After 23 private inspections over three weeks, Glenroy selling agent Omer Koksal said he is thrilled with the result.

“It was a great finish to a really positive campaign and the winning bidder was a first home buyer who literally bought his first home, at home,” Mr Koksal said.

“We were worried because there was quite a bit of interest from older downsizers who may not have access to the online auction technology but we found that it was quite the opposite.”

First home buyer and winning bidder Mo Safar said he and his wife have been looking for their dream home for the past six months without much luck until they found the Meadow Heights home.

“This house for us is in the perfect area, it is all done, no work needed and there was something about it when we inspected it that just sold us straight away,” Mr Safar said.

While the ‘new normal’ of the real estate industry has added some difficulties to the market, Mr Safar said it didn’t put them off buying and in the end worked out really well.

“It has been an interesting experience but all went smoothly and during the actual online auction process there was no point where I felt like I wasn’t heard. I came prepared for technology problems but there weren’t any disruptions,” he said.

Next to be sold was the two-bedroom unit at 2/87 West St, Hadfield (pictured above) which went to a first home buyer for $435,000 after some back and forth bidding between the two active bidders.

Sold through Glenroy’s Erhan Kalistu, the agent said his communication with the buyers throughout the campaign meant he was able to get the best result for his seller.

“To ensure both my bidders were familiar with the system, I did a mock auction with both my bidders individually. This gave them confidence with our online auction system and as a result, we had a smooth run all the way through"

"In this market, buyer relationships and regular communication are key to a successful sale and I ensured that I had the groundwork in place for that. At one point, the bidding stopped at $425,000 but I was able to have the bidder bid on top of herself first to $430,000 and then finally to $435,000."

For many agents, online auctions are unchartered territory but Ray White Glenroy principal Mete Karan said that it’s important to try to shift the focus from more technical aspects back to real estate fundamentals.

“We were doing the same thing exactly as we normally do, it just looked a bit different last night,” Mr Karan said.

“The agents just needed to go through the process to gain some confidence and realise that if we have a well-priced property and strong interest then the platform we use is irrelevant.

“Overall I think last night was a success, the first auction took off and in 15 minutes we the auction was done, the documents were signed and we had the deposit.”

Also sold prior to auction was 34 Ledger St, Fawkner for $710,000, 4/125 West St, Hadfield for $507,500 and sold after auction was 25 Hampden St, Dallas for $455,000.