Online auction success in Western Perth

THE four bedroom property at 4 Tareena St, Nedlands in Perth was only on the market for 11 days, proving that some quick thinking and technological innovation is all that’s needed to keep Australia’s auction market strong.

Represented by Thomas Wedge of Ray White Dalkeith | Claremont, the 1927 character home owned by former West Australian Ballet executive director Louise Howden-Smith sold for $1.24million last Saturday.

The property was originally scheduled for auction in mid-April, but with recent events, both Mr Wedge and Ms Howden-Smith decided to bring the auction forward to March 28.

“I listed the property as an auction, which we launched and planned to do on site in April just before or just after Easter,” Mr Wedge said.

“We launched the property online on March 13 and by Monday we had 21 inquiries. But by March 17 we were already seeing lockdowns around the world and I suggested we flip from auction to Openn Negotiation which is an online flexible-terms auction, also called competitive private treaty.”

Far from being deterred from the auction process, Ms Howden-Smith was eager to continue with the online auction.

“I thought it was great, it was very good and quite forward thinking. It was also much better for myself than being present for a normal auction considering everything,” Ms Howden-Smith said.

“It was presented to me by Mr Wedge who is very forward thinking as well and I said that’s fantastic, let’s go for it and within two days we were auctioning.”

In just a few days, Mr Wedge had managed to secure 50 per cent of the buyer groups as registered bidders and later securing two more bringing the total to seven on the day.

“All seven bidders were registered via the Openn Platform and all buyers and the seller signed contracts via Docusign so no paper contracts were ever exchanged,” Mr Wedge said.

Throughout the auction, all stakeholders were able to tune in through the Openn Negotiation platform from their own homes including Ms Howden-Smith in Perth and her family still in Sydney. Mr Wedge said the bidding was fierce with 13 bids ending with the winning bid of $1.24 million.

“We often don’t get as many as seven bidders in Western Australia, it’s usually closer to two or three. The bidding started at $1 million and by the time the final bidding stage started, the number had grown to $1.17 million then to the sale price,” he said.

“Everyone who was bidding was very keen and we had a lot of success with the shorter campaign.”

Ms Howden-Smith hopes that the buyers, who were a local family buying their first home, can make their own mark on the house she owned for 42 years.

“The house has been incredibly engaged with friends, we’ve had lots of occasions, lots of parties and neighbours and it's been very much of a people place,” Ms Howden-Smith said.

“I’m excited for this new family to make new memories and I was so hoping someone would want to live there as it is. Hopefully they find lots of opportunities to create a home that is theirs and makes them feel comfortable.”