S1, Episode 1: How to win your bid at auction

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00:00 This is the most unrelatable thing I've heard in my life paying 50,000. I might be $100,000 below the reserve, but I'll grab the hammer to signify to the agents he's going to sell it.

00:11 I don't like it when buyers try and slow things down. My role is to get as much as I can for the owner.

00:15 I'll make no apology for doing that. You just do it in the nicest way that you can. Welcome to These Four Walls.

00:20 The podcast that talks to real buyers and experts about the hardest, weirdest and most surprising parts of buying and owning a home in Australia.

00:26 We'll help you figure out what's going on in the world of property and what to do next. Hey everyone I'm Nabilah and you're listening to These Four Walls.

00:34 Today we're talking to legendary Sydney auctioneer Damien Cooley about how to not lose your mind at auction. Welcome Damien! Hello!

00:45 So we have a listener letter. Our listener letter comes from Amy in Coburg, Melbourne and Amy says, we were first time buyers 12 open home deep.

00:55 The auction was packed and our top limit was 980,000. By the time the bidding hit 1 million, I don't know what came over me.

01:03 I just kept going. We won at 1.04 million. I cried in the car and we ended up pulling out and cooling off and lost $12,000.

01:17 So this is something that happens quite a bid. Tell me about it. How often do you see this happening? And what makes people so crazy at auctions?

01:25 Well, first thing I would say is that they did very well only losing $12,000. There's a few things about auction that buyers need to understand.

01:34 And firstly, when you buy at auction, there's actually no cooling off period. It's a cash unconditional sale. So if you raise your hand or you register the bid for a property and you bid and buy a property at auction, you are financially committed to going through with the sale.

01:50 If you pull out in New South Wales, for example, you are still legally bound to pay the 10% deposit, and then if the property is resold with you not going through with the sale, if the property is then resold for a lower amount than you paid for it at the auction, you are also liable for the difference

02:12 between what you paid at the auction and what it then sold for. And obviously, there's an extensive legal process to go through in order to get that money out of a purchaser.

02:23 But I have had situations where people have bid a price and then retracted their bid. Not out of any strategy, but out of genuine, they genuinely, either misunderstood what the bid was or they got caught up in the moment and they then realised that they needed to retract their bid.

02:43 Retract. Yeah, I think something that you mentioned there was that they did pretty well on missing out on 12,000 only So that brings me to a question.

02:53 What's the most you've seen someone pull out and lose in an auction? Gosh We recently sold a property in Potspoint and when I say recently it might have been 12 months ago I've been auctioning for 25 years.

03:10 So I've had loads of scenarios play out You know, personally, I would have done well over 30, maybe even 40,000 auctions.

03:17 Our company's done over 80,000 auctions, so I've seen every scenario, but I have absolutely seen situations where a property is sold for an amount, a buyer hasn't gone through with the sale, and then we've resold it.

03:30 More often than not, they end up selling in a, when the situations that I've had, they've sold in a better market, so they actually end up selling for more.

03:39 I think to kind of best start yourself, put yourself in a position ready for auction, what are some of the things that people should be aware of coming into an auction?

03:51 So firstly, every state has its own legislation with regards to the laws around auction. If we talk about Sydney, New South Wales in particular, first and foremost, if you're buying a house or an apartment, anything residential or rural, you have to register to bid for the auction.

04:08 So, that requires providing identification to be able to register. This is in the lead up to auction date. There's a lot of things to consider.

04:17 Auction date itself is register to bid. Are you going to have somebody else bid for you? Or are you going to do the bidding yourself?

04:25 understand what your pre-approval is. So, what you're able to bid up to. And understand how much you love the property.

04:33 I say to people, the biggest decision that you have is like, Where do you want if it's to live in?

04:39 Where do you want to live? What street do you want to live in? What way does that street face? Do you need parking or don't need parking?

04:46 You know, what are the what are the real attributes about a property that you're really looking for and chances are It's going to be difficult to find something that ticks every single box.

04:53 Yeah, so I'd be willing to negotiate on some of those points and Once you establish that you You know the type of property that you want you need to really do a lot of market research and your market research is included in going to as many open for inspections as you can, because even if they're not

05:11 properties that you like, still go and have a look at them, because you need to find out what they sell for, and start establishing value.

05:19 Product knowledge is absolutely key to understanding value. And when you understand value, it helps you understand what a property is actually, what this property is actually worth.

05:28 Now, you might in your head say, I'm not going past 960,000, but it's worth a million dollars every day of the week.

05:35 So 960,000 may well be your budget, and hey, if you can get it for that fantastic, but it's worth a million or more.

05:42 So don't be surprised if, on auction day, it ends up selling for 1.04 million , like the example that you gave.

05:48 Now, if you can't afford to pay 1.04 million , you need to bid within your means. So, auctions are an intense environment.

05:56 There's lots of emotions, lots of people. What makes it so scary for that, you know, the everyday person to think about even going to an auction.

06:06 Yeah. There's a lot of emotion in the lead up to auction day. There's certainly a lot of emotion on auction day.

06:13 And I think the emotion on auction day probably is a reflection of the emotion in the lead up to the auction, because if you think as humans, we're thinking about the possibility of what's going to happen.

06:26 I'm always thinking about the future. I'm thinking about what am I doing at the end of the year, what am I doing next year, what am I doing, what's my five-year plan?

06:34 If someone's looking to buy a house, they're wondering, okay, I like the home, I really want to buy it. Who else is interested?

06:42 What if the bidding starts at this number? What if the bidding starts at this number? What if I can buy it for within my budget?

06:49 What happens if it goes over my budget? Am I going to be prepared to pay more? What happens if it just sells for way above what I was expecting?

06:57 So buyers go on this emotional rollercoaster from the time that they fall in love with a property to the day of the auction.

07:07 And it's that emotional rollercoaster that I've seen a lot of times actually talk people out of bidding on auction day.

07:14 Because they find too many things against the property that they don't like. And they're not willing to to make any sacrifices on their shopping list.

07:29 . Yeah, it has to be perfect. It's got to be perfect. Yeah. And whilst they're searching for that perfect property, the market's already gone up by 20%.

07:36 Yeah. And all of a sudden, they can't afford to buy that home anymore. Yeah. And when a market is booming, we do see that often, where buyers might have a budget, a supposed limit of what they're prepared to pay.

07:49 Mm-hmm. And then the market's moving so quickly that all of a sudden, They were able to pay 1.3 but that 1.3 million dollar homes now selling for 1.55 or 1.6 even and they're not able to get that four bedroom home anymore or that two bedroom apartment.

08:07 Now they have to start looking at something different or they have to go to a different geographical location to find the home that they need in the budget range that they're in.

08:17 Then on auction day there's a lot of emotion. The emotion is what us auctioneers really play on. That's for me, that's the exciting part of what an auction is all about.

08:29 Auctions are emotional. They're also emotional for the owner. They're emotional for the owner because they've been through the selling process.

08:36 All the open for inspections on any given week and they're generally four Saturdays auction either on the fifth or there's three Saturdays, auction on the fourth Saturday, and or if it's a midweek auction, there's generally three Saturdays, auction here.

08:53 The buyer also has the emotion of, hey, what if someone makes a pre-auction offer? What if they're going to sell it beforehand?

08:59 Am I going to get caught up in an auction before the auction? And the emotion of auction day itself, the auctioneer plays on.

09:06 Our role is to try and get the bidding started. That's a fun part, an exciting part. and that's often a challenge, but once the bidding starts, then for me as an auctioneer, I love a fast auction.

09:20 I love the speed of an auction. I love the intensity of an auction, and I believe that with a fast auction, I can control the bidding increments a lot better.

09:29 With a slower auction, I believe that it's harder for me to control the increments sometimes. There's more momentum in a fast auction.

09:37 Fast momentum, absolutely. Yeah, these are all the things that I look for and these are all things that I'm chasing in an auction.

09:43 . It's sport to you. If it is, I play sport every day. Yeah, wow. So look, it's fun. Yeah. It's exciting.

09:53 It's fun for you. Look, it's also, we also see a lot of enjoyment a lot of eyes and one thing that I really, really love is the excitement and the joy that it brings to the successful purchaser when they buy.

10:10 I saw it a property in Stanmore in the weekend where there's a lot of emotion involved and there was almost a heartache of one person missing out but the joy of somebody else who had just secured their dream home.

10:21 It's a beautiful moment. For me as an auctioneer, I always enter every auction as like, my role is to get as much as I can for the owner, but do it in the most respectful for way to the buyers.

10:33 I always thank people for their bids. I always congratulate our purchaser. I always thank our underbidders. We appreciate everybody the time and the effort that people put into the lead up to auction day.

10:47 And there's not only a financial investment that they have buyers have in that lead up to auction day, but the emotional strain sometimes that it can have on a family.

10:56 For sure. Yeah, so if I bring you cupcakes, are you more likely to favour me? I don't like cupcakes. Oh, I don't.

11:04 Okay, fair enough. You bring me a doughnut, maybe. Oh, nice, I'm a doughnut. No, I'm a doughnut guy. Maybe once or twice a year, but yeah.

11:11 Whoa. I bet you're stuck in the same old real estate apps. Yeah, try Aussie's new property search with thousands of listings, even off market.

11:22 Ooh. Find your next property with Aussie. You make a good point, befriending the auctioneer is an interesting thought and not many do it but I often have people come up to me and say, oh hi Damien, we're looking at registering to bid today and they shake my hand and I start getting, because one they've

11:46 used my name, you know, Dale Carnegie said the sweetest sound in the English language is the sound of a person's own name, and I have no idea who this person is and whether they know me or not, but they've used my name.

11:58 So immediately, there's some form of connection. I like them because they know my name, and I don't like having any involvement with buyers before the auction because I much prefer to keep it, I'm representing the owner, you guys are the buyers, and it's not that the buyer's the enemy, but it's like,

12:17 I don't want to feel any emotion towards helping them. My role is to go after the big bids and go after every single dollar I can.

12:28 So you've heard it here first. If you go to Damien's auction, get him doughnuts, say his name. Tell him he's the best thing you've ever seen.

12:39 So I have a question for you and it's you know you were talking about your job is getting the best price for the seller.

12:48 So if I know I have a pre-approval for 1.4, that's the max I can go. And the price guide for a property is 1.3.

13:00 Yeah. Is there any point in me going to? Absolutely. Okay. Yeah, absolutely. We see many scenarios where an agent has been guiding a particular number and a property sells very close to that number.

13:12 sometimes even sales less than that number, okay? You obviously see a lot of scenarios where an agent's been guiding a number and it sells for more and sometimes significantly more.

13:23 Every agent is different with how they guide and how they quote, some agents don't quote anything at all. Some agents tend to quote a little bid lower and some states have very strict legislation on what agents can or can't quote based on what an owner will sell for.

13:40 And unfortunately, in this situation, every state is different or most states are different. So in Queensland, for example, an agent is not allowed to give you any guide whatsoever.

13:50 They're not allowed to give you a guide, which I think is ludicrous, because I think buyers expect some form of indication.

13:57 In Melbourne, they have what's called a Vendor statement. The Vendor statement is a price at which the owner will sell for it, and there needs to be a proper price guide around that in that Vendor statement in New South Wales.

14:08 an agent is not allowed to guide any more than 10% below what their estimated selling range is on their agency agreement.

14:16 So there are different states that have different rules. So if I find a property that I fall in love with and hey, this agent is guiding that, there's a good chance it's going to be a lot more.

14:27 If I find a property that this agent likes, there's a good chance it might be within that range. And ultimately, Nabilah, I guess it comes back to, if it falls within your budget, Go for it.

14:38 Go for it. And if you love the property, go for it. Go for it. And if it doesn't, there'll be another one.

14:43 Yeah, yeah. You miss every opportunity you don't take. You've been doing this for a while, Damien. Do you think under quoting is an issue that we have?

14:53 I think under quoting is definitely happening. No question. There are conversations, I'm sure, that happen in the living rooms of mums and dads when an agent signing up the property, say, I reckon it's worth that, but hey, we've got to quote this, and the unfortunate reality of the real estate industry

15:10 and agents cop a lot of flak for the whole underquoting scenario. But if I could tell you how many situations I've had where an agent has given the price guide at what an owner will sell for, and no one is interested in that property, no one, and they get no one through, they might get people through

15:27 , but they have no contract requests, they have not many contracts out or they have very little interest and then it goes to the second week and maybe the agent has had a conversation with the owner and said, look, we need to drop the guide.

15:40 If we don't drop the guide, we're going to have no one on auction day. And then they drop the guide significantly and all of a sudden all these buyers are interested in their property and it ends up selling for more than what the initial guide was in the first place.

15:53 What is the most craziest thing you've seen at an auction happen? But you can tell us as many of these stories as you like.

16:02 Okay, I've had people faint. Yeah. I've had a lady, I've had a lady pass out, we stopped the auction, she gathered her thoughts, she bid again, she passed out again.

16:13 She bid again, she bid again. I let her bid again. And her father was with her. He was older gentlemen, so she wasn't a young girl, but her father was with her and I let the situation play out.

16:28 It was in the end she was totally fine and everything. So that was pretty crazy. I look, I've had property sell for huge amounts over reserve.

16:40 Just last week, I sold a property in Vaucluse for $2,575,000 over its written reserve price. I sold one crazy thing that happened at an auction when I sold the old French consulate.

16:58 . . . Lachlan Murdock actually bought it. And we sold it for $23 million. Um, the, every buyer that turned up to the auction had to pay a $50,000 deposit to bid for the property.

17:11 It was a refundable deposit if they missed out. And they had to write a letter to the French consulate as to why they were wanted to buy the property and the, ,, then owners had to approve them if they would allow them to actually bid at the price.

17:27 I was like, it was a reward to say, yes, we will allow it to bid at our auction. That was a really good way to qualify the purchases and a really good way for us to be able to know that whoever was in that room was a genuine buyer.

17:43 They're ready to go. It actually sold for $5 million over its reserve. That property today would be worth significantly more than that amount of money.

17:54 That is the most unrelatable thing I've heard in my life, paying $50,000 for that. I'm not saying that's going to happen at about 99.99% of auction, so buyers don't have to worry about that.

18:08 We've had loads of crazy scenarios. I've had auctioneers that have been pushed at an auction by prospective purchasers. We've had buyers shouting out at others.

18:18 I've had divorce scenarios where people have had major arguments at auctions, I've had buyers almost get into fights at auctions.

18:27 It is an emotional time. So as the auctioneer, there's a lot to control. But it does happen pretty quickly. Our average time for an auction would be anywhere between 10 and 12 minutes.

18:39 Some auctions go faster. They're like six or seven minutes. Some auctions are long. They might go for 30 minutes, but that would be considered a very long auction.

18:47 What is the most expensive property you've ever sold? It's a good question. I've sold one for over 40 million, but it was a development site down in Canberra.

18:59 Okay. We've done loads of auctions. Well, 23 million used to be the Australian record that I was the auctioneer, lucky enough to be the auctioneer on that.

19:07 But that's since been very well surpassed. There was a house that sold an apartment or a house. I think that sold out over in Manly for about 35 million at an auction.

19:17 . We've had some great sales this year over $20 million. You know what? Actually don't know what the highest price is exactly, but yeah, $20 million is almost the new higher value now, and it is amazing how many homes are selling for $20 million.

19:35 dollars and property is seen as a property is seen as a as a safe haven for investors and people all around the world see Australia as a as a safe investment because our property prices have been so stable for so long yes yeah I yeah you know they're bizarre numbers to me obviously I'm not out here I'm

19:58 going putting a bid on a 20 million dollar property . Me neither. You're just there for the sport of it which I love.

20:06 Is there a property in Sydney, let's say, or in Australia, if you know of one, that you'd love to auction?

20:13 Do you have a dream property you'd love to auction? Good question. There's no particular one that comes to mind outside of maybe the Opera House.

20:24 If I was able to do an auction of a, look, I really would love to see one of these big homes.

20:30 A hundred million plus go to auction. The challenge around that is that a lot of people that own these types of assets are very private people and they don't want their properties splashed all over the newspapers and people trancing through their home at open for inspections and whatnot.

20:46 Not that there would be but I'd love to see one of these high priced properties go to auction and I certainly would love to be the person that does the auction.

20:54 There are some really good quality assets that would be very well-competed for. The thing about auction is competition and an auction is the power of competition and my role is to bring that emotion together on auction day and let the buyers fight it out.

21:10 You obviously love what you do. You know, it's very evident. So how does someone get into doing what you're doing?

21:19 So it's a tough road. I remember when I first started as an auctioneer. I got into real estate back in 1999.

21:27 And when I got into real estate I went through leasing, then property management. I never actually got into sales. But to become an auctioneer, you first of all need to be a license real estate agent.

21:38 So there is a real estate licensing course that you need to do. You then need to be in the industry for a couple of years before they'll actually give you your real estate license.

21:49 and you need, you need time in the saddle, you need work experience and you know anybody who comes to me that wants to be an auctioneer, they might have already been in the industry, they might already have their real estate license there is a training process that we go through to get them up to scratch

22:05 to be able to be able to call their first auction and then like anything you get better with the more times that you do it and it isn't a little bid of an unfortunate reality because when you're standing out the front of somebody's house or I'm auctioning someone's property in our auction rooms in double

22:22 bay, you know, for me, I've obviously got a lot of experience and I've seen these scenarios for a new auctioneer.

22:28 They don't have that same experience. I believe any auctioneer can get it can get a property to a certain price and then it's the good quality auctioneer is that can take it that extra half a percent, 1%, 3%, 10%, and I give you an example of the option that I did in Stanmore literally just on the weekend

22:51 . I believe that most auctioneers would have got that to 5.4 million. Some auctioneers might have got it to 5.5 million.

22:59 Not many would have got it to 5,511,000. Now, $11,000 to me is a lot of money. $1,000 is a lot of money.

23:10 I say to buyers, when sometimes they laugh, we've been going in $50,000, $25,000, and I take $1,000. Some people look at me as if to say, what, why would you take $1,000?

23:21 But you go to the ATM, you pull out $1,000 and hold it in your hand. It's a lot of money.

23:27 And every auction is different. Different price ranges, I guess we'll really determine different bidding increments that we're going. I mean, lower value properties, 400, 500,000, up to 800,000, you know, we might be going in two and a half, $5,000, $10,000, when you're over a million, it might be tens

23:49 , it might be $25,000, it might be $50,000, when you're talking about $5,000,000, you know, it's $100,000, sometimes $250,000, that example of that one that sold for $5,000,000, $11,000, the first 3.7, 4.5, so that was the bidding, 3.5, 3.6, 3.7, 4.5, so that was a big jump.

24:18 Now that was one of those buyers that just knew, hey, we're going to get there, I need to outmuscle this other buyer.

24:23 I'm going straight to 4.5. Is that silly to make a jump that big? I don't believe so. Okay. I mean, that property was always going to be selling for that sort of money.

24:32 Right. So we started very low. Okay. So again, this is coming back to understanding value. Right. Product knowledge, understanding value, why muck around in the lower numbers when you know it's going to get there anyway.

24:44 So go for it. Yeah. You know, if you want to talk about the tips on bidding at auction, one of the real tips is to get there early register and then look at how many other registered bidders there are.

24:57 If there's a lot of registered bidders, that means there's a lot of people who love this home. Chances are, if you like it, someone else is going to like it and if there's a lot of people that like it, my advice would be come out with a strong bid rather than bidding at a low number.

25:12 If you start, I want it to start low. If you started a low number, then that moment, moment, auction is going to get more momentum, more momentum.

25:21 They're going to be able to build it up. If you come out swinging and put in a really confident high bid, then it's harder for the auctioneer to get momentum because chances are you've knocked out a lot of the buyers already.

25:32 Yeah. Is there a minimum? Someone has to increase their bid by? No, okay, so it could be a dollar generally not Don't believe what you see on the on the TV on the block That would never happen at one of my auctions.

25:47 So look generally $500 and again It's a little bid price dependent price range dependent But generally $500 would be the lowest generally a thousand to be frank would be the lowest okay But in many scenarios, you know, we're going at significantly higher in comments than that If I've got a $5 million

26:06 asset and we're at $4.5 million, there's no way we're going in $1,000 bids, so it depends on where you're at during the auction and it depends on the value of the property.

26:16 Okay, understood. The auctioneer can knock you back. Oh, they can't say no. The auctioneer may knock your bid back if they don't feel it's in the best interest of the vendor.

26:28 Right. So that's one of the terms and conditions of auction. Yeah. Now, you might say, well, why is it not in the best interest of the vendor because it's more money.

26:35 Well, I'm not taking your 1000 because I think I'm about to get 25 from here. Right. Right. Now, if I, if I don't think I'm going to get 25 from there, I might say to you, look, I can't take one, but I'll take 10.

26:46 Well, you bid 10. So my role as auctioneer is, well, it's a live negotiation that's happening on the floor. Yeah.

26:53 In real time, in person, with somebody, and I'm looking in the, I'm looking in the eyes. Yeah. And I'm convincing them to give me what I want.

27:02 Yeah. And they may disagree with me. and that's okay, but I might not agree with them, and if I don't agree with them, I'll look away and I look to the other buyer.

27:11 There's a lot of tactics that I put in play. If I know that a buyer is about to try and give me a lower increment, I'll turn my attention to someone else.

27:20 And I won't give them the courtesy of acknowledging what they're about to say to me. So that's one little thing that I might do.

27:27 So you make the auction scary, got it? sometimes. Yeah, and so who, who hires you? Generally the agent, but I get a lot of owners who request me to do their auctions.

27:41 Okay. Yeah. And it's a little bit challenging sometimes because geographically, it's hard, you know, in Sydney, for example, I can't be in, I can't be on the northern beaches and then be in the Sutherland Shire and then be in the Eastern Suburbs.

27:54 Most of my auctions on a Saturday are in the Eastern Suburbs or the Inner West. OK. Rarely, I'll jump across the bridge and be on the lower north shore, very rarely.

28:04 But most of my stuff is around here. But during the week, I travel to Newcastle, I travel to Wollongong, and I'm all throughout Sydney.

28:12 Occasionally, I'll go into state. And do you get paid a set amount? Fixed fee. You get paid a fixed fee.

28:20 So even though, you know, you're getting hired to obviously get the best price, it's not like you go over a certain price than you get.

28:29 If you work out a way how I can change that, can you let me know? I will. I'm too honest with you.

28:33 I think that makes sense. It makes sense. The agent is our client. Right. And the agent is selling their service to the owner.

28:41 Yeah. And we're a service to the agent. Got it. Even though we're still a service to the owner, the agent is our main client.

28:48 Yeah. So my challenge has always been, and I believe that our value proposition is really in that final 1%, 3% like I was explaining earlier.

28:59 That's where the key value of an auctioneer is, I believe. And I believe that an auctioneer could be incentivised by an owner based on those final numbers.

29:08 But the agents have always said to me they have enough trouble trying to sell their own fee, let alone trying to sell ours.

29:14 Look, a fixed fee works to a degree and I guess it needs to be enough that puts food on the table and helps you pay your mortgage, right?

29:22 Yeah for sure. Three kids at private school. I'll give you the tip. Three kids at private school. Oh my god.

29:28 To someone who's listening, heading out to a certain auction this weekend, what are your top three tips? Okay top three tips would be first and foremost understand, have a really good understanding of what you're prepared to pay.

29:44 And when you work out what you're prepared to pay, really ask yourself okay if it goes for another 5,000 will we really buy it.

29:51 If it goes for another $10,000, $20,000, $50,000, will, we really buy it. Have a limit, but have some flexibility with that limit.

29:59 And I'll tell you the reason why I say that. The Stanmore auction is a great example. If that buyer didn't bid that final $1,000, today they do not own that property.

30:10 The other buyer owns it. Second biggest tip would be, don't be afraid to get involved in the bidding. Agents always look favourably upon those bidders that actually bid.

30:21 If you sit back and you wait, then it, to me, sometimes it sends the wrong message, unless, unless, unless you know that there's a lot of buyers, and you want to let the buyers fight it out first, and you're going to come in at the end, that strategy can work.

30:38 One more tip that I'll give you in addition to the three. That's okay. Please. Is that a buyer on Saturday, unbeknownst to me, actually came to quite a few of my auctions to research me as the auctioneer.

30:55 He was very smart because I threatened to sell the property quite a fair bit during the auction and he knew I was bluffing and he knew that I wasn't about to put the hammer down.

31:08 But I have a lot of tricks and things that I use, tools of trade. One is my gavel. Two is like we call them trial closes.

31:16 Yeah, first, second, third. Okay. Grabbing my hammer, sometimes I'll grab the hammer. I might be $100,000 below the reserve, but I'll grab the hammer to signify to the agents he's going to sell it.

31:27 Yeah. So what I'm trying to do is I'm trying to extract a bid out of somebody. So research the auctioneer is a really good point because you can learn a lot of things from their mannerisms, what they say, and when you call a lot of auctions, it's hard not to be repetitive.

31:44 So, you can learn a lot from doing your research on the auctioneer. So, the final point, I guess, when you're turning up on auction day, is strategising, you're going to get involved in the bidding, that's fine.

31:55 It's about bidding with confidence, but work out what increments you're going to bid in. Sometimes people say, you know, bidding in odd increments, and I have also previously said, sometimes an odd increment can put the auctioneer off.

32:07 One thing that I would also say is, don't be afraid to bid against yourself. Now, I know that might sound crazy, but if you're the highest bidder and let's just say you have the highest bid and it's 1,130,000 and the property is about to sell, you're the highest bidder and you've been going in $5,000

32:29 bids and you can see that somebody else is about to bid. bid against yourself and go 1,000, 1,131. Because if you don't do that, the other buyer is a good chance they're going to go 1,135.

32:44 Now if you bid another 1,000, you could also do 5,000, 1,135. If you bid another 5,000, you're going to land on what they would have bid.

32:52 Now if you let them bid, you're going to have to bid above what they would have bid. Interesting. So there's a little strategy there.

33:00 You need to have your wits about you to understand what you're doing but that you can do that. The other thing that can also sometimes put an auctioneer off is to slow the bidding down, is to read out the whole number, 1,137,000 rather than five, two, ten.

33:24 So as an auctioneer, I want . Yeah, as an auctioneer, I want to speed it up. Yeah. I want the bids to come in quickly.

33:32 Yeah. I'm going to tell you what you're bidding. Yeah. And I don't like it when buyers try and slow things down.

33:37 Yeah. So there's a little tip. Yeah. Nice. I like it. The uno reverse card for the buyers. Yeah. Awesome. My role as the auctioneer is to, as crazy as that sounds, is to get them to that range and then continue going.

33:51 Yeah. My role is to get as much as I can for the owner. Yeah. I'll make no apology for doing that.

33:56 you just do it in the nicest way that you can. Damien, you've stood in the middle of life-changing moments for thousands of Australians.

34:03 What has that taught you about how we attach meaning to property? Hmm. Great question. Gee, I've got it right a lot of times, but I've got it wrong sometimes too.

34:15 We've spoken about the emotion at an auction. What comes out of my mouth can literally mean the difference between someone bidding or not bidding.

34:24 What comes out of my mouth can mean the difference between someone being okay with the situation or someone being really frustrated and annoyed at a situation or angry.

34:35 It also can impact the way what they think of me as an auctioneer. Sometimes I've said things in the past where I've just come out wrong and it didn't intend to have the meaning that it actually sounded like.

34:49 yeah and other times it comes out beautifully and we get a great result right across the country you know people Aussies love auctions they love property and I think because we've all been brought up with that you know dream of buying a home.

35:06 I remember as a young kid watching my grandmother's house go to auction and it's selling for you know $75,000 over the reserve price and mind you this was a five bedroom house in Kensington, on 650 square meters, of land for 815,000, which you don't even get a studio in Bondi for that anymore.

35:28 But, you know, I think the biggest part of this is that I take my role as auctioneer very seriously and I understand that the things that I say can impact people.

35:43 And my role is again to come back to the emotion on the day to get the best out of the buyer, which is the best result for the owner.

35:52 Thank you so much Damien, where can people find you if they want to hire you to sell their property? Social is the easiest place to find me at Damien Cooley.

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