A 7.5% premium above disclosed reserve at Bexley auction experiment
The Bexley vendor and their estate agent who publicised their $570,000 reserve price ahead of its weekend auction secured a $613,000 sale.
The unusual tactic garnered a result at 7.5% above reserve, which suggests it was a tad conservative in its initial appraisal although recent surveys typically put sold prices at around 12% above price guidance.
Its web marketing didn't actually give the reserve price, with inspectees of 15A St Georges Road advised of it when they turned up or rung the agent.
The LJ Hooker listing agent confirmed to Property Observer that there was no marketing of the reserve price as he needed to engage possible buyers in a conversation which might not happen if the reserve price was publicly available.
The $570,000 disclosed reserve price was for a two bedroom, two bathroom property which traded at $400,000 in 2004.
The buyers’ agent Patrick Bright attended the auction saying it was a test case for a fully transparent and successful auction for vendor and buyer alike by disclosing the reserve price prior to auction.
“Speaking with the under-bidder after the auction, she said she only bid on the property because the reserve price had been published in advance and she knew the property was truly within her budget," Bright suggested.
Though she did miss out.
Bright noted the underbidder "claimed she would not have even attended the auction if the reserve price had not been disclosed as she was ‘fed up’ with attending auctions that had reserves well over the price guide provided by agents".
Patrick Bright is currently petitioning the NSW government to disclose reserve prices prior to auction to stamp out underquoting.
