The Three Stooges

She was an executive with a large oil company who had been looking for a long time before she found the brick Edwardian she really wanted to call home.

The agent had a good story: "Huge interest in the house." "Buyers coming from everywhere."

She'd missed out before. She was nervous.

We sniffed around. What we found suggested there was less interest than the agent was letting on. Our "dummy" antenna went up.

The auction got underway. Seemed to us we were the only genuine bidders. Which prompted one of our more widely reported interjections: "Which one of The Three Stooges am I bidding against? Larry, Curly or Mo?"

Larry, Curly and Mo went back to the silent era.

In no time the auction ended with the property passed in to us. A short time later, we'd settled on an amount comfortably below our client's limit.

Negotiate, Negotiate, Negotiate...

Negotiations can be fraught: "If only I had..." "Why didn't the agent get back to me..." "We didn't know what we were doing..."

We've seen it too often.

Sydney. North Shore. Deep water harbour frontage. Deceased estate. A lot of interest from other parties. Did our homework. Agent quoting some millions, the vendors (the beneficiaries to the estate) expecting a lot, lot more.

One animated auction later, the property is passed in to us. Negotiations begin.

Hours later, the auctioneer is still to-ing and fro-ing between us and the vendors and getting nowhere. They won't budge on the price they'd been told to expect.

We want to negotiate directly with the vendors. No. Can't happen. Never been done before.

We do it anyway. Without the agent in the way we secure the property for our client at a price which is better than satisfactory. All smiles.

Do They Love You Enough To Underquote?

You say to the agent: "How much?"

You're told, in all likelihood, a figure far below that which the property finally sells for. You wonder why they waste your time.

Easy. They want you at the auction. You look the part. They want a good crowd to create an atmosphere where people will pay more than they mean to. "All these people are here. They're all interested. It must be good value. Maybe it's now or never."

And they want your name and address to build their lists (if you're buying, there's a good chance you'll also be selling).

An agent in Melbourne says a property will be on the market at $525,000. When it comes to auction, it's not declared on the market until the price is over $600,000.

It happens hundreds of times every weekend.

What can you do? Get a buyers' advocate who has the knowledge and connections to find out what the truth is before you waste your time building up the crowds or, worse, being sucked into bidding more than you should.

This is war. You need some heavy artillery.

Toorak Love & War

High profile property. Bidding moving up in increments of $50,000. We offer an additional $1,000.

Auctioneer: "It's worth a lot more than $1,000 increments."

Us: "But you haven't got a real bid yet."

The auctioneer's wife is bidding on behalf of the vendor. As strategies go, this is highly original but somewhat flawed.

Auctioneer: "We might have."

We put our arm around him and announce to the crowd that he is about to show them where the real bidder is. He takes the thousand.

We save our client over $300,000

Difference Of Opinion In Hawthorn

Very, Very Experienced Auctioneer, on seeing us approach the only other bidder:

V.V.E.A: "Get away from my client."

Pardon?

Us: "Have I got something fundamentally wrong? Isn't your client the vendor?"

V.V.E.A: "You're intimidating my purchaser."

Us: "I am your purchaser. This guy is only costing me more."

No more heard from the "client". We bought the property.

Blind Man's Bluff