Selling your house at auction is often the best way to truly test the market, and get the best price for your property. There are many other benefits as well – you have a pre-set timetable for your marketing campaign and if you reach your reserve your house is sold there and then.

But it can also seem as though a lot of the power over what price you get comes down to your auctioneer, so how do you know you have a good one?

• Your sales consultant will normally have one or two auctioneers they work with regularly so to make sure you are getting the best auctioneers make sure you hire a real estate company with a strong auction culture.
• Talk to your sales consultant and your auctioneer about how often their company promotes auctions as a method of sale, how many auctioneers the company has working for it, and what kind of ongoing training their auctioneers receive.
• Ask your auctioneer how many auctions they have called, how often they’re calling auctions and how many of those reached reserve.
• If you want to get a clear idea of an auctioneer’s performance attend another auction they are calling. This also has the added benefit of familiarising you with the auction process without the stress of it being your property under the hammer!
• At auction an auctioneer should demonstrate a clear knowledge of the property for sales as well as legal proceedings around the sale and explain these clearly to those in attendance. They should be able to easily answer any questions from bidders.
• Most importantly they should be fast and accurate in keeping track of bidders – who’s bidding what, and who holds the current bid.
• Auctions can be high pressure environments and part of the auctioneer’s role is also to help diffuse some of that tension so potential buyers are relaxed and focused on the auction and their bids.
• Ahead of the auction your auctioneer should meet with you as the vendor in person to make sure they have a thorough understand ding of the property, and your reserve price.

Harcourts NZ has an incredibly strong auction culture, with our team of auctioneers often dominating the finals and winners’ podiums of national and international auction competitions.

In the words of Harcourts NZ CEO Chris Kennedy, himself an auctioneer: “You want your auctioneer to be match fit. That means you want them to be constantly calling auctions, to be across the market, and to be prepared to work hard to get you the price you want.”