Being at the mercy of an auctioneer no matter how humorous, entertaining, and extrovert he may be, is a position I’m not used to being in. As an investment buyer in a recession, I’m used to being the one in the driving seat as the number of proceedable buyers reduces, skewing the supply-demand ratio in my favour.

I would also love to see (but wouldn’t like to work it out for myself!) statistics on the order of the lots and the prices achieved. At the auction today for example, I bid on 6 properties. It was very easy to stick to my well-researched bid limits to ensure I didn’t get carried away during the earlier lots, but as they wore on and I missed out, I felt my limits getting a bit more flexible as I had more money left! Is this something that auctioneers plan in advance? If they’re not confident of a lot’s ability to sell easily, do they put it towards the end of the auction? Or do the opposite and put it at the beginning when more buyers are in the audience and there’s more unspent cash in their pockets?

Although I view tens of properties a week and spend most of my working time finding, researching, and buying investment properties, I think auction properties are in a league of their own and require research, not only on the potential investment itself, but on the environment in which they are being sold. Watch this space…

Nick