Auctions can be unnerving. For those who are not very deft at auctions or not too accustomed, the day can be really challenging and it is very easy to commit a spree of mistakes. There are many things you should do and many you shouldn’t. Let us focus on what you shouldn’t do on an auction day.
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• Never try to inflate the bids or compromise the fairness of the process in any way. It may seem too tempting to have one or a few of your friends amongst the bidders. You may want to plant a few fake bids just to hype up some interest. You may take some ingenious ways to influence the bidding in your favour. None of these are wise steps. You should try not to interfere or influence the genuine bidding that is about to happen. Genuine bidders will either get intimidated and scared or they will feel alienated when out of turn bids, hyped up bids and seemingly concocted bidding takes place. At the end of the day, you will be left with hollow bids, no matter how steep they are, and this can be the red flag that will affect all your future auctions.
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• Do you have an ideal selling price in mind? – try to not share this. You never know if some of your buyers intend to bid without your knowledge and may be aware of this ideal price for you. Such bidding with full knowledge of what your “sell price” is may get you the sale but it may affect the auction adversely. You may lose out on a better price.
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• Do not have a freewheeling auction. Don’t let people make multiple bids or make casual bids. Only indulge in serious bids and ensure that your real estate agent instils practices or rules that will encourage genuine bidders. For instance, you may limit the bids per person to two or three. You may also decide on the incremental bids so you can control someone fooling with the bids and keeping the price too low within their bid limits so someone else can chip in at the end and bag the auction.
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• Always have a sell price that is realistic. Be patient and don’t be hyped up. Do not lose your calm and if the property doesn’t sell at a price you want then wait for a while before you put the property back on the market.
