Does bidding style make a difference?

There are two camps when this question is posed. Some vehemently believe that it boils down to the top end budget of the buyer, while others feel that a competing buyer’s bids can be influenced by emotion, perception and nerves.

I have seen both apply.

There are those buyers who vaguely plan for auction and arrive with the mantra “let’s see how we go”, and alternatively there are those super-disciplined types who establish a sensible (and researched) limit and bid despite their nerves. The latter group usually place themselves ahead of the crowd, and even in the face of discomfort, can challenge an experienced bidder.

It’s the latter category of bidders who can help make an auction interesting.

A buyer who is confident about market value, buyer competition level and auctioneer style is absolutely going to have an edge over a buyer who isn’t. Where it gets interesting is when bidding style comes into consideration.

Yesterday we had four auctions, three of which we successfully acquired. There were various contributing factors to our success, namely our buyers’ ability and willingness to meet the market, but the bidding style we each chose to employ certainly played a part.

An effective and fast bid rounded up to the next ten thousand dollar increment after a short series of one thousand dollar bids possibly shook off the competition yesterday in Newport.

A fast and firm “and another thousand!” followed a fresh bidder’s second attempt to enter the auction and had the hammer fall moments later on the odd bid.

The aim of a good auctioneer will always be to extract the best price from the last competing bidders, and at the exciting end of an auction, minutes feel like hours despite being a series of exciting and fast-paced seconds. Those final few bids and auction calls rely on considered calculations, fast actions and acute body language reads. A decision to make a fast one thousand dollar bid or a slow and vocal ten thousand dollar slam bid comes down to the bidder’s determination of the strongest contender’s level of confidence and perception of value.

Some buyers can be thrown off their game when the bidding feels too intimidatory, while others rise to the challenge and feel spurred on by an aggressive buyer’s advocate’s bidding style.

Some professional bidders have been known to bid in a duo arrangement with another team member planted in the crowd to take over the bidding when the competition is waning. This technique can create a feeling among the crowd of “this new buyer has just entered the bidding with a strong bid and they are likely to have loads more money”. Other techniques can involve trying to take control of the auction in an effort to show strength and control over the auctioneer. A crowd can find that this tactic is also intimidatory, although it doesn’t always bode well if the bidder is making a scene and annoying the agents. Auctioneers do hold the power to determine when they no longer wish to accept a bid from a troublesome buyer. There are many stunts that professional bidders can utilise, but the most effective are those that place the property on the market earlier than expected and reduce the professional bidder’s competition level. 

It’s a skill that is easier said than done, and the results (when successful) are pretty intangible.

Determining how effectively a bidding style has spooked a buyer is a hard thing to discern.

Short of a buyer telling us post-auction that they wish they’d kept bidding. no professional bidder can tell how much their bidding style could have shaken off keen competition.

Reading body language though, from nervous smokers strutting the pavement before bidding starts, to slumping shoulders, or observing desperate phone calls between spouses (or borrowers to mortgage brokers), and even having a plant in the crowd to listen in on frantic conversations between partners as they grapple to make last-minute budget-setting decisions, are all valuable tips for a professional bidder. 

I recall one auction in Malvern when a competing bidder leaned against my car bonnet and discussed his bidding strategy with his friend while I sat quietly in my car. Not to mention all of the pre-auction budget-setting meetings I’ve listened into while in a nearby cafe thirty minutes before the auction bell is due to ring.

It’s not always the chosen incremental bid that can take a competing bidder by surprise. Sometimes it’s the pace of the bidding, or the loudness of the bidder. Other times it can be the mere confidence exuded. 

Competent auction bidding isn’t smoke and mirrors, nor is it a game just for professionals.

It is amazing how far an accurate appraisal, a plan, and a belly full of courage can take a bidder.