Paying up to avoid bidding
Buyers opt for pre-auction sale at a premium
BUYERS are willing to pay $50,000 to $100,000 above expectations to secure a property before auction.
Local agents say buyers are sick of waiting four weeks for the auction so will put in serious offers beforehand to beat the competition.
Barry Plant, Highton agent Kieron Hunter said 40 per cent of his auctions would sell in excess of $50,000 to $100,000 before auction.
“We are getting a lot of preauction offers, but the offer has to be well above ... on average it is about $80,000 above,” Mr Hunter said.
He sold 54 Belle Vue Ave, Highton, before it was sched- uled to go to auction last weekend for $605,000, $55,000 above expectations.
“The buyers always said they would have a crack at it, we negotiated starting from the mid-$500,000s and it went over $600,000 and that was enough to get it done,” he said.
Mr Hunter also recently sold 20 Landy Ave, Highton, for $91,000 above expectations at $700,000 and 14 Bailey St, Belmont, for $110,000 above expectations at $580,000.
Stockdale & Leggo, Belmont agent Jan O’Connor has sold 46 Glastonbury Drive, Highton, before it was meant to go to auction this weekend.
Price expectations were $499,000 to $540,000 and Ms O’Connor said it sold just less than $60,000 above the top end.
“It was a very keen purchaser who had missed out on a number of properties and was in a position to buy it under auction conditions,” she said.
Ms O’Connor said a lot of young couples who had missed out on three to four properties and were keen to secure a property would pay that premium price.
“They know their finance is unconditional and they get their building inspection done quickly and they start to get savvy with the way they approach it,” she said.
She added that vendors were more than happy to accept an offer before auction.
“For some it is a bit too stressful to go to auction and if they get a good offer with no conditions they are happy to accept,” she said.