GEOFF SCHELL RAY WHITE RURAL SOUTH AUSTRALIA
Geoff has been conducting auctions since he started with the Ray White Group in 2007 , selling residential , lifestyle , and rural properties . In 2016 he started Ray White Rural South Australia with his son Daniel to focus on the rural and agribusiness sector , with auction their most successful method of sale .
What made you decide to start running auctions for your higher value listings ?
We ’ ve always believed in the auction method of sale to create a competitive environment to achieve the best possible market price for a property .
How do you make them work for you ?
A well planned and extensive marketing plan is a key element to achieve auction success , but we firmly believe that one of the key elements to auction success is the level and depth of communication with all interested parties and potential buyers , and most importantly the communication and up-to-date information provided to the vendor . We work very hard to keep our vendors fully informed of what is happening with the response to marketing , details of interested parties , feedback provided by interested parties and where the market is suggesting the price may eventually sit .
What are the benefits for your clients and why should they take their prestige properties to auction ? Auctions create competition and strong competition is the key element to achieve the best possible price for our vendors . Most buyers welcome the auction process and in an auction , they are forced to bid to their absolute limit if they wish to purchase . They feel that they have every possible opportunity to purchase at auction and often extend themselves to their absolute limit to be successful .
Geoff and Daniel after another successful auction .
What has been your best auction to date ? We ' ve had many outstanding auctions including the sale of ’ Hillview ’ at Hill River near Clare in South Australia . It was 735ha of quality cropping and grazing land with very good improvements which sold under the hammer for $ 12.9 million with six active registered bidders .
ROSS HAWKINS RAY WHITE EPSOM , NZ
With a 25 year career in real estate , Ross has been carrying out auction campaigns for the past two decades .
What made you decide to start running auctions for prestige listings ?
Auction is the most effective way to get residential property sold in a reasonable time frame and for maximum price . It ’ s fully transparent and by creating the competition in an auction situation other buyers have the comfort to bid when they see others doing it in the room or on site also .
How do you make them work for you ? We use the auction method in all markets and , even when buyer numbers are down , it is still a great way to get any unconditional buyers to focus on getting their ducks in a row and being ready on the day to do a deal .
What are the benefits for your clients and why should they take their prestige properties to auction ?
Historically , we didn ’ t auction many of the higher value properties but in recent years there is no limit on the price points of properties we auction . This is great for our vendors as they become very clear very quickly just where they need to be on value to get their properties sold . It assists everybody in the process and even us as agents to truly understand the market value in any market conditions . There ' s nothing worse than marketing a property for months and months with no result if we are all off the mark on value as it just wastes everyone ’ s valuable time .
What has been your best luxury auction to date ?
Recently I auctioned a property at 204 Remuera Road which was a 70s home on a corner site on Remuera ’ s golden mile . It had a current CV of $ 5.4 million and we had assessed value at circa $ 5 million , being very realistic as we always are . We told the vendors if there was more value there then by trusting the auction process it would deliver the best result . Bidding started around $ 3.5 million . It was the perfect auction with multiple bidders who were all very active from the start . We rapidly passed the reserve price . Before we knew it we were in the mid- $ 6 millions and more than $ 1 million above CV . Bidding continued between two bidders and we ended up selling the property for $ 7.1 million which was way above everyone ’ s expectation .
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