It’s Saturday morning, and you didn’t sleep much last night. Over and again, you kept picturing in your mind today’s auction and how you’re going to win it, and lose it.
When your dream home goes under the hammer, anxiety and nerves creep into your thoughts about the prospect of missing out to someone with deeper pockets and an even bigger desire.
Experienced buyers will always warn against becoming emotionally attached to a property before it goes to auction. But if that’s you, there no shame in it. It’s an entirely human response.
Overcoming these nerves is tricky, but don’t deny them. Instead, use them to motivate you before and during the auction.
The key is to take control of the situation. Firstly, approach the agent before the auction and put in a bid. You never know your luck – the owner might just accept it.
Usually, that doesn’t happen. The seller will bank on your offer as bid you’d likely make and will take their chances at the auction.
That’s not the end of the road for you. You can get a great sense of control by arriving early at the auction, introducing yourself to the auctioneer and exchanging pleasantries with the agent. This can form a psychological bond that plays to your advantage during bidding and, if the home passes in, during any subsequent negotiation.
Another great strategy is to position yourself for the auction so you can see the other bidders. You’ll be able to study their body language a get a sense of who’s bidding actively and those who are getting near their limit.
And when it comes to making your bids, do it with confidence so others believe you’re the one to beat. Most will accept the challenge but not for long, and they’ll back off if they think you have the resources to win.
Here are seven tips to help beat those pre-auction nerves:
- Make an offer for the property before the auction and perhaps save yourself the anxiety of bidding against others.
- Arrive early for the auction. Register with the selling agent and take time to chat about the property and the level of interest in it. Show your ID, and in return, they’ll give you a paddle with your unique number on it. Tell yourself again to bid with confidence
- Position yourself strategically within the crowd. You want to see everyone and gauge from body language the serious buyers and their spending power. You can usually tell when someone reaches their spending limit.
- If the auctioneer is struggling for a first bid, be courageous and take the plunge. But don’t go in with a round number like $500,000. Instead, offer $485,000 as this means there’s a temptation to cool the bidding to $5k increments instead of $10k.
- Don’t go high early on, even if you made a pre-auction offer. When that was refused, all bets were off. This seems obvious, but be aware the agent and auctioneer have a good idea of your available funds they’ll push hard to get you there. That’s their job, after all.
- Try to control the bidding. You do this by bidding slowly. Go up in different increments, such as $10,000 with one bid, and $13,500 with the next. Everyone pauses to do their sums, and they start to take their lead from you.
- Don’t get swept up in any fast bidding. When the pace picks up, buyers can over-stretch. Don’t be one of them, no matter how much you love the property.
