What’s really going on at Brisbane property auctions? In this episode, Scott and Melinda Jennison are joined (for the sixth time!) by leading auctioneer Justin Nickerson to unpack what’s driving buyer behaviour, what’s holding sellers back, and which segments of the market are still experiencing intense competition.
Justin shares exclusive, on-the-ground insights from hundreds of weekly auctions, including why A-grade properties are still in demand, how pricing inconsistencies are showing up across Brisbane, and what savvy buyers and sellers are doing to stay ahead.
Whether you’re a home buyer, investor, or just auction-curious, this conversation will help you better understand the current market dynamics and how to navigate them with confidence.
Connect with Us:
- Listen on Apple Podcasts https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/brisbane-property-podcast/id1509129258
- Listen on Spotify https://open.spotify.com/show/5tODCtY54iQrxadNqqmevs
- Subscribe on Youtube https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCW30uBCnHQ2YllnwGKHNfxg
- Streamline Property Buyers Website https://streamlineproperty.com.au/
- Ready to work with us directly? https://streamlineproperty.com.au/contact/
If you liked this episode, please don’t forget to subscribe, tune in, and share this podcast with others you know will benefit from the information we share!
.
.
.
Transcript
0:02: Hi everyone and welcome back to another episode of the Brisbane Property Podcast with Scott and Melinda Jannison and a a guest that we’ve had on apparently 5 times, is it, or 6 times 5 times already.
0:14: Justin Nickerson from Apollo Auctions.
0:15: Welcome Justin.
0:16: Am I the 1st 6 guest?
0:18: You are.
0:19: I think you’re the, you’ve had the most appearances of anyone, I think, as a guest on our podcast, so Paul like talking to us.
0:26: Yeah, maybe, maybe you’re just waiting for me.
0:28: Make a good point, so give me a second chance to redeem myself.
0:30: Let’s see.
0:31: What is so interesting, Justin, is that the very first time you were on our podcast, that was right back in episode 66, and it was back in 2021.
0:41: And I don’t know if you can cast your mind back to what was going on in the property market in 2021, but it was a little bit of a frenzy off the back of COVID.
0:48: And I know at that time we were talking through just how crazy everything has become.
0:53: What we’d really like to unpack today is what’s happening in the market, because, you know, in some segments of the market, it feels quite similar to what we were experiencing back in 2021.
1:03: But there’s definitely other segments of the market where perhaps that’s not happening across Brisbane.
1:09: So from your perspective, that’s what we’d really like to cover today, to get an understanding of what you’re seeing, because you’re at the coalface, you’re actually seeing You know, what’s happening in, in various auctions around the city every single weekend, various price points and, various property types.
1:24: So, yeah, let’s get into it.
1:25: You often bed thinking about 2021.
1:28: Do you back to those, Those fun times.
1:31: Yeah, they were, they were, they were crazy times.
1:33: They were never gonna last long term, but there was some, yeah, some extraordinary days and weeks we had.
1:38: So it wasn’t that much fun being a buyer’s agent when you were always one of 20 or 30 offers, and there are some segments of the market at the moment that, you know, are.
1:47: of that where we’re still competing with 20 or 30 other buyers.
1:51: So, obviously, that’s very dependent on product type and, and, you know, price point as well.
1:56: But, when you’re calling auctions, there’s certain segments of the market that are more likely to be sold by auction.
2:02: Can you just talk through that as a start?
2:05: Yeah, I think, we’ve been sort of saying to everyone that the biggest consistency this year has been the inconsistency.
2:11: it’s just been There’s been properties that naturally have performed as expected, which either they’ve, they’re kind of stand out and they’ve they’ve stood out or they’ve looked like they were gonna struggle and they did struggle.
2:22: Then there’s been a lot that you expected, you launch it to market, you’d expect there to be huge amounts of interest and the market just for whatever reason didn’t like it or didn’t respond.
2:29: And then other times there’s been things that you kind of think, oh, that’s gonna be a bit of a struggle, and then it’s, it’s kind of shot off, you know, through the, through the stratosphere.
2:37: I just think it’s the market I feel is really kind of sensitive to, price point dependent, but they’re sensitive to good locations, good designs.
2:47: So, particularly homes that, you know, living spills out to pool, to all on the one level.
2:53: Things that now are a bit, Discombobulated are a struggle, like more so than they’ve ever been.
2:59: And then anything with sort of road noise, rail noise, anything that appears on a flood map is a real challenge.
3:04: So properties that are ready to move in, more desirable.
3:07: Yeah, I think ready to move in or a home that you could take occupation for and live in it for a couple of years without having to do major remedy work and then decide what renovations you’re gonna do.
3:16: But a livable floor plan is probably the highest priority that particularly I think families are putting on at the moment.
3:21: It is interesting that you just said that, Justin, because I know we talk often on this podcast about how crazy the market is.
3:28: The segment of the market that we’re looking at are the A grade properties.
3:32: We’re turning up to those homes that are not in flood zones, they’re not on main roads, they’re not impacted by rail noise, and we are constantly seeing strong demand for those properties.
3:41: However, as you know, quite often, we will have a look.
3:44: at auctions in an immediate area where we might have a buyer to report back to them on the market.
3:49: And we often are surprised when we turn up and there’s, you know, only one registered bidder on properties, but we know if there is an impact, it really is on the nose for buyers at the moment, and they’re being a lot more particular about what they’re going to put their money into.
4:02: Yeah, I know you guys only deal on the grade stuff, but battling auctioneers, we’ve got to go to.
4:06: B grade, C grade, D grade, everything.
4:08: but yeah, it is, there’s just that real sensitivity, that the, I think the market at large, unless you’re probably in the first home buyer segment at the moment, they don’t believe the market is flying, so they don’t have a fear that they’re gonna get left behind.
4:19: When that fear of being left behind disappears, they become more selective.
4:23: So, we don’t want to buy a property that’s on a flood map because then when we come to sell it, that’s gonna be a real challenge.
4:29: So I think things of that nature, but in saying that there’s still some, some really stand out extreme competition situations we’re seeing.
4:35: How are you seeing as a general Brisbane with auctions?
4:38: So I mean, traditionally we’ve always talked about Brisbane not being an auction sort of city like Sydney and Melbourne.
4:44: , obviously that lower price point that your first time buyers your sub sort of 11 1.5 mL, less probably auctions in that area, but are you seeing it becoming more and more popular, especially as you get up in the higher price point?
4:56: Oh yeah, absolutely, I think, you know, Sydney and Melbourne.
5:00: Being the auction capitals, I wouldn’t say Brisbane’s challenging them for that crown just yet, but it’s where the gap used to be night and day, it’s now neck and neck.
5:08: you know, and now, in terms of clearance rate performance, you know, Brisbane and a number of situations this year has outperformed both of them, particularly Melbourne, which is, which has been a bit more of a struggle.
5:17: So I think in terms of market performance, Brisbane’s probably been the, the leader.
5:21: Adelaide’s probably the best market in Australia, but, Bris, and Perth as well, but Brisbane’s probably right in that, that top tier.
5:27: I just think auction now, it used to be that if an agent listed an auction, people would say, why?
5:32: And now, particularly in a good suburb, if they don’t list an auction, they ask, why not?
5:36: And I think that’s been a really kind of seismic shift we’ve seen.
5:39: , we’ve still got, we just don’t have the density of population that, you know, clearly Melbourne and Sydney do, so their numbers, auction numbers will always be stronger than ours.
5:47: But in terms of percentages of properties going to auction, we’re definitely starting to challenge.
5:50: What about selling pride auction?
5:52: Are you seeing much activity on that side of things?
5:54: , we went through a bit of a run maybe 4 or 5 weeks ago where there was a bit of a spurt on selling prior.
5:59: We do find that selling prior to auction is a bit of a precursor to the market changing.
6:03: So when the market starts to heat up, buyers sense it early, cause they’re missing out the coalface.
6:08: So they’ll then try and take it away from auction day.
6:11: when the market starts to quieten off, the agents feel that, and they’re more inclined to do deals before the auction.
6:16: So we usually have a bit of a run up sold prize, but that run doesn’t usually last that long.
6:20: the normal clearance rate in terms of sold prize is usually between 6 and 10%, give or take.
6:26: at times it can spike up to sort of 25 to 30%.
6:29: Which, again, sort of pales in comparison to what we see, particularly in Sydney a lot.
6:33: Can I ask Justin, just as a point of reference, for an agent to take a property to auction versus, you know, accepting an offer prior, just to give our listeners, an understanding, how many bidders are they typically looking for?
6:48: And, and quite often they may not know who’s registered until auction day, but they’ll have an understanding of their lead runners.
6:54: Are they looking for at least 23, or are they happy to actually run an auction if there’s only one really interested party?
7:00: Yeah, I think the reason why they’d sell a prize is either I usually they’ve got a fear of losing that particular buyer, so that buyer may have another, another kind of property they’re trying to bid on and buy on.
7:10: , we’ve got a story about that from last Saturday actually reminded me to, to come about that about a buy, buy multiple properties, but they, they’re either afraid of losing that one particular buyer or they sense there’s a large gap between that buyer and the rest of the market, and they don’t want to expose that buyer to that gap.
7:27: they’re the two sort of primary reasons, but it is horses for courses.
7:29: Sometimes you also get sellers that are just really risk averse.
7:32: And they think, well, we’ve, we’ve, we have what we want.
7:35: Why would we risk that for more?
7:37: Like, let’s just take what’s there and, and have it done and finished and not have the stress of an auction.
7:41: And that’s completely understandable as well.
7:44: What I do think the best agents do is they outline risk to their sellers.
7:48: So they say, look, the risk in selling a prior is we, we lose the competitive instincts that auctions may kick in, which means we may leave money on the table.
7:55: The other risk is we take it to auction.
7:56: This buyer either disappears, walks, peels back on their offer, softens because the market’s not there, and then we may be having to sell it at a discount to where we are today.
8:04: So there’s no path that’s completely, you know, free of risk.
8:07: It’s just outlining that and then let the sellers make a decision.
8:10: I love that, and that’s obviously, you know, all part of what you’re paid to do as an agent, whether you’re representing the vendor or the seller, or in fact, the buyer, because I know when we’re representing the buyer, We’re outlining all of those risks as well.
8:22: Like if we wait and actually go to auction, these are the potential outcomes.
8:26: here’s the risk of actually placing an offer prior and what you need to think about.
8:30: And together we come to an informed decision because it’s about laying out the facts and giving, respective clients choice to, to help them and guide them through that journey.
8:39: And I think it’s a funny one.
8:40: We get agents that ring us for, for advice, which is part of our role to give advice in that, in that moment.
8:45: But, You almost feel conflicted because if it sells prior, we’re still getting paid, so you’re kind of almost telling them, hey, look, I don’t really want a coffee break on Saturday, you know, let’s run the auction, so we very much try and keep our personal bias out of it, but yeah, it’s, look, it’s, it’s a, It’s a very difficult decision to make because no one has a crystal ball as to what’s gonna happen.
9:06: All you’re gonna do is outlay which is the best path and then let the sellers make a decision.
9:10: What, what are your Saturdays like when you say you don’t have a coffee break, you guys, how many do you guys call sort of on a Saturday and probably sometimes a Sunday at the moment as well?
9:21: Yeah, I, I stopped doing Sundays, so, yeah, that was, I stopped doing Sundays mid last year, which is a big, big change after many years of doing Sundays, that’s, that’s worked out well.
9:29: But last Saturday.
9:30: For example, at 18.
9:32: now, that’s an extreme example, because I had an in rooms of 5, to finish the day.
9:37: But I would say most Saturdays consistently now are sort of 14-ish, 14 to 15.
9:41: So they’re, they’re, they’re busy days.
9:44: but they’re, they’re pretty fulfilling days too.
9:47: I never wake up on a Saturday and not wanna, not want to go to work.
9:49: It’s, it’s a very kind of high energy, cut and thrust, in and out, you know, Not high stakes, but big decision day.
10:00: and during the week can be a little bit, a little bit, the pace can be a little bit lighter than that, but Saturdays are kind of strap yourself in and off we go.
10:06: Piccolo.
10:07: Yeah, well, I’m, I’m on a, on a mission to go from 44 copies to 3 a day.
10:11: So yeah, the, the lunchtime piccolo is the one that sort of disappeared.
10:15: So I, I’m sorry just some random questions.
10:18: Justin, do you like in-room or do you like on sites?
10:21: I like the balance of both.
10:22: Yeah.
10:23: Cause they’re, they’re different, they’re different in the way that you call them.
10:26: they’re different in usually, clearly the environment you have, they’re different in the pace and the speed.
10:30: So I like a balance of both.
10:32: I find if I do a lot of in-rooms, I can become quite mechanical in my call and repetitive.
10:37: and if I do a lot of on-sites, I can find them when it goes back to in-rooms, and particularly online auctions and things like that, then I need to vary my pace to be faster.
10:44: So, I think the balance of both for me is, is good, and it also keeps it pretty fresh.
10:48: , Justin, I know we’ve spoken about clearance rates, already, but I’d love to just explore that gap between buyer and seller that might be occurring in the current market.
10:57: And I know in our previous episodes that we’ve recorded together, we’ve talked about that gap, and obviously that changes depending on market conditions.
11:06: For listeners, what I mean by that is, you know, quite often, you might have a number of registered bidders, but the seller’s expectations sit above where the bidding stops.
11:15: That means the reserve price is above.
11:17: So there’s, there’s that gap where a negotiation needs to take place to bring a buyer and seller together on price.
11:24: Are you seeing that sellers are creeping, away from the market at the moment, or are sellers’ expectations more aligned with the, the buyer activity?
11:34: , there’s, there’s two schools of sellers.
11:36: So you almost got to put them in two distinct camps.
11:39: Camp one is, commercially minded, take on board feedback, listen to the market and respond, and they, they’re actually pretty close to the market at the moment, so they’re, they’re kind of in line.
11:52: Camp 2 is, Doggedly Ignoring any sort of evidence that may be in front of them, or clinging to one bit of evidence they have, as opposed to offers feedback, valuations, and they’re clinging to their one bit of evidence, and like a, like, who’s it Rose and the Titanic, to the, to the life and just clinging to that, and that’s their, you know, that’s the thing that’s sort of keeping them, keeping them afloat, and those people are just, they’re not transacting.
12:21: So we’ve, we’ve kind of got two speeds of one group that’s very close to the market, and one that is well and truly optimistic, and they’re, they’re sort of sitting there for longer.
12:29: And the underlying thing behind this too, and when we talk about this, like, it’s not meant to be disrespectful because we understand firstly, this is someone’s biggest asset, so they want to maximize the value and there’s nothing wrong with that at all.
12:38: Like there’s no problem with wanting to maximize the value of your asset.
12:41: And at the end of the day, their name is on the title.
12:43: So the decision to hold it or to release it is entirely theirs.
12:47: it’s just that when they get to the scenario of engaging an agent, calling an agent in, keeping their house tidy for 4 weeks, listing with an agent, you know, having the agent kind of do the work across those 3 or 4 weeks, deliver feedback, deliver offers, work with buyers, and then just ignoring that.
13:02: It just seems counterproductive.
13:04: Like you kind of think, what’s, what’s the purpose of the exercise then?
13:06: And what about on the other side, the buyer’s activity side of things?
13:09: Oh, buyers are always difficult, Scott, you know, especially those buyers’ agents, they’re, they’re the worst.
13:14: No, the best to negotiate with aren’t?
13:16: Well, some, some are.
13:17: Yeah, we’ll we’ll hold some names away, but some are, some aren’t.
13:21: we are actually finding the buyers are not moving a ton on pre-auction offers.
13:26: So usually pre-auction offers come in here and then my expectation is, well, competition will push it up to here, where finding there’s a, there’s a slight gap between pre-auction offers and where the result of an auction gets to, which probably speaks to again, most markets not having a white hot competition to lift that number up.
13:40: Yeah, that’s interesting that you say that because I know, you know, those conversations, those, those facts come into the, the discussions we’re having with buyers, because right now there’s a lot of FOMO in certain segments of the market, a lot of that fear of missing out, and buyers want, they want to In by Christmas.
13:58: We’re seeing a lot of that in the market at the moment.
14:00: So sometimes we’re seeing, you know, that desperation lead to, I’ll pay whatever it takes.
14:05: And, you know, our job, when we’re representing buyers, of course, is let’s hold back on I’ll pay whatever it takes, and actually, let’s look at objective value and let’s see if we can negotiate either prior or potentially turn up on auction day and, and be part of the bidding process or the negotiations.
14:20: But I was gonna say that it’s a really funny time of year, we find a lot.
14:24: We call it the Christmas tussle.
14:25: So the sellers want to have one last Christmas in the home and the buyers want to have their first Christmas in the home.
14:30: So settlement dates can be tricky at this, at this time of year, and it quite often comes down to who’s prepared to sacrifice Christmas.
14:35: So, yeah, fun times.
14:37: Or who’s prepared to, either drop their price or increase their price, seller or buyer, to make it work.
14:43: That is exactly right.
14:44: While we’re on the Christmas thing, what do you see from now to Christmas?
14:48: Are you going to see auctions happening, as you said, there’s that tussle between wanting to get in, wanting to get out.
14:53: Do you think that will continue?
14:55: I mean, obviously the market’s pretty hot at the moment.
14:57: Yeah, I think it’ll continue to run.
14:59: I I think it’ll run all the way through to that last Saturday before the Christmas break, I think it’s the 20th or something from memory.
15:06: so I think it’ll run.
15:08: Pretty strong up to that.
15:09: Then, as always, it’ll shut down until probably the, it’s pretty early, it comes back now, like, a lot of agents are really lining them up to launch them early January.
15:17: So the market probably comes back, I reckon, sort of mid-January in terms of it starts to inquire, and then you start to see a lot of transactions late January.
15:25: So your first lot of auctions probably late January Feb.
15:27: , no, first sort of auctions as a team, we’ve got a mid-January.
15:31: I don’t come back until, I usually come back around Australia Day weekend.
15:34: That’ll be my first, my first till back, and it, it goes from 0 to 100, like 2 months off.
15:39: So, it’s a month, mate, by mouth.
15:41: So yeah.
15:43: yeah, no other, no other holidays, but that’s, that’s it.
15:45: But no, I, I’m very lucky actually, Al, as an As an occupation, our phone doesn’t really ring for a month, because no one’s really booking many auctions and also no one’s really got any campaigns running.
15:55: So it’s it’s good.
15:56: Probably the only time in real estate we all have that little break and everything does shut down.
16:00: Yeah, and I definitely learned that, learned that lesson not to rush back.
16:03: I probably rushed back in early years and came back and you do a kind of handful of auctions and the first week you’re wishing you’re still on the beach.
16:10: So now you just come back later, you still wish you’re on the beach, at least you’re busy and you sort of get into the, into the fire again.
16:16: Can we talk about some of the things you’re seeing buyers do at auction?
16:19: Because I know a lot of our podcast listeners are people looking to get into the market and they’re looking for some tips and strategies to give them a competitive advantage.
16:27: But can you outline, first of all, what are some of the mistakes that you see people making at auction, from an auctioneering perspective, just to give people some tips in terms of what not to do?
16:36: , most of their mistakes are tight around inactivity, so it’s either waiting for someone else to start waiting for it to come on the market, waiting for it to pass in, waiting to see more competition before it gives you confidence.
16:53: So yeah, almost all the mistakes as a buyer are tied to inactivity.
16:57: The, the fundamental underpinning thing is that if you want to buy the property, you have to bid.
17:01: There’s no, there’s no way that the auction lands in your lap without you doing your part, which is having a, having a crack at it.
17:09: And we see buyers that have made all the right noises, they’ve been through the property 3 or 4 times, they’ve done their building and pest inspection, they’ve made an offer prior.
17:15: You know, they’ve, they’ve, they’ve been best friends with the agent for 3 weeks, and then they turn up at auction and they treat the agent like their competitor, an absolute stranger and want to cut them out and say, we’re just gonna wait.
17:24: Our friend told us to wait.
17:25: And it, it, it’s just counterproductive because, like, we, we all want the same thing.
17:30: We all want the property to sell.
17:31: You want it to sell to you, the seller wants it to sell to someone, the agent wants it to.
17:34: Sell the auction.
17:35: Like, we all actually have the common goal, but for that to happen, you, you, you must bid.
17:39: So, I think it’s inactivity is that, is the biggest one as buyers.
17:43: or they just, particularly that waiting for evidence.
17:47: Like we have a situation where we might have one registered bidder and we’re negotiating, or we’re negotiating on one bidder and the bidder says, Oh, no, we, we don’t think it’s worth that.
17:54: And we say, Well, the problem you’re gonna have is the evidence for you is gonna come too late, because you’re allowed to pass in.
17:59: It’ll then go under contract to someone unconditionally, you won’t know the price because it’s, it’s not disclosed.
18:04: Then when it actually goes unconditional and they can release the price, it’ll be at a higher number than where we are now, and your evidence that the property was worth it will come, but you’ve lost the opportunity to buy the property then.
18:13: And houses moved 1.8% last month.
18:17: It’s interesting when you when you talk about the inactivity and, and, and some of our listeners might say, oh well, Justin’s an auctioneer, he’s gonna want people to, to make bids and things like that, but I can’t agree with you anymore.
18:26: I mean, we go to auctions and even if we go and watch an auction.
18:30: And if you say, OK, opening bid, opening offer, and it’s silence, and quite often we actually say to ourselves, oh, really?
18:37: Just put a bid in.
18:38: You, if you want to buy it and you’ve got a paddle in your hand, you actually have to bid to buy it.
18:42: And, and I’ll never understand Scott until the day I pass away that a, a buyer that comes in, registers to bid.
18:49: Doesn’t do anything.
18:50: Like, even if you give a chance to start at any number, they don’t start, it may start at a really low number with a vendor bid, they still don’t bid, and then the auction they hand their paddle back.
18:57: It’s like what, what scenario would have made you have put the paddle up?
19:01: Because you had the dream scenario and you didn’t act then, so what scenario would have actually made you put the paddle up, or was the paddle just kind of a part of being involved or being being part of it?
19:10: But, you know, people would say that I’m, I’m biased as an auctioneer, and clearly I like bidding, but to be honest, like, if no one bids and I shut it down, I’m out of there in 4 minutes, I’m still gonna be paid the same amount, so it’s actually, A better outcome if no one bids for me, but that’s clearly not what we, what we want.
19:25: And, and an interesting thing is, a lot of people just don’t understand the legislation around, you know, what actually happens when a property passes in.
19:32: And I don’t know how many buyers that we represent, when we’re running an auction preparation meeting with them, and they say, Oh, so if we hold the highest bid, do we then still get to negotiate?
19:41: And I’ll say, Well, actually, no, you don’t get the exclusive right, of course, but also, if, if that is The case you haven’t given me the right instructions for, for where your bid limit is, because, you know, the time to buy is when you’re unconditional and you can see your competition.
19:55: But just explain what happens if the property does pass in, because I think there’s a lot of confusion from buyers in terms of what happens at that point.
20:03: Yeah, there is.
20:04: I think your laptop’s gonna savers.
20:09: We’re carrying the podcast anyway, mate, so we’ll be fine without you.
20:12: We’ll be good without you.
20:13: , yeah, look, it is, and there’s, there’s a couple of things that adds to that confusion.
20:17: I think the first thing is, is the lack of national legislation.
20:20: State-based legislation makes it really, really tricky because you can cross a border, and it is vastly different to what, you know, you have on the other side of the border.
20:29: So New South Wales, the highest bidder gets first right refusal.
20:31: Queensland, there’s no such right.
20:33: So if it passes in, it’s open slather to everyone.
20:36: you know, in Queensland, we can do as many vendor bids as we like.
20:38: New South Wales gets one.
20:41: You know, Western Australia get 10, like, for whatever reason.
20:46: then the bids are generally done underneath the reserve unless it’s on the block and it’s on national TV, then we won’t go into that.
20:52: but there’s all this confusion that sits out there, and, and the problem is, is that again, that the buyers have sought advice from people that don’t really know.
21:00: They think they know, but the old saying, which my grandfather has just told me is that knowing a little bit about something is much more dangerous than knowing nothing at all.
21:07: And that’s really true, because they, oh, we bid at a property 20 years ago, and then we got the highest first right to negotiate, so you’ll get it.
21:12: Well, no, that’s not true.
21:13: Oh, we always wait till it’s on the market.
21:15: Well, that doesn’t have to be said either.
21:16: So like, it’s just, it’s just this kind of, mythology that sits around it, I think.
21:21: Another thing that I notice a lot at auctions is when you do have multiple registered bidders and perhaps they’ve been part of the auction, and, and perhaps the auction pauses, and you see them.
21:30: Hand their paddle back and walk out before the result is actually called.
21:34: It, it’s, it just astonishes me that people are not waiting to get confirmation of market value.
21:40: Where does the property sell?
21:41: Because if they are in the market and they’re registered, they obviously are looking to purchase a property like that, and yet they’re not waiting to see where the market value sits.
21:49: You see that a lot of.
21:50: Yeah, we do.
21:51: And it, it blows my mind because the truest test the market is right in front of them.
21:55: I can’t be bothered to wait 3 minutes to see the result.
21:57: I think this also comes back to we have buyers that’ll say to age.
22:00: a lot and agents get hammered with this.
22:01: Well, give me a price, guy, because I don’t want to waste my time.
22:04: And I think the problem they have is they’re looking at it like, if I go to that property and I don’t buy it, it’s a waste of my time.
22:10: Whereas I think if you’re a buyer, you want to look at it and go, every property that you go and see helps you be a better informed buyer, which means when you come to buy the property that you really love and adore, you’ve got, you know, 60% knowledge instead of having 4% knowledge.
22:23: So you’re gonna be a much better buyer in that situation.
22:25: And that auctions are the truest thing of that.
22:27: Like, if I’m going to buy a property in,, Gordon Park, and I’ve got X amount to spend.
22:34: Even if I see a property and I don’t like it, I’m still gonna see the auction on that day, cause I want to know how many people are competing for it.
22:41: What price did it start at?
22:42: Where did the bidding get to?
22:43: Was it sold?
22:43: Like, all of that is really important data for the home that I’m gonna buy, but we look at it through a short-term lens and go, Well, that one’s not for me, therefore, I’ll put it to the side and I won’t bother.
22:51: It’s such important, context that you’ve provided there.
22:55: It’s exactly why we spend And our Saturdays out watching auctions if we’re not bidding or inspecting for our clients.
23:01: And, and in fact, it gives us a market snapshot of current values.
23:05: If we’re waiting for the properties to settle, we’re waiting at least a month, but that’s 30 days before we can see what, what price is achieved, whereas an auction is real-time information, and if we’ve got a buyer in the area to be able to feed that back is in value.
23:19: Additionally, I feel that, in the event property passes in, we’ve got that clarity and context as to whether it’s passed in with a vendor bid or with a, a market bid.
23:29: And that can be the difference between the feedback that you’re providing on value as well.
23:34: Yeah, definitely.
23:35: And, they’re, they’re free to attend like, and even if you’ve got a shoot off, and occasionally on Saturdays, you’ll have something that bobs up like, Sending it, then the agent, Hey, can you just text me and let me know the outcome, like, but just to hand your paddle back and walk out of there.
23:47: I don’t understand that either.
23:49: I know, Justin, I know you’re over your numbers and your data and you know I love data.
23:54: I knew this question was coming.
23:55: Can you guys have waited this long.
23:57: Can you give us some clearance rates, how many bidders?
24:00: I know that you’re all over that.
24:02: Just help out.
24:03: As our listeners understand what sort of activity is like at the moment.
24:07: Yeah, I’m not, I’m not as as I used to be.
24:09: I used to be, our Monday results email that goes out at 12 o’clock, it used to be a really integral part of that.
24:14: And now, it goes around me.
24:16: So, our general manager and, and our customer marketing manager put it together and send it out, so I won’t see it, cause Monday’s my day off too.
24:23: So.
24:24: , I’m going on memory here.
24:26: I’m pretty sure the national clearance rate last week was in the mid-60s, from memory.
24:30: and Queensland might have been the leader, I think, in the high 60s or potentially the close 70s.
24:34: So, it’s been, it’s been strong.
24:36: Last, last Sunday where I mentioned I had 18, I sold 15 from 18.
24:40: , so it’s a pretty good Saturday.
24:42: In saying that, the week before I had 14, we sold 7.
24:45: So, I’m not taking the credit for the 15, because I, I know the week before, you know, I was scratching my head and going, I think the market might be, might be starting to hesitate.
24:52: But what I did notice on that week before is that the, I had a lot of properties between the late 1 to 3 million bracket.
25:00: I had 7 and we sold 1.
25:02: So, whereas last week, a lot of the properties I had were either sub that market or above that market, and the clearance rate was much stronger.
25:08: , it’s so interesting.
25:10: That you’ve mentioned that because anecdotally, what we’re seeing out there in the auction space is anything under 1.5 is being competitively, you know, there’s lots of buyers in that space.
25:21: 2 million above, the buyers really thin out, and if there is not the perfect property with the perfect layout, you will, you know, really struggle to get bidding activity.
25:30: Of course, regardless of price point, as you’ve rightly pointed out earlier, great layouts, modern homes with all of the, the finishes that people are looking for, generally.
25:39: There’s a lot of activity in those sorts of homes as well.
25:43: So it’s very location and property dependent, but it, it’s interesting that there’s market segments where there’s a lot more activity than others.
25:49: And even the top end, you know, we, in the last, across the last month, been involved in 12 auctions that have sold for more than $4 million.
25:56: So that market is actually going pretty well.
25:58: Yeah.
25:59: So, it’s just that middle, the middle market’s probably the softer one because we’re just finding there’s a bit more choice for buyers, so they are a bit more selective.
26:07: but also sometimes they’ve sold their proper.
26:10: And they haven’t quite got what they want on their property, which has impacted their confidence when it comes to buying that next one.
26:14: Yeah, it’s interesting.
26:15: We, we saw someone last weekend in the fours, and they did sell as well.
26:20: you mentioned to remind you about your story from last Saturday.
26:22: Do you want to share that?
26:24: Yeah, yeah.
26:24: So we, we had a, a person bidding on a property, last Saturday in Marika, the, the husband was there with, with their bub, bidding on the property at our auction was at 12 o’clock.
26:35: they, his wife was at another auction, which started at 12:30.
26:39: And they were gonna buy one of them.
26:42: So we, we were negotiating with him as the highest bidder at 12:25.
26:46: It basically had a threshold to 12:30 to either strike a deal or not strike a deal, or else they were gonna bid on the other one.
26:52: And at 12:29, we, we eventually sold it to that, to that buyer.
26:57: Yeah, yeah.
26:58: So then at the other, the other auction, which is actually cool.
27:00: One of the auctioneers as well, the, the wife handed the paddle back and walked out.
27:03: And, and I said to her, I rang our auctioneer, I rang Jack, and I said, Oh, did you have a bit of walkout before you auctioned and handed the paddle back here.
27:09: So it was so weird.
27:09: And she registered, and then she’s handed the paddle back and said, Oh no, they’re not gonna buy it.
27:12: It was so odd.
27:13: And I was like, Oh, I got some context for you.
27:15: So, we stole, we stole your bitter.
27:17: So.
27:17: But that, like, that speaks to, you know, they, they want to buy something.
27:21: Yeah.
27:22: And, you know, we’ve heard through other agents that there are buyers that put offers on multiple properties on a weekend and hoping that one of them will stick as well.
27:31: not the best strategy, especially if you’re placing offers in contract form, which I know is not the case in most instances, but there are buyers that are willy-nilly throwing, offers around just trying to let something.
27:41: , because there’s a lot of desperation, especially in the probably might go from 0 to 4 really quickly.
27:50: It, it really could if their contract offers, that’s right.
27:51: You got a good broker, but looking ahead, what, what sort of things are you seeing for Brisbane market in special, let’s look at 2026.
28:02: Oh, I think it’s gonna be more of the same.
28:04: I don’t see anything that’s markedly gonna change the market, in a, in a short period of time.
28:09: I think that’s the, the, the entry level will still be strong.
28:13: We’re we’re finding that auctions in first home buyers’ markets now are a race to the million dollars, and they almost just pull up on a dime as soon as it gets to the, to the $999 or to the million dollars as it may be.
28:22: So, I think that’ll continue.
28:24: I think that, that middle stretch will still be inconsistent.
28:29: some really popular.
28:30: Some not.
28:30: Like, I know from our own lived experience, the house that we, that we lived in, for the previous 5 years, our pool was down in the yard, separated by the yard to downstairs.
28:41: Our deck was upstairs.
28:42: There’s a real disconnection between living area and our pool.
28:45: And the house, the home we bought at the start of this year, our pool is on our front deck, basically.
28:50: And we would use our pool a lot more 5 times as much.
28:53: Like, so now we kind of recognize that.
28:57: And now for us, if the pool wasn’t connected to living, we, we probably would never buy the home.
29:01: Yeah.
29:02: So I think that people are becoming more and more sensitive around those sort of things, and they’re really kind of taking that, into those decisions.
29:08: And really, in that price bracket, There’s usually a compromise somewhere.
29:13: You’re either compromising on build quality, on age of property, on floor plan, on location, because if it ticked all those boxes, it’d be up to the next threshold, and that next threshold’s strong.
29:23: So there’s a compromise there somewhere.
29:25: It’s just where the buyers can wrap their head around that compromise or not.
29:27: Yeah, and sometimes it’s about, you know, are the compromises something that can be changed versus something that cannot be changed.
29:33: And we often talk about that with our clients, especially with the building.
29:36: And construction, background that that Scott has, because you can’t change a location once you buy, but potentially floor plans can be tweaked to create the ideal floor plan.
29:46: And that’s something that as a buyer, it’s important to understand because if the budget is capped, and in most cases for most buyers, that is the thing that cannot be changed.
29:54: It’s about looking at the other compromises and what potentially is a compromise.
29:58: It’s more short term rather than long term.
30:00: Yeah, that’s where things like flood mapping are really difficult because you can’t compromise that.
30:04: You can’t, you can’t change it.
30:06: you know, outside of the, the threat of having a flood come through your property, the, the thought in the back of your head, well, we’ve got to resell this one day and have someone who’s gonna overlook a flood map is, is a hard one.
30:15: Council can change it as they update it.
30:17: It does, and they have updated recently as well.
30:19: So you’re saying you need a council to buy on your street, is that what you’re saying?
30:23: Make sure you give that little buffer as well.
30:24: That’s probably my tip.
30:25: People don’t just rely on it now, give yourself that little buffer stay awake because they are changing and updating it.
30:31: I think because of floods too are so recent in everyone’s mind it is at the forefront.
30:35: if we hadn’t had one since 1974, they’d kind of be like, Oh, well, it’s not gonna happen.
30:38: But insurance companies are well aware of it, and so are buyers.
30:41: Yeah.
30:41: And if you are looking at a flood map, as we have looked, or discussed previously, get an insurance quote before you make the decision because that could be the make or break of moving ahead.
30:50: Interesting when if I jump right back to the start of our chat.
30:53: I was gonna say, Melinda, a good sign on this to, to Chequers too is if you start getting rain and then you see people driving to your street and parking their cars.
30:59: That’s probably, that’s probably a tip.
31:01: We, we sleep in the street near Brisbane and we’d, there’d be a lot of cars parked in the street when it started raining, older, older sort of model cars.
31:07: So, yeah, anyway, yeah.
31:10: , we started at the, at the very beginning and we talked about 2021, and you said we didn’t think we’d see it again and the frenzy and the amount of people buying.
31:19: We, from our side of it as buyer’s agents, we probably said the same thing.
31:23: We said our inquiry was through the roof.
31:25: I think 11 week, thinking back, I took about 30 discovery calls, just to try and help people and talk to people in 2021.
31:33: And it just, and everyone just banked up and booked in again because I thought I’d clear the clear the inquiry, but it didn’t work.
31:38: you know, we, we are seeing now people desperate to get into the market, to get into the Brisbane market, and our inquiry level has lifted.
31:45: Obviously, that, that just saturates the market then and we don’t have the listing numbers.
31:50: So I, I think we did talk about that and said we don’t think that’ll happen again, and I think we’re sort of feeling that sort of pressure in the market or the buyers especially are feeling that sort of pressure.
31:59: , and we do need more listings as well, so we need more properties coming to the market, which is obviously something we talk about in the podcast and all the time as well.
32:07: So, I think as an auctioneer, you’d love the current market dynamics.
32:11: So more buyers than sellers, it, generally means more registered bidders at auction.
32:15: Is that the way it plays out?
32:16: Yeah, but I, the thing I like about this is two things.
32:20: One is that, It’s diverse.
32:22: So, like in 2021, you would turn up and every auction really would have at least 10 bidders, and it’d be a frenzy.
32:29: These auctions are different, like you are getting some of them, you are getting some that you’re getting sort of the 3 to 4 bidders.
32:35: and you are getting some with 1 or 2, so you, you do have to be quite strategic in how you, how you play it.
32:39: And that diversity is a good professional challenge, I think.
32:42: The second thing is I do think that in 2021, skill became overrated, it wasn’t required.
32:47: Like, particularly as an auctioneer, you’d got out the front, you yelled out numbers, you stopped yelling when they stopped yelling, you sold it for an amazing price, everyone clapped you.
32:54: You know, the skill and ability to help an agent put a deal together as an auctioneer is back and being important, and even around strategy as to where’s the opening bid gonna be, what number would we take, what number would we not take, you know, all those kinds of things are important and skill is a good thing I think if, If you were hopefully do a good job and and regard yourself as, as, as good at what you do.
33:16: , I, and I’ll, I’ll say that’s equally on our side, you know, as buyer agents, skill does become a big part of how we would, you know, strategize to plan for an auction as well, because we know that sales agents and auctioneers will have a plan in place.
33:31: As to how they’d like to run their auction, you know, our goal is to really stuff up your plan, but also to, to control our plan as, as best we can outside of what other bidders are doing to give our buyers confidence that, we know and understand how to, you know, run with the auction because we understand the legislation around.
33:51: Actions and we take the emotion out out of that process for our buyers as well.
33:55: And I’m sure you see it a lot when there’s professional representation versus buyers that are representing themselves, there can be a big difference in how auctions would actually roll.
34:04: Yeah, definitely.
34:05: Yep.
34:05: and I think buyer’s agents, you know, are, are really good, a good maneuver for a buyer.
34:10: Like if they’re serious about buying a property.
34:12: Then a buyer’s agent engaging a buyer’s agent is a is a good step, gives them more choice, gives them someone who’s not emotionally connected to the property negotiating on their behalf, it gives them the wider scope on the market, it gives a better understanding of legislation.
34:24: Like, and I’m preaching the converted with you guys, but when we see buyer’s agents at our auctions, it’s a good thing.
34:29: We don’t, we don’t go, Oh, that’s bad.
34:30: We, that’s good.
34:31: This buyer is serious about trying to buy it.
34:32: And it’s, and I know we, we talk about when you, you joke then about, you know, stuffing up your sort of auction and running it, it’s, at the end of the day, the way we do it, and we get engaged for buying, for auction bidding only, for example, that’s part of our service.
34:45: It’s a negotiation.
34:46: And that’s what I find really strange.
34:49: You probably find it frustrating when you’ve got people that don’t actually want to work with you and and negotiate with you.
34:54: When someone’s trying to sell a property and someone’s trying to buy a property, it’s just two parties trying to get together to come to an agreement, not to hold off and go, no, no, I don’t want to even talk to you.
35:03: I don’t, I won’t negotiate with you, Justin, that’s it.
35:06: that must be a frustration.
35:07: Are you seeing any of that at the moment?
35:10: Occasionally it’s happened a few times, but it, it.
35:13: It is frustrating, but it’s like, well, again, like, as the auctioneer, we’re not getting paid anymore if you buy it.
35:20: Like, you doing that means the whole thing shuts down, which again, gets us out of here quicker.
35:24: That, like, we’re actually trying to help you.
35:27: And as a stop, like, we could just go, your bid wasn’t at the reserve, we passed it in and off we go.
35:31: The negotiation is actually a courtesy to you, to help you to get to the right number.
35:36: and also, like, I’d like to think we’re reasonably good negotiators.
35:40: If I’m a buyer, I want me there working on the seller in the other room, because if we just pass it in, then we’re gone.
35:47: So that ability to have that third party negotiator, they’ve lost that.
35:50: And they may think it’s a negative for them, but also we’re going to negotiating with the owner as well.
35:54: So we’re also sort of fighting, fighting the battle on the other side.
35:57: And I think a lot of buyers, especially forget that a selling agent and an auctioneer hold written instructions, so you can’t sell it for less.
36:03: So that negotiation, that conversation has to happen because legally you can’t sell it for less.
36:08: Than than where instructions sits.
36:10: So, again, it’s part of the, the process that we educate our buyers to understand, well, this is what happens on the selling side so that we can, set the strategy for how we’re gonna run it on the buy side.
36:21: Lots of value in this episode.
36:22: , look, I, I think I’ll wrap it up.
36:25: Any, any last words, Justin, what you think’s gonna happen?
36:28: You did mention it’s still gonna stay as a frenzy.
36:31: I do think it’s gonna stay as it is.
36:33: There’s something the inconsistency will be, will be rife, Those that are commercially minded will transact, those that, are holding onto things as a buyer or a seller that have occurred a long way in the past or out of line with the market, they, they won’t.
36:46: but I think it’s a good, healthy market.
36:48: It’s not an amazing market for a seller, it’s not an amazing market for a buyer, but it’s a good healthy market, and that’s, that’s kind of what we like.
36:53: Yeah, I think it’s got some legs in it, Brisbane, to, to run for a while as well, I agree.
36:57: , mate, thanks very much for joining us on episode was it number 6 we said you’re you’re holding the record, so well done.
37:06: We’ll get you back again to entertain the crowd.
37:09: thanks, thanks very much.
37:10: as usual, I will let Melinda wrap things up from this week.
37:14: thanks very much for listening, everyone.
37:15: Take care and bye for now.
37:17: Thanks once again, Justin.
37:18: We really appreciate your time and, all of the Insights that you’ve shared on the episode.
37:22: Pleasure.
37:23: Thanks, guys.
37:24: As always, we hope you have enjoyed today’s episode.
37:27: And if you have, we would love for you to leave us a review on your favorite podcast player.
37:31: Also, don’t forget to hit that subscribe button and share this episode with friends and family, especially if they’re looking at bidding at auction anytime soon.
37:40: We look forward to speaking with you again next week.
37:43: Until then, bye for now.
37:49: One of base that is the.