Auction options as we ease out of COVID lockdown
What a year we’ve had and what an interesting end to the year it will be!
With November kicking into gear and following some questions and queries from our clients about online auctions, we thought we’d summarise our observations and thoughts to clarify what services and options are out there, plus open the door to any questions that could assist you and your team with the planning your upcoming auctions.
While you’re reading, keep this in mind: online auctions are here to stay. Not as a replacement for on-site auctions but as an additional tool to improve our sales outcomes. We believe it’s time to embrace online innovation and utilise it to our advantage.
1. What are we allowed to do if we have an on-site auction today?
All participants must be registered, and attendance capped at 10 people on-site, outdoors only.
The sales team may attend in addition to the 10-person cap.
Public auction setups (flags, pointer boards etc.) are prohibited as they can attract spectators. If this occurs the agency, vendor and auctioneer are at risk of being fined.
All interested parties over and above the 10 on-site participants, will need to be provided the option to register to observe or bid via online or phone services.
COVID protocols are to be followed, including compulsory hand sanitiser onsite and registration of all attending parties with record of their details kept for contact tracing purposes.
These restrictions are in place until at least 8th November and are likely to remain until the end of the year.
2. What are the established online auction options?
When considering a third-party online auction platform, most offer similar features, but some offer more than others.
The main highlights are that they include bidder registration, online bidding, and post-sale contract services all in one place.
The main downsides of these services are that they add an extra cost to the marketing campaign, they provide another layer of education for vendor and buyer when preparing for auction, and they don’t allow for the agents or auctioneer to see the bidders via video streaming.
For most of these platforms, we are reliant on their evolution, meaning if we want something to improve it is subject to their R&D timelines. None of the current options are perfect and none will satisfy all concerns and questions right now, but they are worth your consideration as dedicated auction platforms:
3. What are the alternative online auction options?
Another option for consideration, is the integration of your auction through mainstream and global live stream platforms such as Zoom, Google Meets, and Microsoft Teams.
Ray White has been a major leader in the online auction space since COVID erupted and their offices have been integrating with Zoom and Google Meets platforms to deliver their auctions.
The benefits of these mainstream platforms include:
You’re dealing with global companies that are evolving daily and investing in user-friendly streaming services.
The platforms are recognised by a wider audience and are more accessible given everyone’s daily use of them professionally and personally.
They represent a lower cost as you are probably already paying for them.
Bidder video capability is possible, allowing agents and the auctioneer to see each bidder.
However, despite the benefits, these platforms also have drawbacks. In particular, the fact that registration, bidding and post auction exchange services are not integrated in one place means more protocol needs to be put in place to run things end-to-end (The Auction Company can assist here).
In addition, because these are not auction-specific platforms, a third-party bid counter is required to illustrate bids to participants. Options that integrate with Zoom, Google Meets and Microsoft teams include Realtime Agent, which has been prolific in residential auctions given their integration of electric contract signing, but if you are using docusign that would suffice.
Another option is E-Auctions Live. Click here for an example of how their bid counter is integrated with the Zoom call to illustrate live bids to participants. This tool also produces a post-auction data report for your records.
We hope you find this information useful and if you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to get in touch.
Happy spring selling!
