Sydney property group BresicWhitney has introduced a significant auction reform for its vendors, after earlier having introduced free downloads for both strata reports and building and pest inspections.
BresicWhitney sellers will now pay just $195 to secure an auction date, rather than the full non-refundable $995 auction fee up front. Full fees will only apply if the auction goes ahead.
Director Shannan Whitney said the move alleviates a big cost for sellers going to market.
He said non-refundable full-priced auction fees are one of the principal pain points for sellers.
“If properties sell prior to auction, it’s common practice across the industry that full fees still apply. And in a softer market, this means many sellers are paying for an auction service they never use,” Mr Whitney said.
He also said paying for services that might never be used causes dissatisfaction.
“Having an auction date booked when a new property goes to market is an important cue for creating urgency during the campaign. Yet, in many instances, the property may sell before the auction or migrate to a private treaty sale. With this in mind, a fee-for-service model makes complete sense.
“This new approach means our clients can lock in the guarantee of head auctioneer Gavin Croft at a fraction of the up-front cost.”
BresicWhitney said it has already saved its buyers more than $3.5 million through its free downloads.
“Since inception, more than 48,000 buyers have downloaded these documents, together with contracts, from the BresicWhitney website,” it said.
“Among them were 4,000 individual customers who saved more than $2,000 each, having downloaded documents more than five times in their purchasing journey.
“Around 40 per cent of buyers, or 20,000 people, have downloaded documents for more than one BresicWhitney property during their search.”
BresicWhitney said that more than 20,000 documents were downloaded across 1,200 listings in the last 12 months.
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