The New Possibilities for Hybrid Auctions

• Buyers and vendors increasingly drawn to the benefits of hybrid auctions
• Realtair Hybrid Auctions introduce new benefits to agents and auctioneers too

With prices cooling, clearance rates easing and the market beginning to favour buyers, some agents are questioning whether auctions are still the best strategy. The answer in many cases is a definitive ‘yes’, according to Realtair CEO and President of the Real Estate Institute of NSW Peter Matthews, when you factor in the benefits of a hybrid auction.

Popularised through necessity during lockdown, hybrid auctions are now accepted as a natural extension to the real estate sales landscape by making properties easily accessible to more people.

But not all hybrid auctions are created equal and platforms which unlock additional benefits can generate better outcomes for buyers and vendors - and agents.

“It’s the new reality. Not everyone is comfortable being a player in the theatre of an auction, but phone bidding is disjointed and bidders can’t follow the flow of the action. Hybrid auctions enable anonymity without compromising on the auction day experience, so people don’t miss out on the insights that experience provides,” Mr Matthews says: 

“They also remove physical barriers as people can bid ‘online or on lawn’, meaning buyers have a broader selection and vendors benefit from greater competition. 

“These advantages of hybrid auctions are established. They supported buyers and vendors through the pandemic. But leveraging these advantages has enabled hybrid auctions to evolve further, and now agents and auctioneers are reaping the benefits too,” he says.

For instance, the Realtair Hybrid Auction model introduces new levels of transparency to the process. Every bid is visible, so all the other bidders know who holds the highest bid. However, the bidder’s identity remains anonymous. Further, as the action is captured live, there’s no discrepancy in the bidding.

Pre-registration is another key advantage of the Realtair Hybrid Auction model. Buyers can register and be approved by the agent prior to the auction, providing the agent and seller with advance notice of intending bidders. This saves the hassle of ‘on the day registration’ and means the buyer can use the same registration for multiple properties for multiple agents. 

The bespoke tool also enables the agent and auctioneer to gain insights into the optimum auction day strategy, as well as expediting the transaction by auto-populating the successful buyer’s details to a digital contract, so that within 10 minutes of the hammer falling, the buyer’s deposit is in the vendor’s nominated account.

Interested buyers simply register via QR code. They might be very keen on the property, they might be dipping their toe in the market, they might be a nosey neighbour from up the road. But by merely registering, agents using Realtair have the self-registration details for those people to become part of their database and one of their prospects.

“Instead of having 150 people in the crowd and four registered bidders, you instead have potentially hundreds of people watching an auction online and all of them are now on your database,” Mr Matthews explains. 

Agents can invite people on their database to watch the auction unfold, highlighting the advantages they could offer those potential customers.

There are also compelling admin benefits to agents. Rob Southwell of Southwell Land & Water explains: “For a small agency, the administration of auction day is a headache that is now done seamlessly. Contract signing and exchange is all done online. Pencil reports of the auction progress, and full summary of bidders and followers, provides great record keeping and completes the digital property file for compliance.”

And for agents in more remote locations, for whom securing the industry’s best auctioneer talent is a challenge, the platform removes this logistical headache.

The same goes for buyers, Mr Matthew says.

“People interested in a particular property to be offered at auction, who think they’re best offer will be around the mark, are unlikely to travel hours to participate in an auction for a property they could just as easily miss out on. Hybrid auctions mean removing this barrier to more bidders,” Mr Matthews says.

“Online or ‘on lawn’, buyers expect and deserve a consistent and smooth experience that ensures a level playing field so they can in turn put their best foot forward. Realtair’s Hybrid Auction platform is the level playing field this new way of transacting demands,” he says.

Media enquiries:

Stephen Naylor, Wise McBaron

0432 656 193

About Realtair

Established in Realtair is a leading end-to-end digital platform designed by real estate professionals. It enables agents to access data, appraise, list, and sell properties more efficiently and cost-effectively from any device. Realtair’s proptech platform automates and streamlines the steps from appraisal to settlement to equip agents with mobile, easy to use technology.