Our in-house auctioneer, the well-respected and highly acclaimed Richard Copus is a Fellow of the National Association of Valuers & Auctioneers, an Honoured Fellow of the National Association of Estate Agents, and an industry trainer for Propertymark. 

Richard explores the virtues of online auctions vs in-room auctions...

Since Covid, the use of online auctions has increased in leaps and bounds. Before the pandemic, only about 25% of auctions were online, the figure is now closer to 75%. Why is this?

During Covid, the reasons were obvious - it was not possible to travel to places easily. But now this is not the case and online auctions have still become mainstream. One of the reasons for this is that online auctions are so easy. Bidders don't have to travel with the stress of possible delays making them miss the auction, and bidding on your laptop is easier than making bids over the phone to someone in the room who passes that bid onto the auctioneer. Also, buyers tend to prefer making their own bids online rather than appointing someone to bid on their behalf.

From the auctioneer's and seller's points of view, online auctions have additional advantages. Although ideally, everyone who is interested in a property should view it before bidding for it, many people don’t, deciding instead to take a calculated risk, and the convenience of online bidding increases these numbers. Also, the auctioneer doesn’t have to go to the effort and cost of setting up an actual auction room and conducting the bidding when they can just sit and monitor the bids being made.  

So, which is best?

That depends on the property.  A mid-terrace house in a big city which requires work and is likely to sell to an investor who may well live a long way away is ideal online material. Because many of the prospective buyers for these properties are investors who will probably bid from the information provided only, this widens the market considerably. Conversely, an individual, detached, period property in a village or small town will probably benefit from a live venue because most people bidding are likely to be relatively local and the auction is completely transparent because everybody can see everybody else.  

Which is the easiest way to buy? 

Both are as easy as each other, but completely different! Those bidding online need to use a device and know what they are doing. For most, that is not a problem, but many auctioneers will have had very disappointed bidders whose internet connection failed at a crucial time or left things to the last moment and couldn’t access the system.  

Online models

There are a variety of online auction models.  The simplest is akin to ebay, but with one big difference; if a bid comes in a minute before the end of the auction, another minute is added (the timescale may differ slightly from auction to auction), enabling every buyer to have a fair chance of increasing their bid to their maximum. Alternatively, some auctioneers use zoom to conduct live auctions.

At a venue

Auctions in the room are ‘strictly’ called ‘Ballroom Auctions’. Most buyers still seem to prefer these because they trust them more, given the transparency of everyone being in the same room. From the auctioneer's point of view, the auction room creates a buzz and an atmosphere, which encourages people to bid against each other. The auctioneer can use their skill and personality to encourage more bids, and they can alter the bidding increments as they see fit to achieve those extra few thousands or even hundreds of pounds for his client.

Both methods of auction are as good as each other. For buyers bidding online, just make sure that the auction house you will be bidding through is established with a good reputation.

Whether you’re a buyer or a seller, if you’d like to find out more about auctions or to discuss a specific property, just give us a call on 01392 204800 and we’ll be happy to help.