Celebrating Auctioneering Excellence

This week we are celebrating the achievements of Kelly Sackfield, Brett Sawyers and Team Zoltan and Devon – selected as three of only 19 New Zealand recipients of the prestigious, and inaugural Tony Fountain Auctioneering Excellence Award. With over 12,000 agents across our international network this is an incredible achievement and fantastic recognition of their service. hard work and dedication.

Ray White’s commitment to auctions has been one of the most important reasons why we have become market leaders throughout Australia and New Zealand.  This new auction recognition program has been designed to recognise those members who continue to uphold this commitment.  Named in honour of the late Tony Fountain, an auctioneer who lived and breathed Ray White’s auction mission during his time with the Ray White Group. He strongly believed in the importance of auctions for our international expansion, and as our point of difference in our real estate markets.  Described by Ray White Chairman Brian White AO as a “legend”, Tony Fountain practised as an agent for 52 years and held several positions within the group, including National Chief Auctioneer. Over his career, Tony estimated he had conducted more than 35,000 auctions across Australia, New Zealand and Indonesia.

The criteria for Ray White members to qualify for the Tony Fountain Auctioneering Excellence Award includes a minimum number of completed auctions, a percentage of their listings being put through the auction programme and an extremely high client response rate (above 95%) throughout the awards period.

“We’re proud to congratulate the 128 members across Australia and New Zealand who achieved Tony Fountain Auction Excellence status throughout the period of March to May. It’s fantastic recognition of their achievements as auction agents, and really shows our group strength in marketing, especially in this important and highly skilled sales technique.” said Vanessa McKenzie, Ray White Whangarei

Auctions bring buyers and sellers together, but they are more than a one-off event on a set day and time.  Our auctions are a strategic sales process used by our team to create competition to get our clients ‘more’.  Auction Campaigns are highly focused and are designed to expose our vendors property’s to the maximum number of buyers, maximising their sales price and minimising the number of days their property sits on the market. The set time frame allows us to use market demand to help achieve a premium price.  With price removed, enquiries are higher – increasing the opportunity of revealing the premium buyer – without discounting a single buyer in the process.

“As agents, our job is to get our clients the best buyer. Not the first buyer. ” says Allan Sykes, Ray White Whangarei.

“Auction marketing of property allows sales consultants to deal with both conditional and unconditional buyers throughout the duration of the campaign, thereby not discounting any possible potential interest.

“In the current climate auctions a great way of achieving a fair understanding of the market’s price point, and an opportunity to secure an unconditional sale early in the marketing – one that won’t fall over on conditions.

“The days on market for our auction properties is significantly lower than those of private treaty sale.  The typical days on market for an auction property from within our office is 29 days, when looking at the last 12 months. Even when you break it down and look at the last three months of data alone, our properties taken to auction spend 20% less time on the market (average 37 days as opposed to 46 for private treaty sales) – and the 90-day clearance rate for our auction properties sits at 72% (vs 30% for private treaty sales).

Auctions remain central to our business, creating competition for our vendors and achieving the best possible results for them.

Despite the changing market, auctions continue to be one of the strongest methods of sale – bringing  the maximum number of buyers  and sellers together to achieve clients the best price, in the quickest possible time.

Talk to your agent today about how the auction process might benefit your property when you go to sell!