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Auctions hit the web
Majella Corrigan | May 31, 2008
WE'VE become accustomed to using online technology and websites for researching property and familarising ourselves with what's on the market in a particular area.
Now buyers can watch and even bid at an auction using technology and a website called www.Ptyauctions.com.au.
Managing director Gavin Stuart, who developed the idea, was an investment banker involved in the commodities area.
The system was first used for international bidding on coffee crops, and he has now transferred the idea to property, believing it will open up auctions to international buyers as well as those within Australia.
Potential buyers can see an internet broadcast of an auction and, if registered, bid.
Earlier this month, the first online bidder based in Melbourne was successful in buying a house at Wahroonga in Sydney's north. Stuart says it's a value-add for agents to be able to offer this to vendors who pay, starting from $350, to have their property listed on the site.
Prospective buyers can log on and watch a webcast of the auction.
If they want to bid, they must show their bona fides through a four-step process checked by Ptyauctions, and register 24 hours beforehand.
Bidders use the keyboard to put in a bid, which is received on a laptop at the auction, and a member of Ptyauctions then alerts the auctioneer.
The company sets up the equipment needed and removes it when the auction is over.
Stuart says agents have also expressed an interest in buying the footage, should there ever be issues about what happened at a particular auction.
He says it differs from the online bidding that happens on, say, eBay, because it cannot be used if there is not a physical auction taking place.
"So far we have had people bidding from all around Australia as well as Dubai, Hong Kong, London and the US."
The Wahroonga buyer, however, didn't buy the property sight unseen. Her parents looked at it first and told her it was suitable.
A property investor himself, Stuart doesn't advocate buying property without seeing it.
But he says webcasts allow sellers to reach a greater number of buyers and also allow both buyers and sellers to watch the auction if they can't be on-site.
While auctions routinely have bids via phone, he says the webcast allows buyers to see the auctioneer, the bids on the screen, and get a better grip on the auction's dynamics, without relying on a third party to tell them.
Like the hologram of Telstra chief technology officer Dr Hugh Bradlow, which recently appeared in Adelaide while he was in Melbourne, it's certainly a sign of the virtual times, where being in two places at once is possible.
It's also probably a sign of a difficult market, where if the buyer won't come to you, you have to take the property to the buyer.
Majella Corrigan | May 31, 2008
WE'VE become accustomed to using online technology and websites for researching property and familarising ourselves with what's on the market in a particular area.
Now buyers can watch and even bid at an auction using technology and a website called www.Ptyauctions.com.au.
Managing director Gavin Stuart, who developed the idea, was an investment banker involved in the commodities area.
The system was first used for international bidding on coffee crops, and he has now transferred the idea to property, believing it will open up auctions to international buyers as well as those within Australia.
Potential buyers can see an internet broadcast of an auction and, if registered, bid.
Earlier this month, the first online bidder based in Melbourne was successful in buying a house at Wahroonga in Sydney's north. Stuart says it's a value-add for agents to be able to offer this to vendors who pay, starting from $350, to have their property listed on the site.
Prospective buyers can log on and watch a webcast of the auction.
If they want to bid, they must show their bona fides through a four-step process checked by Ptyauctions, and register 24 hours beforehand.
Bidders use the keyboard to put in a bid, which is received on a laptop at the auction, and a member of Ptyauctions then alerts the auctioneer.
The company sets up the equipment needed and removes it when the auction is over.
Stuart says agents have also expressed an interest in buying the footage, should there ever be issues about what happened at a particular auction.
He says it differs from the online bidding that happens on, say, eBay, because it cannot be used if there is not a physical auction taking place.
"So far we have had people bidding from all around Australia as well as Dubai, Hong Kong, London and the US."
The Wahroonga buyer, however, didn't buy the property sight unseen. Her parents looked at it first and told her it was suitable.
A property investor himself, Stuart doesn't advocate buying property without seeing it.
But he says webcasts allow sellers to reach a greater number of buyers and also allow both buyers and sellers to watch the auction if they can't be on-site.
While auctions routinely have bids via phone, he says the webcast allows buyers to see the auctioneer, the bids on the screen, and get a better grip on the auction's dynamics, without relying on a third party to tell them.
Like the hologram of Telstra chief technology officer Dr Hugh Bradlow, which recently appeared in Adelaide while he was in Melbourne, it's certainly a sign of the virtual times, where being in two places at once is possible.
It's also probably a sign of a difficult market, where if the buyer won't come to you, you have to take the property to the buyer.
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