Award-winning auctioneer Andy Reid has about 1600 auctions under his belt from the 11 years he has been working in the role.
He’s seen the highs of people winning their first home and the brutal blow for disappointed buyers who have missed out.
The 38-year-old said his best auctions haven’t been the ones where the bidding has soared above the reserve price, but instead it’s the harder ones that stick in his memory.
Like the ones where there is only one bidder.
One in particular in the southeast suburb of Berwick in Melbourne he will never forget.
“It was a grand property and massive crowd but there was one bidder the whole time,” he tells news.com.au.
“I managed to get one bidder to go from $1.4 million to $1.68 million and then got another $10,000 on top as little cherry for the owners. Those are the good ones as you really test your skill.
“In terms of ones you pin your flag to, it shouldn’t be the ones that go miles over, it’s the other ones.”

There will be winners and losers and even some properties that won’t sell under the hammer when it comes to auctions.
But to give yourself the best chance Mr Reid said there are six big mistakes buyers need to avoid.
1. Letting other bidders control your destiny
There are going to be some situations where someone else simply has more money than you, Mr Reid said, but there are also many factors that you can’t control when it comes to an auction.
Instead it’s best to know your budget, what your comfortable stretching to pay for the place and prepare by practising for auction style situations.

Even past sales can’t determine what is going to happen on the day, he added.
“Ultimately it’s only what’s going to happen right there in that moment that is going to determine whether you will end up getting on the property ladder or not,” he said.
“I’ve seen plenty of times where a better property down the road would have sold for say $1.5 million and a lesser property three months later in a worse market goes for $1.65 million because the environment and conditions around the second property resulted in a better reaction.”
The biggest uncertainty is a buyer’s behaviour under pressure and Mr Reid said its something people should focus on before they get to auction – trying to stop that reaction and being assured in their own position, rather than being knocked around by other buyer’s moves.
2. Failing to bid with confidence
Don’t be psyched out by other buyers and use your behaviour and body language to your advantage, Mr Reid recommended.
“Buyers that show a degree of authority and degree of preparation – the buyers that are looking confident without trying to be cocky – are the ones that end up doing well,” he said. “They end up either intimidating or convincing their competing buyers that they ain’t going to get beat, so the psychology of it all is way more important on the day.
“I think one of the biggest mistake buyers make is they compete against the auctioneer when the auctioneer is a human that wants to facilitate a transaction, it’s their fellow bidders that they need to put more thought into.”

Mr Reid also advised playing the humans and not the numbers and surprisingly that includes the auctioneer.
He said it’s simple – be nice to the auctioneer but not in a a “cheesy, bulls**t way”.
“If you treat the auctioneer like a human, chances are they will make a subconscious decision where they might give you an extra few seconds to make an extra decision in the thick of the action, rather than doing the same for someone who is brash and cocky,” he said.
3. Allowing agents to hassle them too much
Agents are more likely to put pressure on if they are uncertain about your position, according to Mr Reid.
One of the biggest “fails” is being all secretive and not even expressing interest in a property, he said.
“The more cloak and dagger you are with agents, the more pressure they are likely to put on you as you haven’t given enough information to be sure what your position is,” he said.
“You can’t blame the agent as ultimately their job to get the most money for seller. You don’t have to show them your bank account, but if you don’t give them assurance of your position, you invite them to keep prodding and probing so they feel more certain to what your position is.”

The purchasers that tell an agent they are interested and will make a bid are the ones agents generally tend to leave alone, he added, but you don’t have to tell him your budget.
If an agent continues to hassle, he recommends buyers be confident by telling them you want your space, you’re confident in what you’re doing and will interact if you see it as necessary.
“Just tell them straight because then they’re going to be really stupid to keep hassling you after that,” he said.
4. Not preparing their plan beforehand
It’s all about the numbers and the buyer’s budget, said Mr Reid.
“The numbers needs to be done before auction day, so that is probably one of the biggest things I could tell any buyer, is make sure you do your homework and thought process about what figures you are comfortable playing with and what figures you comfortable to stretch to,” he advised.

You don’t want to panic in the heat of the auction either so write the numbers down somewhere so you can refer to them if needed, he added.
“An auction is naturally an emotional environment, even if you’re an investor ego can kick in, and you don’t want to lose,” he said.
“You need that logic and thinking behind the numbers before you turn up.”
5. Avoiding watching auctions on Facebook and YouTube beforehand
You can learn a lot by watching auctions online particularly if the agency has any on their website, Mr Reid revealed.
It can give you clues as to what an auctioneer does at certain points, but it also gives you a practice run, he said.
“It will invoke some of the reactions in a mild way on how you’re going to react in certain scenarios,” she said.
“You can picture yourself in the position and think what would I do, would I stand firm, would I bid here? The one thing I would do is watch plenty of auctions to get a feel of how you’re likely to react when it comes to your turn.”

6. Not understanding ‘the right to negotiate’
This means you are the highest bidder under the reserve and it’s the best position a buyer can find themselves in, advised Mr Reid.
“You get the undivided attention of a seller or vendor that is in a peak emotional state and their motivation to sell the house is probably at an absolute peak,” he explained.
“If you as a buyer find yourself at an auction where there is not much happening or the agent hasn’t declared it’s on the market or it looks like its going to pass in, then its actually a really good move to match the agents last vendor bid.
“You win the right to negotiate which buys you time and gives you a chance to be a lot more measured in the next steps to take.”

The worst scenario you can find yourself in is going into a private sale environment against other buyers as you won’t get the “transparency” that an auction offers, he said.
“If you go into private sale environment either you are going to miss out or eventually overpay. Your rival might offer $1.5 million and you offer $1.6 million and that’s $100,000 over the next best bid and you won’t know,” he explained.
“If you wait to the very last minute and match the auctioneer’s last vendor bid and win the right to negotiate, you put yourself in an incredibly strong position to negotiate with the vendor, who is more likely to be open at that particular time.”