My previous article 'Auction Day - On Arrival' looked at what you would find at the auction venue, plus what to do on arrival and through the day. This month looks at the buying process, which hopefully is the reason for being there.

I'm going to look at pre-auction offers, different bidding methods/strategies, the importance of lot numbers and unsold lots.
So let's start with Pre-Auction Offers.

There is nothing to stop you making an offer as soon as the auction catalogue hits the streets, and many buyers do, as is evidenced by the number of lots marked 'pre-sold' on auction day. But thankfully, most auctioneers, especially those whose sole business is auctions, such as Paul Fosh in Cardiff, discourage their clients from accepting pre-auction offers because they want to run an auction and if everything is pre-sold then there isn't an auction.

It gets even worse if a high percentage of the catalogue is pre-sold. Where a pre-auction offer is accepted, acceptance will be subject to the auctioneer's standard conditions, just as if the property had been sold in the room with same day 'Exchange of Contracts', payment of the deposit and auctioneers admin/premium. Completion Day remains the same.

If the vendor is open to pre-auction offers, the auctioneers will need all the paperwork completed at least 48 hours before the auction. Some vendors, Local Authorities and Lender's (repo's for example), will simply not consider pre-auction offers but insist that the property is sold, 'in the room'. In some cases, if the property is not sold 'in the room', it is not offered post auction as an 'unsold' lot, which I will come to, but will be put into the next auction.