Rule 3. Tell the agent nothing of importance

If you don’t feel comfortable with the agent – and the chances are that you will never feel comfortable with an auction agent – tell them almost nothing. Just ask questions. Be strong. Answer any questions by saying, “We are not sure what we intend to do.” Be vague. Use expressions such as ‘maybe’ or ‘might’ or ‘perhaps’ or ‘we are unsure’.

Just remember that this is the person who will deliberately mislead you before the auction with the quote, at the auction with fraudulent bids and after the auction by telling you how ‘lucky’ you are. You can’t afford to trust such agents.

Rule 2. Understand the ‘quoting’ lies

Experienced buyers know that agents under-quote the selling price by about 20 percent. So, if the agent says “Bidding to start from $300,000”, the price is likely to be somewhere around $360,000. If your maximum price is $320,000, be careful. You could spend money on inspections, get your heart set on buying the home and all to no avail.

If you cannot get a straight answer from an agent about the price, or if you are certain you are being misled, you can – as a last resort – ask the sellers about the price.

Unlike many agents, most sellers are not interested in deceiving you. They just want you to buy their home. They do not want you to be misled or to lose money.

You can write to the sellers at the home. If the home is vacant, you can write to them care of their lawyer. Ask the agent for a copy of the contract of sale. The owners’ details will be displayed. There is a sample letter for this purpose in the Appendix. If you receive no reply do not attend the auction.

Rule 1. Believe nothing and check everything

With auctions, always assume the agents are lying to you. Sure, some may tell you the truth, but if you treat everything they say with suspicion, you won’t be as easily hurt. There are so many lies told that you can’t afford to believe anything until you have checked it out thoroughly.

Pre Auction Due Diligence

1. Have your purchasing entity organised (trust SMSF etc) if you are not buying in your own name.
2. Get a finance pre approval so you know your budget and attend the auction ready to write a deposit cheque.
3. Attend many auctions to experience the atmosphere and observe different bidding strategies.
   In particular watch the auctioneer who’ll be selling the property you’re interested in to learn his particular techniques and the words he uses.
4. Do your research by inspecting many properties and seeing what they sell for (not just the asking price).
   Know the market, know the value of the property in question and be armed with that power so you can identify a ‘walk-away’ price – the highest price you’re prepared to pay.
5. Play your cards close to your chest. Real estate agents are very skilled at prying information out of potential purchasers, including the price they’re prepared to pay for a property.
   After all – it is their job! Sometimes you can end up revealing things to them that you never intended to and that might be detrimental to your negotiation power.
   By keeping your cards close to your chest and revealing very little about how much you might pay for a home, you maintain an advantage and ensure the agent cannot use your information to sway another potential buyer or to help the vendor set his reserve price.
6. Show your solicitor the contract and organise any amendments to the contract he suggests.
7. Consider getting an experienced buyer’s agent like the team at Metropole to bid on your behalf and level the playing field.

 What to do on the day

1. Arrive early – survey the landscape – see who else is there. Do they look like serious bidders (they’re inspecting the contract, saying the right things) or are they just onlookers.
2. In today’s strong auction climate use the psychological advantage of projecting confidence – make the other bidders think you have deep pockets and no limit.
3. Open the bidding high, close to where the reserve will be (the property won’t sell below this) and make your bids fast and assertive. Procrastinating or agonising over your next bid is a sign of weakness.
4. Call out your offer in full (in other words say $550,000 instead of the increments just $5,000).
5. If it’s going to pass in, make sure you are the highest bidder, as this allows first right to negotiate with the vendor.
6. Be prepared to miss out. Stick to your ‘walk-away’ price. After all you’ve done your homework and you know what this particular property is worth to you.
   If you miss a property at auction, accept that it wasn’t meant to be and look forward to finding something better soon.
   While no one likes to consider themselves the ‘loser’ in any sort of negotiation campaign, it’s far better to walk away and live to fight another day than over-commit to a property you’ve become emotionally blinded by.

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Push Paint to Avoid Runs

When your brush is loaded with paint, it’s easy to create runs by applying too much paint in corners or along trim. To avoid that, start brushing about 1/2 inch away from the cut-in area to apply the paint. As the brush unloads, move over and slowly drag the brush along the trim or corner. Let the bristles gently push the paint against the cut-in area where the walls meet. You may have to do this a couple of times to get complete coverage, but it’ll avoid excess paint along woodwork and in corners.

Start With a Loaded Brush

Pros take a “load and go” approach to painting. They load the bottom 1 1/2 inches of their brushes with paint, tap each side against the inside of their container to knock off the heavy drips, and then start painting. By contrast, homeowners often take a “load and dump” approach of dragging the loaded brush along the sides of their container and wiping off most of the paint. “It doesn’t do you any good to dunk your brush in paint, then immediately wipe it all off,” a 16-year veteran painter says.

Clean Dirty Walls With Degreaser

Paint won’t bond to greasy or filthy surfaces, like kitchen walls above a stove, mudrooms where kids kick off their muddy boots and scuff the walls or the areas around light switches that get swatted at with dirty hands. “I always use a degreaser to clean grimy or greasy surfaces,” a pro tells PM. “It cuts through almost anything you have on walls for better paint adhesion.”

Be sure to read the label and follow directions—this stuff is potent. Rubber gloves and eye protection are required.

Wash Roller Covers

Whether you buy cheap or expensive roller covers, washing them before their first use gets rid of the fuzz that inevitably comes off once you start painting. Wash them with water and a little bit of liquid soap, and run your hands up and down the covers to pull off any loose fibers (a practice called “preconditioning covers”). You can start using the roller covers right away—you don’t need to let them dry.

Box Paint for Consistent Color

The “same” color of paint can vary between cans. “That difference can be glaringly obvious if you pop open a new gallon halfway through a wall,” a retired painter tells PM. To ensure color consistency from start to finish, pros mix their cans of paint in a 5 gallon bucket (a process called “boxing”).

Some pros then paint directly out of the bucket. This eliminates the need to pour paint into a roller tray, though the heavy bucket is harder to move.