AUCTION FORMATS
The auction format dictates how you will present the auction to the public. Each format should be considered a different “tool in the toolbox” with each having its own merits and as costs. The decision of which auction format will best serve your seller’s needs depends upon the seller’s goals and timing & financial requirements, the property’s size, value and presentation and the auction marketing campaign objectives.
Live auctions, often called onsite auctions, are usually conducted either on a property or in a meeting facility/ ballroom. A live auction is hosted by an auctioneer in real time in front of an audience of bidders.
Online auctions are timed, automated and take place solely online. The bidding is opened on a specific date and time and stays open for bidding over an extended period of days or weeks.
Simulcast auctions are a mixture of live and online auctions. The auction appears online and can be bid on prior to and during a broadcasted live auction event. Bidders bid against one another be they at the live event or biding online remotely. Many consider simulcast auctions the most expensive to produce since both the live costs and online-only costs must be accommodated; thus the subject property value must be such that justifies and/or makes prudent the additional expense.
At a sealed bid auction, all bids are confidential. Bids are submitted to the auction company then opened at a predetermined time and place. Each bidder is given just one chance to bid and no bidder knows how much the other auction participants have bid. This auction format is much less transparent and less exciting than other formats but is successful when there is a need for anonymity amongst buyers or a property is valued significantly differently by the different interested parties.
A group of properties offered through a common marketing campaign and auctioned in a single event. The properties to be auctioned may be owned by one seller or multiple sellers and the campaign may be managed by one auction company or multiple companies working together.
The multi-parcel concept involves dividing large tracts of land into smaller tracts, then allowing bidder’s to bid on individual tracts, combinations of tracts, and the entire property. This method allows the maximum amount of buyers to participate in the event. Allowing the maximum amount of bidders to participate will increase the overall price per tract and maximize the gross sales volume at the end of the day.