Never let a selling agent bid for you at auction.
Buyers need to be aware that selling agents acting as buyer’s agents and/or bidding on your behalf at auction, have a clear conflict of interest when it comes to buying at auction.
Selling agents are being paid by the vendor to sell the property at the highest possible price, they are not acting in the buyer’s best interests.
When you are paying any professional, you need to understand who is representing you and ask yourself: Are there any possible conflicts of interest?
For instance, if the selling agent who is representing you is from the same real estate agency as the one representing the vendor, then it’s in the agency’s best interest for you to buy the property at the highest possible price.
Another tactic selling agents use is to offer to bid for you at auction ‘for free’ (and then buy it at whatever price) so that they can win the future listing of the sale of your current home on which they get a commission.
Either way, these selling agents have a huge financial incentive to help you buy that property and that’s not in the buyer’s best interest.
In an auction environment it’s extremely important to understand what the market is doing to ensure you pay a fair price.
A truly independent REBAA buyer’s agent acts for you as the buyer and takes a fee for doing so. They do not have properties listed for sale nor is their business involved in direct selling. Don’t put your faith in the wrong person on auction day.
