Post-event report: Property Auctions and Mortgagee Sales Education Seminar

Property Soul kicked off the seminar with updates on the development and future events of Property Club Singapore. This was followed by the much-anticipated presentations by our three speakers.


Selling properties at auctions

Sharon Lee, Director and Head of Auction at Knight Frank shared her insights about “Leveraging property auctions to market your property to buyers”. She highlighted the fact that aggressive marketing and extensive network of an auction house are critical to help owners market their properties to potential buyers. Sharon also told the audience what types of properties are most suitable to sell at auctions.

Sharon summed up her speech by presenting a few case studies in recent property auctions when she helped her clients to sell their residential or commercial properties at a good price. The audience couldn’t wait for the Q&A session to raise their questions for Sharon.


Tips of buying at auctions

Jean Calalang, Manger of Auction at Knight Frank, continued the momentum by taking the side of buyers at property auctions. Her presentation on “Tips and tricks of buying at property auctions” was an informative one.

She started by covering the trends and outlook of the property auction market. More mortgagee sale properties are expected to be put up for auction in the second half of the year. With more cautious buyers waiting on the sidelines, genuine sellers are advised to be more realistic in their pricing strategy.

Jean revealed the usual types of buyers or followers at auctions. I was not aware that property agents are keen to help their clients to bid at auctions or to co-broke deals sold there. Knight Frank actually organizes property auction talks for agents with a fee.

The benefits of buying and selling at auctions versus the common channels were clear. One thing I did agree with Jean was that buying and selling at auctions is much more transparent comparing with doing it through individual property agents.

Jean also emphasized the importance of buyers to read the Condition of Sale and have financing and legal support in place before bidding for their target properties at auctions. And don’t forget to bring your cheque book on the day of auction!


Read THIS before you bid!

The last speaker of the day was Rayney Wong, a lawyer, property investor and also the author of best seller Secrets of Property Millionaires. With over 28 years’ experience in practicing Conveyancing and Real Estate Law, he was the most eligible expert to talk about “Potential risks and legal issues of auction properties and mortgagee sales”.

Rayney was a dynamic speaker who delivered the presentation with his engaging sense of humor. He began his speech with a mock-up mortgagee sale of a two-storey bungalow in an auction. The excited audience responded with an intense bidding war but it ended abruptly with a sudden withdrawal of the property by the ‘seller’.

The speaker considered buying auction and mortgagee sale properties both art and science. Buyers should be aware of the fact that they are buying the property ‘as it is’. They should inspect the property thoroughly during the viewing.

In a bank-sale, all the terms and conditions are one-sided and cannot be changed. Once you have signed on the dotted line, you have to pray that nothing bad happen that jeopardizea the sale. Even if that happens, you are still obliged to buy that property.

I echoed with him on the potential danger of buying mortgagee sale properties. I had to admit that I was not fully aware of the possible legal consequences when I went ahead to buy a bank sale property from a local bank in 2003. I was simply lucky that ‘nothing happened’ on that purchase.


Feedback from the participants

The Q&A session was hectic with eager participants throwing many questions to the three speakers. One speaker described the scene to me as diligent students coming to class with ‘a burning fire’ of passion to learn.

The last part of the seminar was a networking session when participants formed into groups to introduce themselves and shared their thoughts. It was a great occasion to meet like-minded property investors and learn from each other.

Overall, ninety-five percent of the attendees rated the event as ‘Good’ or ‘Excellent’. And all the returned feedback forms indicated that the respondents are ‘likely’ or ‘very likely’ to join the events of Property Club Singapore again. In fact, there were 24 sign-ups on the spot for the upcoming education seminars on August 3, September 21 and November 1.

Thank you for all your support. See you again at the Building a Win-Win Relationship with Your Property Agent Education Seminar next Sunday!

P.S. More photos of the event can be found in our facebook page here.