Harcourts International has announced the launch of Harcourts Auctions in the San Francisco Bay area.
Previously only available to Harcourts, this move will mean the Harcourts Auctions platform will now be a service model available to all brokerages and brands within the Northern California region.
Known for changing mindsets when it comes to the concept of sale by auction of US real estate, Harcourts, through the Harcourts Auctions platform, has conducted over 2,100 auctions across Southern California, Nevada, Oregon, Washington, Hawaii, and Canada over the past 12 months, selling in excess of US$450 million dollars’ worth of residential property.
“The perception of auction changed when we demonstrated our proven auction process,” said Rob Forde, Chief Operations Officer International at Harcourts.
“The reason Harcourts has had so much success with auction is due to the ground-up development of the process in the US and Canada. The team has created the process to ensure their involvement with the agent and listings is centred on a high level of quality control and management, resulting in phenomenal clearance rates.
“In comparison, traditional sales often involve overpriced listings, multiple listing services, lock boxes, and sub-par seller education. It’s the perfect storm for a real estate disaster, which is where we come into the picture.”
Unlike any other real estate platforms, especially in the US, Harcourts Auctions have adapted accessible and available fundamentals in a way that enables listing agents to build the auction process into a model that can be easily replicated for every client.
“With no expectations of what an auction is, or should be, in a world that considers them ‘irrelevant’ we have stepped in and made a business out of the most unlikely of real estate avenues,” said Ben Brady, Chief Executive Officer and co-founder of Harcourts Auctions.
“The ability to truly show a marketplace a new level of transparency and competition has been refreshing and eagerly received.
Over the past few years, Harcourts Auctions has also developed a stand-alone training division that provides mentoring and support, as well as a custom, multi-day online Auction Accreditation Program where agents can learn the ins and outs of the process.
The company is committed to its tagline, ‘Rethink Real Estate’.
“We have placed a large emphasis on technological advances, including the development of ‘MyAuction’ – our proprietary internal auction transaction and communication management system and also an online bidding phone and desktop app, which allows sellers and bidders from all over the world to stream auctions live and make bids,” Harcourts Auctions Operations Manager Calista Green explained.
“These internal developments within our business truly show we are committed to redefining what real estate auctions mean and people are noticing.”
“We are excited by what we have created,” Mr Brady added.
“The bottom line is Harcourts agents are more successful when they use the auction process; we really are helping lift the standards the industry.”
The true success of Auction for Harcourts in the US has been underpinned by the belief of the team. The Harcourts USA Auction team is predominantly made up of Australian auctioneers and agents who are passionate about the process and the team is growing.
“As we take this next step and grow into San Francisco, we are looking for experienced auction agents from Australia or New Zealand who want to be at the forefront of creating change within an industry,” Mr Forde said.
