Buying a property is a huge commitment and nothing tests the nerves more than bidding at an auction.

One in two Australians report experiencing anxiety ahead of attending an auction and 48% of people said they’d lost sleep over it, recent research suggests.
Worryingly the St George Bank research also found a lot of us are ill-prepared to buy properties at auction, with 62.1% of buyers saying they do not have a bidding strategy when attending a home auction.
So what do you do if you want to secure that dream property at auction? There are three chief ways you can do it:

• Engage a professional buyer’s agent, to whom you pay a fee.
• Ask a friend or family member to bid on your behalf.
• Bid for yourself (if you’ve got the nerve).

We look at each option and review the perks and pitfalls.

Use a buyers agent

Professional Renovator Bernadette Janson has attended about 40 auctions and bid at two of them. She wasn’t successful at either and says she won’t DIY bid again.
“The bidding was fierce, one bidder was bidding by proxy, you see plenty of buyers paying too much and getting far too emotionally attached,” says The School of Renovating founder.
Janson discourages her renovation students from bidding for themselves for properties.
“I just think it is smarter to detach yourself from the process, it is a task that should be entrusted to someone buying at auctions on a regular basis and who has no vested interest … they’ll be more objective than you.”
Veronica Morgan, Principal of Sydney agency Good Deeds Property Buyers and Co-Host of Location, Location, Location, on Lifestyle Channel agrees.
“Many buyers, if left to their own devices, get scared off by aggressive bidders and stop bidding prematurely while many others derive confidence from a competitive auction and end up bidding well above their limit,” Morgan says.