Key takeaway: Waiting for certainty can cost buyers more, says Andy Reid, real estate coach and auctioneer. At Melbourne auctions he sees plenty of buyers but few willing to bid without social proof. Good-value homes are passed in, then attract two or three offers a week or two later, pushing prices above what buyers could have paid on auction day.
In this episode of Geared for Growth, Mike Mortlock is joined by Andy Reid, real estate coach and auctioneer who spends his days at the coalface – watching buyer and seller behaviour play out in real time.
While headlines suggest uncertainty and hesitation, Andy brings a very different perspective. From auction floors to private negotiations, he’s seeing something surprising: strong demand… but frozen decision-making.
This conversation dives into the psychology driving today’s property market, where sentiment, not fundamentals, is shaping outcomes. Andy unpacks why buyers are waiting for signals that never come, how “analysis paralysis” is costing people real opportunities, and why the current market might actually be more balanced than people think.
They also explore how life decisions, not just financial ones, drive property transactions, and why the narrative around clearance rates and market performance can be dangerously misleading.
Andy says the current market “kind of feels fair”. Fewer buyers are willing to act, so those who do face less competition, and most sales leave both sides feeling they did okay. Vendors whose homes have sat on the market for a while are often more committed to selling. His advice is to deal in reality rather than what-ifs, because the worry is almost always worse than the reality.
Andy says the public misreads what a clearance rate represents, and an auction is there to test the market, not to drop the hammer at all costs. If agents’ expectations in recent months had come true, his personal clearance rate would be around 20%, yet it is hovering around 70% because of what happens on the day. Mike adds that clearance rates really only matter in Sydney and Melbourne, the big auction markets.
Yes, Andy would. He says the share of properties withdrawn from auction has risen steadily, and a withdrawal usually signals a pricing gap with vendor expectations or someone hitting the panic button. He also suggests winning the right to negotiate on homes about to pass in, when vendors are most receptive. Making an offer does not commit you, he says, so if you don’t ask, you’ll never know.
Andy points to suburbs Melburnians avoid because of decades-old reputations, such as St Albans and Broadmeadows. He says they are within 15 minutes of Tullamarine Airport and 15 to 20 minutes of the CBD, yet three-bedroom family homes on mid-500 square metre blocks sell for around $650,000 to $700,000. Before the budget, he was regularly fielding Sydney investors and online bidders at auctions in one such pocket.
This is general information from the podcast, not financial advice.
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