A Guide to House Auctions
A Guide to Buying Houses at Auction in Victoria and New South Wales
Welcome!
This is a website devoted to giving you independent information about house auctions.
You may find this website useful if:
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you are planning to buy a house at auction – in fact, most of the information here is about buying a house at auction
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you are planning to sell your house – although there is not much here about selling houses, what is there is worth a look: basically you will find out why you shouldn’t sell your house at a normal auction
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you are planning to buy a house some time in the future – there is advice here about how to prepare for getting finance for your purchase.
So, first things first. Who am I ?
A semi-humble ex-lawyer who is not connected to anyone in the real estate industry except in the most peripheral way (and who clearly has no fear of oxymorons).
So why have I created this website ?
Well there are 3 reasons:
I think there is a crying need for independent information about house auctions to be available to those who don’t know much about it
I have written an e-book on this subject, so I am hoping that some of you who use this site might have more money than you know what to do with and might buy the book
Some of the information I refer to in my book will become out-dated over time. This site is a convenient way of keeping that information up to date
If I have no connection with anyone in the industry, by what authority can I presume to tell anyone anything about auctions ?
Great question !
In fact I have no authority of any relevant sort. All I have is a longstanding deep interest in auctions, an enquiring mind, access to most of what anyone has written about auctions, no desire to endorse the rubbish that some of those involved in the real estate industry say about auctions, and most importantly, a bit of common sense.
Is that enough ?
There are only 2 ways to find out:
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Read this website.
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Better yet, buy my book. (By the way, it comes with a 90-day no-questions-asked refund guarantee).
WHO AM I?
My name is Ben Piper, and I am a refugee from the Southern Highlands of New South Wales who has lived in Melbourne, the auction capital of the world, since I was 10 years old, which was quite a while ago. That means that I have been exposed to lots of auctions as a participant or as an on-looker.
After school I completed Commerce and Law degrees at the University of Melbourne. I then spent the bulk of my working life writing laws, including laws about auctions. Writing laws about auctions meant that my interest in auctions ramped up way above the interest that a normal Melbourne person would have in them.
Disclaimer
Contact
For the usual legal reasons, you need to be aware of the following:
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This website has advice about what to do before, at and after auctions. That advice is general, and may not apply to your particular circumstances. In particular, in comparison with my book, in outlining my general advice I note that I have not included much, if any, information as to when the general advice doesn’t apply. (Nevertheless, my book contains a disclaimer very much like this one.) And, of course, my advice is also just my opinion.
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At various places in this website you will find that I give advice on legal issues. That advice is also general, and also may not apply to your particular circumstances. It is also just my opinion. Should a legal issue be relevant to you in relation to an auction, you should consider seeking your own legal advice based on your circumstances.
The best way to contact me is by email: