PHOTO: ALLISON AT THE 2019 HARCOURTS NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP. (PHOTO: SUPPLIED BY HARCOURTS.)
For extreme auctioneers, selling houses isn’t a nightmare – it’s a craft. Josie Adams talks to National Real Estate Auctioneering champ Ned Allison about discovering his talent, and what it takes to be a two-time winner.
Every year real estate agents from around the country are locked in a room. Their phones are taken, and their world is whittled down to just a few metres of mid-range carpet. One by one they’re led to a podium, where they will call the hardest auction of their lives.
It’s the Real Estate Institute of New Zealand (REINZ) National Real Estate Auctioneering Championships, and Ned Allison just won it for the second time. “So it’s not a fluke, I guess,” he says.
The career of a competitive auctioneer could be five years, or it could be ten. It could be longer if you’ve got the hunger. Eventually repeat winners become judges or members of the artificial crowd, making their old competitors buckle with hard questions about valuation and throwing out terrifyingly low bids. These are your Andrew Norths, your Aaron Davises, your Rob Tulps. “They’re the guys I really idolise,” says Allison. “I try to take bits and pieces from them.”
The 29-year-old Harcourts sales manager has been in the real estate game for eight years, working out of the Grenadier branch in Christchurch. As a youth he had a brief stint in hotel management but discovered his talent for auction calling early on, winning his first national championship in 2017.
“I don’t think anyone intends to be an auctioneer,” he says. “One thing led to another.”
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