How much are you willing to spend at a property auction?

Attending auctions and making bids is one viable option if you're looking to buy property on the Gold Coast. In a sense, it's an attractive one – the process is quick and easy, if you're willing to bid competitively. If you show up and offer more money than anyone else, the lot is yours, no questions asked.

The drawback is that it's hard to know how much you're willing to spend. In the competitive setting of an auction, it's easy to get carried away with your money and extend your price range farther than you initially intended. If you're overly eager to outvie everyone else in the room and win, you can lose your mind – and a hefty sum of your cash.

This is why it's important to go in with a plan. How much are you willing to spend? Choose a number early, then stick to it once you're in the room. Deciding on this number will require thorough research, and adhering to it will demand discipline throughout the auction process.

Shop around and learn the marketplace

Before you're ready to buy a house on the Gold Coast in an auction setting, you first have to get a feel for what's available in today's marketplace and how much it's worth. According to Finder.com.au, the best strategy is to attend at least 10 auctions before you actually commit to placing a bid at one of them. This will give you a feel for the value of a dollar in this new, unfamiliar setting.

Property auction expert Adam Vernon told the news source that it might even be worth working with an agent who can help you determine how much a given property is worth to you.

"They can definitely help by providing you with past sales within a block or in a street," Vernon explained. "That's probably the best way in which they can help you."

You might want to go one step farther and look at not just how much a property is worth now, but also how much it could appreciate in value in the future. This includes looking into how much value you could add to a place by renovating it. Look at how other places around your target property have been renovated over the years and how much they've improved.

Remove emotion from the bidding process

Especially when you're buying a hot commodity like Main Beach real estate, it's difficult to let go of a piece of property once you've got your heart set on buying it. This means it's easy to overextend your original budget because you really don't want to lose.

YourMortgage.com.au recommends combating this problem by removing emotion from the process and simply focusing on spending a dollar amount you can afford (and reasonably justify spending). If you're unable to be cold and calculating about this, you might have to send someone else, like a friend or family member, to do your bidding for you.

Peruse your options at Ray White Surfers Paradise

If you don't get your first choice piece of property at auction, there are always alternatives. You never have to limit yourself to just one option, or even two or three – at Ray White Surfers Paradise, we have thousands.

Feel free to pursue our deep database of homes for purchase and rental all over Queensland. With 22 office locations in the Gold Coast region, we are sure to have a property somewhere that meets your needs.