Auctioneer

Henry Budd

If it can go under the hammer then McGrath Estate Agents auctioneer Scott Kennedy-Green has probably sold it. In his 21-year career Mr Kennedy-Green estimates he has presided over more than 100,000 auctions and has sold everything from $2 desks to $2 million planes.

“Every auction is exciting,” Mr Kennedy-Green says. “No two properties, no two vendors and no two auctions are exactly the same.”

As the chief auctioneer for McGrath Estate Agents, Mr Kennedy-Green conducts 500 real estate auctions each year.

He also manages the departments and diaries for seven other auctioneers.

“We auction every 45 minutes from 9am to 6pm all over Sydney,” he says.

Mr Kennedy-Green first became interested in auctions when he was working in the cattle saleyards at Walgett in northwest NSW.

He went on to complete an auctioneer and agents certificate course at Hawkesbury Agriculture College.

“I wanted to be a stock and station agent, but at that time couldn’t get a job at an agency so I ended up taking a job at Pickles [auctions] in Sydney,” he says.

Mr Kennedy-Green began conducting property auctions after a friend offered him the occasional auction on weekends.

“Once I’d done four or five real estate auctions I thought this is the place for me,” he says. He then worked as a freelance auctioneer doing overflow work from the top auctioneers in Sydney when times were busy before joining McGrath Estate Agents nine years ago.

In May 2002 Mr Kennedy-Green sold a Mosman house for $8.8 million, which set the record for the highest price paid at a residential auction in Australia.

“Whether it’s $500,000 or $5 million, you are usually dealing with the vendor’s most important asset and it needs to be treated as such,” he explains.

Mr Kennedy-Green won the 2006 Australasian Real Estate Institute’s Auctioneering Championship and attributes his success to his grounding in general auctions.

“If you want to be a successful auctioneer you have to have done some form of volume selling,” he says. “It gives you a greater awareness about the auction process and buyer mentality and body language.”

It is an auctioneer’s job to ensure the vendor receives the highest price possible for their property, he says. It is also important to connect with the buyers and make them part of the auction process.

“You have to make them feel comfortable about how the auction rolls out,” Mr Kennedy-Green says. “By doing all that you can get competition, and that competition can lead to a result.”