The Giddings family, owners of the Meadowslea Stud in Fairlie, were prompted to launch their Yourbid platform when faced with the prospect of a covid lockdown choking off their valuable annual Angus and Romney ram stud sale auctions.
They had looked at existing auction systems, but less than happy with them, embarked on building their own.
Incorporating videos of every animal and with bidding spread over several days versus the usual “blink and it’s gone” approach, the model proved highly successful with the majority of sales going online.
Today the platform is also used in the United Kingdom, where continued lockdowns have plagued the stud stock selling season.
The family’s recent decision to sell a family-owned house in Wanaka has prompted the Giddings to make a foray into the high stakes property auction market using their Yourbid platform as a digital template.
“We found when we wanted to sell the house there were a lot of boxes that needed to be ticked and we wanted to offer an easier, more transparent way to auction the place,” David Giddings said.
Adapting the livestock system they have developed means bidders can place a bid over a wide period of time, compare their bid to others as they come in, and consider whether they wish to continue.
“It means they have time to go back to their bank and talk about more finance if they require it to stay in the auction, or whether they want to drop out. It takes a lot of the pressure of a conventional auction off the bidders,” he said.
All bids on their first property that is online between now and the close off in later February will be displayed.
Giddings says the approach is something of a hybrid between a deadline tender and a normal auction, but with a clear presentation of where all the offers sit, available to all parties.
“And we have it set up so that bidders can also bid with conditions, perhaps that could be subject to selling the property they are in at present. We say ‘put your bid in and let us know your conditions’. We may or may not accept the highest bidder if the conditions are not ideal,” he said.
The Yourbid livestock system the Giddings developed is based around the Helmsman auction system, where bidding starts on multiple lots simultaneously, giving buyers the chance to compare prices across different lots of livestock.
Giddings says there is no reason a similar approach could not apply to multiple properties offered at once, giving buyers the chance to compare and spread their bidding.
“And you can withdraw your bid and pull out. We tried to think of everything that would make the purchase straightforward,” he said.
The proposal at present for future properties offered would be to charge a fee for listing on the site, rather than commission.
LIM reports, plans and property descriptions will all be made available. Giddings is optimistic the family will build listings over time as more potential buyers seek properties further afield, or are limited in their ability to always travel to a particular conventional auction on a particular date.
Meantime, the family’s livestock platform is continuing to garner support in the UK, with seven sales completed and one presently live.
Sales here in New Zealand have included Richard Loe’s Glenloe Stud that sold 20% more stock this year, attributed in part to the online system. The Giddings’ own Meadowslea ram stud broke all records, with half the buyers bidding online.
“It opened us up to a lot of new people who registered and purchased online,” he said.
Yourbid was one of the winners of this year’s inaugural B.linc Celebrating Success Innovation awards.
