A little drop off in the clearance rate doesn’t spell trouble but it is still not all sunshine and rainbows.

On the weekend there was a clearance rate of 75%.

What is far more interesting is the scheduled auction number compared to the conducted number.

There were 1573 auctions scheduled but only 873 conducted of which 659 were sold.

The question is why are so many auctions not conducted.

Well simply, there is no conspiracy theory. This isn’t big Real Estate conspiring against the buyers.

The simple reason is that a lot of properties get sold prior to auction and some properties are withdrawn from auction due to both lack of interest and a change in circumstances for the vendors.

If an offer is received that is deemed to be to good to refuse or is considered to be above other buyers’ level of interest the agent is doing the right thing advising his vendor to take the offer prior to auction.

The other point as mentioned is vendors circumstances can change, it can be as simple as they have a family emergency or something pop up that forces the delay or complete cancelation of the sale.

The final reason is that the agent has no interest in the property and doesn’t want to run a failed auction so it is simply converted to a private sale.

When looking at the raw numbers it is always important to delve a little deeper.