MurrayM:
Goosey:
If the auction paused and people got taken away for a chat then when the auction resumes, the auctioneer re-starts bidding where it left off if its close to the reserve or will simply begin the bidding at a suitable figure which someone in the side negociation indicated they were happy with....
I've never bought or sold a house at auction but I've wondered about those "little chats". Does the agent try to put pressure on the parties to rise their offer / lower their expectations? I think if I was buying and they wanted to drag me into a room away from the auction I'd say "No thanks, you've got my offer, don't bother trying to squeeze more money out of me".
Easy to sit here and make that commentary, when there is no pressure, no property you might really want etc. In reality it's something very different.