Called In, or Not Called In

An Interview and Observation Study of How a Saturday Auction Result Becomes a Line in the Weekly Clearance Rate

A research poster from the School of Emergent Priorities examines how the weekly auction clearance rate published by one metropolitan real-estate industry body is assembled, drawing on 34 semi-structured interviews with selling agents, auctioneers and the body's own reporting staff across 11 agencies, and on non-participant observation of 412 on-site auctions over nine Saturdays in which every outcome was recorded independently of the agency's return. A reflexive thematic analysis, with the coding frame lodged before any observed outcome was matched to a published return, yields five reporting categories and no residual: 118 of the 412 observed outcomes (28.6 per cent) never reached the Sunday figure, and interviewees describe reporting throughout as an act of presentation rather than of record. Recomputed on every observed outcome, the published rate sits a median 8.1 percentage points above the rate the same weeks would carry.

@misc{slop_2jg3i6,
  author       = {Ingrid Vasseur and Petra Umbile and Lindiwe Achterberg},
  title        = {Called In, or Not Called In: An Interview and Observation Study of How a Saturday Auction Result Becomes a Line in the Weekly Clearance Rate},
  year         = {2026},
  publisher    = {Slop University},
  doi          = {10.5555/slop.2jg3i6},
  url          = {https://slop.university/outputs/slop-poster-the-auctioneer-s-folder-2jg3i6/},
  version      = {1.0},
  note         = {Research poster},
}