THE POWER OF AUCTIONS
BY ALEX TILBURY
BEAUTY INFLUENCERS BUY BLOCK HOUSE SIGHT UNSEEN
BY SHANNON COOK
Ray White South Perth principal Jannine Blum loves the power of auctions .
Jannine recently had a busy campaign at 68 Armstrong Road Wilson , that was originally a private treaty sale method .
She had 40 groups through at the first open and Jannine received 10 written offers for her seller , an investor from Indonesia , after the first open home .
“ I had 11 written offers from $ 510,000 to $ 535,000 and they were all subject to finance and building inspections . So we converted the campaign to an auction on unconditional terms , on an ‘ as is ’ term , and the bidding started at $ 460,000 which went up quickly to hit the reserve of $ 520,000 ,” Jannine said .
The property attracted 13 registered bidders , and eight active bidders and sold for $ 583,000 to a very happy first home buyer .
“ This is the power of an auction . There wasn ’ t much between all of the offers we received prior so by converting to auction the power of competition increased the selling price for my sellers ,” Jannine said .
Ray White Sunbury directors Aaron Hill and Marin Durkovic broke a bidder record with 200 registered bidders attending their 22 Charming St , Hampton East auction earlier in the year .
“ We had 300 people at the first open and throughout the campaign probably around 400 to 500 groups in total ,” Aaron said .
“ The buyers were a young couple in their 30s who didn ’ t see the home until after the auction . They didn ’ t even know it was a Block home !”
Betty Lee and Simon Farkona-Adams ( pictured below ) own Boo Beauty Bar , a Melbourne-based lash lift and brow lamination beauty supplier . The couple ( pictured below ), who had originally been looking in the inner suburbs , were searching for their first home and said the purchase hadn ’ t fully sunk in yet .
“ We don ' t watch TV , we just pretty much stream stuff so we didn ’ t know this was one of The Block houses ,” Simon said .
“ We woke up a bit late to come to the auction so we rushed down there , parked a few blocks away and by time we got there , the gate was closing and the open home had finished .
“ But from what we saw online , we had a rough idea so we just went for it . This is our first house but we didn ’ t plan on moving to the east side .
“ When we went inside after the auction , we saw so many details that we appreciated , especially the open plan living and the pool .
“ When the hammer came down , I wasn ’ t really feeling . It really hasn ’ t set in yet .”