How I feel about The Block auction is how I imagine sport fanatics feel about grand final night. Emotional, excited and exhilarated! And I can happily say last night’s did not disappoint!
Having had to choose the auction order from a hat, Tim and Anastasia picked out a big, scary ‘1’, meaning they were first up. First seemed to be the position no one wanted, so I must admit I let out a sigh of relief that it was them over my favourites Dea and Daz.
With their reserve standing at $1,420,000, the auctioneer started and in what felt like seconds, it became a bidding war between buyers’ advocate judges Frank Valentic and Nicole Jacobs. Tim and Anastasia’s profit shot past $500,000, then the bids shot past $2 million and suddenly they were making a brand new Block record. Holy moley! A minute later it was over, the property sold for $2,175,000, $755,000 over reserve. Which saw their winnings stand at $100,000 higher than we’d ever seen on The Block! And to think they were going to walk away from it all! My goodness. No words.
Next up were Ayden and Jess, Jen’s favourites. Down to earth Jess said she would love $250,000 for a house and would be happy with $50,000 for a deposit. Turns out she didn’t have much to worry about! With the reserve at $1,335,000, once again the bidding started off quickly. It didn’t take long to get up to $1.7 million, with a profit of $365,000. “You’ve just got yourself a house and a pool!” said Scotty. It kept rising and ended up bang on $2 million, with a total winnings of $665,000. They didn’t beat Tim and Anastasia, but not a bad effort at all!
[contextly_sidebar id=”Yjxg4U9DI2iOoEUqIS0DcHi76RsDzLN4″]Ad break after ad break and then the couple I had been waiting for: Dea and Daz. My fingers were crossed there wouldn’t be a repeat of last year, where they took home a measly $10,000 for their efforts. The reserve was at $1,455,000 and they had to reach $2,210,000 to beat Tim and Anastasia. Could they do it? Yes, yes, yes! In the quickest bidding we’d seen, the bids flew over the $2 million mark in a flash. I was a bit too busy jumping up and down to keep up with writing down the figures (apologies for that!) but they shot past Tim and Anastasia, taking home $835,000 and selling their property for $2,290,000. This is just crazy money! As Dea said: “I’m speechless for the first time ever.”
Finally it was Josh and Charlotte’s turn. To win, they had to sell theirs for $2,225,000. The reserve was at $1,390,000 and the first bid? $1,800,000! As usual, bids were coming thick and fast. In the end, they sold their property for $2,200,000; just $25,000 shy of Dea and Daz. But alas, it wasn’t meant to be and they took home a profit of $810,000. Hardly a fail though!
What a success for all! Though I must admit the cynic in me thinks Channel 9 made the reserves unrealistically low because of last year’s disaster! Buyers’ advocate Nicole even said a few weeks back that she thought Ayden and Jess’ was worth in the $2 millions, yet their reserve was $1.3 million! But hey, it made for better TV and the contestants got to take home an amazing amount of money for their hard work, so no complaints.
This series, The Block gave away a record-breaking $3 million and my favourites, Dea and Daz won, going home with $935,000 (including the extra $100,000 they got for winning). So all in all I’d say it was worth the ten weeks of hard work!
Until next time, Blockheads.
