In case you missed all the action from Channel 9’s The Block 2012 Grand Finale, guest judge and Rescu. home renovation expert, Darren Palmer takes us behind the scenes of the thrilling auction and how winners Brad and Lara brought home The Block Auctions’ record-breaking sale.
by Darren Palmer www.darrenpalmer.com
We’ve all now seen the amazingly successful result of the Block 2012 and with one of, if not the largest amounts of prize money in any show on Australian TV’s history I’m sure everyone is looking forward to watching the next all-stars season of The Block. I’m sure there will be one or 2 applications being sent in for the series after that too. Watching the auction process with the rest of Australia was a genuinely exciting and emotional experience for me, even though I’d see it myself in the flesh when it was filmed.
The judges and the families of Dale, Sophie, Brad, Lara, Mike, Andrew, Dan and Dani were all watching a live feed of the auctions together as they happened. We weren’t aware of any of the reserve prices so the whole process was a different kind of exciting to watching the results on the TV.
There were 2 very clear things I learnt from watching the 4 auctions in a row. Brad & Lara’s auctioneer had a great strategy to get the best result. He managed the expectations of registered bidders by explaining the auction would proceed in increments of $50,000, then $20,000 then $10,000 down to $5,000 then $1,000. The brilliance behind this was that it created great momentum at the beginning of the auction and he kept that momentum running all the way through, only pausing to allow phone and internet bidders to catch up and register their next bid. This was a brilliant and extremely successful strategy and I wonder how much it contributed to Brad and Lara’s amazing sale price.
On the flip side we had the sale of Mike and Andrew’s house. From a purchasers point of view the successful bidder had a strategy that was just as successful. He gave obscure bids that bamboozled people, himself included, and slowed down the momentum of the auction. This gave him time to frustrate other bidders and calm the process down, in essence controlling the auction in his favour. By using this strategy I also wonder if he didn’t save himself tens of thousands of dollars in a sale that would’ve been his ultimately anyway.
If I were to give 2 pieces of advice from my experience at this year’s Block Auctions it would be this:
– If you’re selling, get an auctioneer that is savvy and has current tactics in creating, keeping and increasing momentum. Make sure they know how to engage the audience and be sure they control the increments that they are willing to take as bids
– If you’re buying, the strategy that the new owner of Mike and Andrew’s house was frustratingly successful. Do what you can to slow down the process. Frustrate other bidders and wear them down. That seemed to work a treat and it may save you tens of thousands on auction day too. Either way and no matter the process used to auction them, we have 4 sold properties and 8 very happy and grateful contestants that have had their lives changed forever from their time on The Block.
