Family with smart bidding tactic wins $1.79m renovated house
A family from Williamstown bought a cute-as-a-button double-fronted Victorian home in Newport after auction on Saturday for $1.79 million – $10,000 below the reserve – after making a single bid of $10,000 above a vendor bid.
The property at 32 Speight Street had a $1.8 million reserve and passed in on their bid of $1,735,000 before the sale was negotiated.
Though some reserve prices have been advertised over the past few weeks, Saturday marked the first official weekend when vendors going to auction were required to have published their reserves at least seven days prior under Victoria’s new auction rules.
It was a quieter than usual spring weekend, with 466 auctions scheduled for Saturday, less than the 698 last Saturday. Next Saturday, 853 auctions are scheduled so far.
There were 553 properties scheduled to go to auction in Melbourne throughout last week. By Saturday evening, Domain recorded a preliminary auction clearance rate of 53 per cent from 385 reported results throughout the week, while 59 auctions were withdrawn. Withdrawn auctions are counted as unsold properties when calculating the clearance rate.
Agents say turnkey properties are selling well, while those that need work are still finding buyers but are more challenging.
The home in Speight Street had been renovated by the vendors, who refurbished the bathrooms and added new flooring. It had been fully repainted, Jellis Craig Inner West’s Lauren Wood said.
The gorgeous spring weather brought out a crowd of about 50, but no opening bid came. Instead, the auction opened with a $1.7 million vendor bid.
A second vendor bid of $1,725,000 followed, before the buyers made their $1,735,000 offer.
Though two bidders were expected to compete, only the buyer, ended up raising a hand, allowing the family to negotiate the sale after the auction passed in, Wood said.
She said the market had its challenges as prices were down, after interest rate rises and the higher cost of living cut buyers’ borrowing capacity. There were fewer houses to choose from as spring remained quiet.
However, there were good opportunities for buyers.
“The savvy buyers know it’s a really good time to upgrade,” Wood said. “Though their property price has taken a hit, the other property will as well, so it’s all relative in this market.”
In West Melbourne, a liveable three-bedroom house that needed work at 427 Victoria Street sold under the hammer for $1,115,000, above the $1.06 million reserve.
Two bidders, one a family from North Melbourne, the other a local investor, competed, pushing the price past its advertised reserve.
Bidding opened on a vendor bid of $1 million, and the reserve price was reiterated for potential buyers.
A flurry of offers followed, with the family, which wanted to remain in the inner city, beating the investor.
It was the first time the house had been sold in 57 years, with the vendors, who had inherited the property, using it as an investment.
Barry Plant Essendon’s Paul Filippone said the house had been popular and agents were expecting more bidders to make an offer.
“There still seems to be a hesitancy for bidding,” Filippone said. “The houses that are liveable but need work are more of a challenge to sell because a lot of people don’t want to deal with tradespeople or pay for the extra costs.”
In Carlton North, a two-bedroom Victorian terrace fixer-upper sold for $1 million, below its $1.09 million reserve, after passing in on a $985,000 bid.
The auction for 527 Station Street opened on a vendor bid of $975,000, with the buyer, a local investor, making a further $10,000 offer before negotiating the sale after the auction.
Nelson Alexander Carlton’s James Pilliner said buyer feedback had been that the reserve was a little too high, so the sale price was not surprising, and the vendor was happy with the outcome.
“The investor will need to spend a bit more to fix it up, but it’s in a really good location and in a row of heritage houses,” Pilliner said.
“Typically, the buyer pool is a lot shallower for something that needs work, though those that have renovated before are not daunted by it.”
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