We’ve personally had experience selling at auction twice now; our first being the infamous Block auction on ‘Fans v Faves’ in 2014. After an incredibly fun experience we were still pinching ourselves that we were chosen from everyone that applied. Although we poured our blood, sweat and tears into our Block apartment, we were honestly so blown away with the whole experience that we were really only hoping to walk away with what we would have earned if we were working our regular day jobs back home. Walking away with a profit of $567K was the icing on the cake!
Our second experience selling at auction was our first home. This is the home we’d purchased when we were 21 years old and worked on after work and on weekends for five years. You can read more about that renovation here. It came time to sell this when we were ready to make the move closer to the beach and find another renovators delight. During the time the house was being marketed, we’d been asked to complete on Channel Nine’s ‘Reno Rumble’ so we flew to Melbourne to renovate six houses in six weeks! In retrospect, this was a good distraction from an otherwise very emotional experience of farewelling our first home. We listened to the auction via phone whilst Kyal and I sat on the edge of a skip bin 950km away. It successfully sold, we hugged and congratulated each other and then proceeded to sand, putty and paint the night away…
Third time around, it has definitely felt different. Yes admittedly I have a LOT of pregnancy hormones on board, but I’m extremely emotional about this sale. Although we’d love to live in this amazing home, it’s not so much the fact that we won’t live here that is making me emotional. More the fact that it’s been an extremely busy year – our busiest yet. Our little man Ziya has been with us every step of the way and when you pour your time, funds and headspace into a project of this scale, you hope that someone will appreciate your efforts.
The time has finally come and auction day is here. A HUGE thank you and shout out to Penny Hancock and Paul Witney from LJ Hooker Bateau Bay. They have poured all their efforts into ensuring the three week campaign leading up to auction has been a success. Open for inspections have seen over 1200 people through the doors, and it’s been an absolute pleasure working with them both. We’ve also been so blown away with all the positive feedback – thank you to everyone who has supported us on our journey. Although this has given us confidence leading up to auction day, we both can’t help but feel nervous and excited about what’s to come.
What a great job our auctioneer Dave Holmes has done! We have officially sold under the hammer in a marathon auction that went for 40 minutes. 25 bids and 10 registered bidders in the mix – all in the searing midday heat. Kyal and I were lost for words throughout the process, and almost a week later and it still hasn’t sunk in. Congratulations to the new home owners! We’re so happy to have completed Long Jetty Renovation, super proud of the beautiful home we’ve created and sad that this journey is coming to an end, but we’re also very excited for 2018 and all that the next year of adventure entails.
Thank you to RAMS Home Loan Specialists and all our partners for continuing to support our renovation dreams.
Watch Bonus Episode 11 of the Long Jetty Online Series, brought to you by RAMS.