9 Loller Street, Brighton.
Great Brighton location and north facing rear, this property offered a multitude of options (redevelop, bulldoze or renovate) and if the vendor was prepared to sell, this was always going to. I rated this property 620/1000. Every now and again you come across a smart-alec crowd bidder, and this happened here. A low take-it or leave-it opening bid followed by small raises (“what, you aren’t going to accept my $10,000 increase, there is nobody here bidding?”) were part of the artillery of this young man and most people would have found this annoying.I am sure the auctioneer, Leigh Hallamore did; he passed the property in to another bidder for $1,300,000 – $10,000 less than what was offered. “But you have to accept my bid!” claimed the young man. Unfortunately, no, the auctioneer doesn’t. The property did sell, for an undisclosed amount (believed to be below $1,400,000). Based on recent land results for Brighton, this was a bargain. But not for the angry young man.

49 Hobson Street, Newport
This auction was always going to be interesting. A house of good design and build yet there were other two dominant negatives with this – south facing rear and industrial views (see below – this photo unfortunately did not make the grade for the advertising material). I rated this 525/1000. Before a good crowd, auctioneer Wayne Sweeney opened the bidding at $750,000 – the base end of the quoting range. Three bidders obviously in love with the renovation and happy to live on the doorstep of a petrochemical minefield fought this out, and it eventually sold for $810,000. I felt this was a fantastic result for the agency and vendor alike – sure the house was good, but in a weakening market we have seen time and time again properties with dominant negatives passing in. With limited offerings on the market, often people panic and accept second best – I felt that is what happened here.

12 Elm Grove, Brighton
North facing rear and in a great leafy location. A good renter (currently collecting $2600 pcm according to agent) with few maintenance issues were other positives. The negatives were the house (a brick veneer spec home with a not-so-good layout – bedrooms to the rear instead of open-planned living and a façade which will date). Could easily change this. We rated this property 575/1000. David Hart of Buxton’s opened the bidding at $1,100,000 and closed it shortly thereafter in front a small crowd which did not bid and never really looked like doing so. At the time of writing this remains for sale at the reserve price of $1,350,000.