The strategy that won Simon and Shannon The Block Glasshouse
With Simon and Shannon's profits clearing some of the competition by $325,000, plenty of punters are wondering what exactly the boys did right.
The brothers didn't win the most challenges on The Block Glasshouse, but they and the runners up, Chris and Jenna, were the only two of the five teams to secure six figure profits.
According to Simon and Shannon's auctioneer Damien Cooley, a large portion of their win can be attributed to the auction order. The boys chose to go second, while Chris and Jenna were stuck with the first auction.
"The biggest component for the auctions was the lack in depth of quality buyers," says Cooley.
"It was pretty obvious to us leading in to the auctions that we felt that there were three or four quality buyers, and that was the reason we wanted to go earlier in the order of sale rather than later."
Cooley says many of the teams who tried to get one of the final auction spots were hoping to replicate the success of The Block Fans v Faves, when each subsequent auction resulted in a higher sale price.
But some of the contestants didn't seem to factor in the weaker buyer interest for this season's properties.
"This year was a bit different in the sense that the buyer pool was not as strong as in the previous season," Cooley, pictured below, says.
Cooley auctioning Simon and Shannon's apartment on The Block.
An under bidder for Chris and Jenna's auction, represented by buyer's agent Frank Valentic of Advantage Property Consulting, ended up securing Simon and Shannon's apartment. The buyers of Max and Karstan's apartment, the third to be auctioned, was an under bidder on the first and second apartments.
"Once those buyers had all bought, there wasn't a lot of strength in the other buyers," Cooley notes.
"There were a lot of other prospective purchasers, but they weren't at the same level the others were at."
Cooley also believes there was another "game changer" at play: taking $50,000 bids.
"It's really important that you understand where your buyers are, where you think they might be at on price, and judge their strategy when they're bidding," he says.
"There's a lot of psychology involved and you don't have long to make decisions. I quickly decided to go in $50,000 increments."
He worked with Jellis Craig agents to secure the sale of Simon and Shannon's apartment, with the boys reporting that Cooley had recommended the agents to them.
The auction coincided tidily with Jellis Craig's brand relaunch, complete with new logo.
While the contestants for the next season of The Block haven't yet been locked in, a few prospective reality television renovators have already approached the Block regular to auction their forthcoming apartments.
