Auction madness: Owners rapt as Hawthorne home sells for $400k above expectations
Andrea and Arthur Raptis after selling their Hawthorne home. Picture: Annette Dew.
ANDREA Raptis never swears, but this was an exception.
Minutes in to the auction of her home at 10 Lindsay Street, Hawthorne (pictured below), and the bids were rising as fast as her blood pressure.
With 20 registered bidders and a killer opening bid of $1.252m, momentum kicked in and numbers were flying.
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This property at 10 Lindsay St, Hawthorne, sold under the hammer for $1.752 million.
Before long, the reserve had been surpassed, and when auctioneer Justin Nickerson yelled $1.6, Mrs Raptis uttered; ‘Oh my God’.
Her husband, Arthur Raptis, was standing next to her as they hid in the laundry while a crowd gathered to watch the action take place in the backyard of their replica Queenslander in the heart of one of Brisbane’s best suburbs.
Neither of them had had any sleep the night before.
Bidders watch on at the auction of 10 Lindsay St, Hawthorne. Picture: Annette Dew.
Now it was down to three bidders – a buyer’s agent bidding on someone’s behalf, a local couple and a young couple from Sydney.
The bidding reached $1.715m and Mrs Raptis was holding back tears. “I don’t swear, but &*%$,” said.
The couple could barely contain their excitement as the bids kept rising – $1.731, $1.735, $1.736, until it finally paused at $1.752m. Going once, going twice and it was gone – $400,000 above expectations.
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The back of the property at 10 Lindsay St, Hawthorne.
The young couple from Sydney had won.
Mr Raptis said he was stoked with the result given he paid $1.16m for the property in 2017 and only made minor improvements since. “With the way the credit market’s been going — the availability of credit, how cheap it is, and low rates, it really is unprecedented,” he said.
The kitchen in the home, which sold for $400,000 above expectations.
Mr Nickerson said that while the market had cooled slightly since March, properties in “sweet spots” like Hawthorne were still in high demand.
Overnight, he auctioned a four-bedroom house at 30 York Street, Morningside, which attracted 17 registered bidders and sold under-the-hammer for $1.5m. “That was well above where we expected,” Mr Nickerson said.
Auctioneer Justin Nickerson of Apollo Auctions during the auction of 10 Lindsay St, Hawthorne. Picture: Annette Dew.