Gordon Park turns up the heat on busy auction day
This house at 22 Highland Street, Gordon Park sold at auction for $1.161 million.
McGrath auctioneer Justin Marsden was seconds away from selling his first home of the year at auction when a couple raced into the backyard of 22 Highland Street, Gordon Park and ducked under the outdoor clothes line with their bidder card in hand.
Bidders gather before the auction of 22 Highland Street, Gordon Park.
“Oh my God, we haven’t even seen the house,” the woman said afterwards.
“If I had spent more time looking (we would have bid) – we were discussing about a pool, that was probably our biggest thing. Next door has one but it’s the cost of getting one in here.”
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The mad dash was symptomatic of a busy auction day for Gordon Park in Brisbane’s north with three houses going to auction and bidders racing from one to the other in the hope of securing a sale.
Annie and Dan Worcester and their son Theo, who turned 10 months old on Saturday, were among this number, having started their day at 48 Jack Street where a renovated four-bedroom Queenslander on 709 sqm sold for $1.306 million with 13 bidders.
“It was huge, there would have been 100 people there,” Mr Worcester said.
The family, who are currently renting in Alderley, have been looking for their first home since the start of the year.
At the auction of 22 Highland Street, Mr Worcester’s opening bid of $900,000 knocked 10 of the 14 bidders out of the race.
The house is on one of the highest points of the street.
“We decided not to put a pre-auction offer in,” Mr Worcester said. “We thought we’d just come on the day.”
At $1.125 million and after a series of mostly $10,000 and $5000 bids, Grange couple Aimee and Matt Fedrick, who had been looking for a home on and off for six years, entered the auction by asking for a rise of $2500.
“Can we go in $5000s sir, just to make it simple?” Mr Marsden asked.
McGrath auctioneer and Queensland state manager Justin Marsden starts the auction of 22 Highland Street, Gordon Park.
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“We’ll hold it there at $1.125. We’ll pause and we’ll get some further instructions.”
The sellers, who were standing on the top deck overlooking the crowd of 60 on the 409 sqm property, agreed to put their home of 10 years on the market with an increased bid to $1.15 million.
The property was marketed through Craig Lea of McGrath Estate Agents — Wilston.
“Sir, happy to take your $2500 now,” Mr Marsden said.
Mr Fedrick replied with an extra $5000 and eventually bought the four-bedroom house for $1.161 million.
The Worcester family went from here to the auction of 33 Goulburn Street where 18 registered bidders took the four-bedroom house on a 410 sqm block to auction. It sold to first-home buyers for $1.145 million.
“We didn’t get a house for his 10-month birthday,” Mrs Worcester said.
The next auction in Gordon Park will be at 36 Goulburn Street on February 27.