Tears were shed by both parties after behind-closed-doors negotiations saw a four-bedroom former synagogue at 32 Lord Street, East Brunswick, pass from a family who had spent quarter of a century in the home, to a young local family who hope to stay for just as long.
A bumper crowd of over 100 locals and would-be buyers gathered next door in leafy Methven Park to watch auctioneer Greg Cusack make a vendor bid of $2.25 million for the renovated home.
Party-goers with fruit platters and birthday presents made their way through the crowd while Cusack worked hard to elicit genuine bids.
Making two further vendor bids to $2.5 million seemed to work, with a woman and a family making things more interesting by adding a couple of bids. However they weren't enough to secure the circa 1911 building and it passed in to the family for $2,675,000.
According to Jellis Craig agent Lisa Roberts, "fierce" after-auction negotiations involved a woman who had just seen it on the day, but did not bid at auction, and a family who had been the first people through when the campaign began. The family managed to secure it for an undisclosed amount post-auction.
Another grand home was up for auction today, but with some sections of ceiling too dangerous to walk under, this will require a lot of work.
The five-bedroom Italianate has graced 110 Riversdale Road, Hawthorn, since 1888 and, with a substantial area of land behind it and just a few adjustments to it, it screams "potential".
Marshall White auctioneer Antony Woodley pointed out that it was looking for its "next custodian ... to make this something very special". Online advertising noted that it cannot be demolished.
Woodley opened with a vendor bid of $2.5 million and four would-be buyers showed they were keen to be that custodian, with bids jumping rapidly in mostly $100,000 rises.
Just two bidders remained when it was announced "on the market" at $4.1 million, and 20 bids later, it sold to one of them for $4.6 million.
Unusually, the winner joked with Mr Woodley in the final stages of the auction that he was making a "bad decision" and, laughing, offered it to the underbidders for $100,000 more post-auction.
