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Tom Panos, auctioneer of the winning property on The Block 2023, reveals what the cameras didn’t capture in this year’s finale of the beloved Australian property show.
Speaking on a special episode of Real Estate Exposed with Phil Tarrant, Mr Panos said he was thrilled to bring in such a great result for couple Steph and Gian, whose efforts saw them take the winning title this year, netting a prize of $1.75 million.
But while the TV showed the successful auction of House 4 lasting for about two minutes, Mr Panos revealed that in fact it lasted for close to an hour. What viewers missed was the art and strategy deployed by an auctioneer to net such a strong result for the clients.
For Mr Panos, that started by identifying the likely bidders, and he had his sights set on Adrian “Lambo Guy” Portelli, who made waves last year when he swept in and delivered a record result for Omar and Oz, whose home went for $1.586 million over reserve and saw the duo take home $1.68 million in prize money.
To the average viewer, it might not seem like an auctioneer – or even an agent – has much impact on the overall sale price in the context of a big juggernaut like The Block.
“What the edit doesn’t show is how many vendor meetings and how many buyer meetings I had prior to the auction with people,” Mr Panos explained.
“What it doesn’t show is what you had said to the buyers are the potential things that are going to happen and what you told them to do.”
“I know Adrian Portelli bought [House 4] ... He is a person that needs the media because it drives his brand and his business. As an auctioneer, you need to know that because it affects the way that you address and speak to him during the auction,” Mr Panos said.
“What the edit doesn’t show you is how many times I pumped up Adrian Portelli’s company, saying ‘Well done, LMCT’.”
“At one stage, I said to Adrian Portelli when the bid was at 3,999,000, I looked at Adrian Portelli and I said, ‘I got to let you know, one hot day doesn’t make a summer. Are you the real deal?’ They didn’t show that.”
So while it all may seem like a foregone conclusion, Mr Panos noted that there’s a big team of property professionals behind the scenes who are making sure that they can get the best price possible using all the tools of the trade.
That being said, Mr Panos acknowledged that “there’s an element of luck to it”.
At the same time, he’s a firm believer that “you make your own luck”, and Mr Panos himself was strategic in choosing which property he worked with this year.
Being the auctioneer of the winning property in 2022, he had a number of offers from this year’s contestants to represent their properties on the all-important day.
“I’ll go pick the house that I think has got the best chance of winning,” he stated plainly.
“There’s no luck in that. That’s me doing due diligence, visiting the property from Sydney, sussing it out, getting a feel of, hey, do I think that regardless of renovation, does this home have the KPIs [to win]? Land size, situation, facing? All these things matter.”
The right house, combined with the right strategy, could very well be the reason last year’s record was bested, even in very different market conditions this year.
That, too, was certainly no foregone conclusion according to the agents, Ray White Sunbury directors Aaron Hill and Marin Durkovic alongside Chelsea Kleeven and Sharn Bayes.
“We didn’t think we’d be able to achieve what we were able to last year – with Omar and Oz breaking the initial record and winning $1.586 million over reserve – but once again our expectations have been exceeded,” Mr Hill said.
“Steph and Gian’s ‘Japandi’ house was the clear standout this year, and the couple’s hard work and design prowess were fully on display,” he added.
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