How do The Block auctions work? Ex-contestant Rachel Carr reveals all

Auction week on The Block is undoubtedly the most exhilarating yet nerve-wracking time on the world’s largest renovation show.

Can you believe it’s been nearly 12 months since our houses on The Block Tree Change went under the hammer? I still remember the flight from Sydney to Melbourne, where a mix of excitement and utter cluelessness set the stage for what was ahead.

Now, let me reveal the behind-the-scenes reality that doesn’t make it to your TV screen.

You see, we had already wrapped up the construction and filming long before the auctions. While you were glued to the television, we were living our normal lives, trying not to cringe at our on-screen antics. Ah, the joys of self-reflection!

During this time, we were also working closely with our real estate agents to make sure our homes found new owners. We hosted weekly open houses, where our agents played the role of mind readers, trying to separate the genuine potential buyers from the enthusiastic Block fans who just wanted a glimpse of their favourite houses in person. There were private viewings, contracts were flying around, and our agents did their best to gauge the dynamics of the market for these unique homes in an area that hadn’t seen anything like it before. 

Six days before the auction, we jetted back to Gisborne from Sydney. The first few days of our return were spent meeting with our agents and evaluating our chances of selling our home.

In our case, the outlook was about as sunny as a rainy picnic. There wasn’t a robust pool of buyers for what we were offering. We knew that Danny Wallis, a seasoned Block buyer, was going to be there, but we were told he wasn’t showing much interest in our house. One of the buyer’s agents might have had a potential buyer for us, but it was a big “maybe.” Frankly, we were told point-blank that no buyers were interested in our home at a price point exceeding $4 million. 

A few other houses had brighter prospects. Danny Wallis had a soft spot for Houses 4 and 5, House 1 was like the popular kid at school with all the attention, and we had heard House 3 had a potential buyer. But when reserves day came, House 5 was the only one with two registered bidders.

The morning of filming the setting of reserves was so tense, you could cut the air with a sledgehammer. Among the contestants, we were a group divided, and this was the first time we had all been together in months. We were taken to film a beautiful segment at a nearby school, with hundreds of enthusiastic school kids cheering us on. For about 30 minutes, we stood united in front of these children, smiling and laughing at each other, and our nerves temporarily eased as we absorbed the energy from these inspired kids.

But reality soon hit us like a ton of bricks as we headed to the reserve reveal. On the way, I chanted to myself, “Please, let it be under $4 million! Please, let it be under $4 million!”

Our tables were set, Scotty, Shelly, and Alice were front and centre. I barely remember the conversation; all I recall is the tiny scroll with our reserves, showing a whopping $4.08 million. The silence in the room could’ve shattered glass. I might’ve been the first to speak and I’m pretty sure I swore, and Jenny followed suit. Finally, the 10 of us rallied together after months of being apart, only to realise there was no way we’d get our reserves lowered.

And the day was far from over. Tom and SJ [Sarah-Jane] still had to select the auction order. All we could think was how desperately we wanted the second or third spot.

After what felt like an eternity, and so many tears, they picked their order. They decided to put the boys first because they had two registered bidders, and Dyl and Jen last, because at the time it looked like they had a lot of interest. Having the power to choose auction order is both a blessing and a curse, I’m not sure what outweighed the other in our season. 

Once we were finished filming, our real estate agents met us at our houses to discuss the reserve price and the upcoming auction and it was met with grim responses. 

After all this, we were all well and truly exhausted and emotionally spent, but we had a saying on our season of The Block that all the contestants adopted: “It is what it is.” With that, a few of us cracked open a couple of bottles of wine and took ourselves to dinner.

The next day was spent preparing for the following day, our auctions. We were all scrambling to find buyers, and the only houses with registered bidders were houses 5 (who had two) and 1 (who had one). There wasn’t much sleep that night. 

The morning of the auction started early – the auction is held on a Saturday and airs on the Sunday night. Our family and friends all began to arrive, but we had decided to leave the kids at home; we couldn’t juggle auction drama and parenting at the same time. 

We were all really excited. The previous dread and despair had given way to strange optimism, and we genuinely believed we were all going to sell our houses.

Everything unfolded quickly, and we gathered in a room, ready to begin with Omar and Oz’s auction up first. The rest of the contestants watched the proceedings on a screen. 

You could feel the anticipation in the boys’ house, even from where we were standing. As the numbers kept going up, I could feel my heart sinking. Not because the boys were making money, but because I could tell then that it likely meant that some of us weren’t going to sell. We had two buyers overcapitalising incredibly in their bidding. They would realise this as soon as the sword fight finished. And it meant they would try and lowball the rest of the auctions … which is exactly what happened.

The boys had won big, and Tom and SJ were next. We all genuinely thought they would be in the same boat as House 5. No one expected what happened. No one.

The fallout from Tom and SJ’s auction was a train wreck of emotions. Tears, yelling, and stunned silence as they walked in. They were so amazing in their response, which is a true testament to their character.

Ryan and I had about 20 minutes to talk to our agents between Tom and SJ coming back in. Unfortunately, their auction had showed us that we needed to pass our house in before it hit reserves, so we decided on that course of action with our agents if it needed to go that way, and it did. Our opening bid was $2 million. $2.8 million off reserve. And the bids were few and far between. Our auctioneer passed it in. 

Post-auction negotiations were our lifeline.

Scotty joined us for a 20-minute roller coaster as we hashed it out with our agents until we settled on a deal with Danny Wallis, seeing us take home a profit of $169,000. It was a brief relief for ourselves, met again with sadness for our friends who went before us. 

But wait, there were still two more houses to go, and the emotional roller coaster showed no signs of stopping. More yelling. More tears. And the champagne started being poured, not in celebration, in necessity. 

After the auctions, we all had to gather for those final scenes. This is usually the part where you celebrate, but not in our case. We were still processing everything that just happened, and there was a lot to process.

After the official proceedings wrapped up, everyone went back to their own houses to be with their loved ones.

An hour later, Tom, SJ, Dyl, Jen, and their family and friends descended on our place for a post-auction bash. We celebrated, danced like there was no tomorrow, laughed, cried, laughed some more, and then danced again.

The next day, as the show aired, we watched it at our place with Dyl and Jen, and our phones went nuts with messages from family and friends who were glued to their screens.

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The Block is an obstacle course of emotion and hardship, and auction week is the grand finale of that wild ride. Emotions run higher than a kangaroo on a trampoline, and so much craziness happens behind the scenes that you don’t get to see. The Block gave us a wild opportunity, flung open doors, and turned us into Block buddies for life.

So, Australia, get ready for another wild ride because here we go again!

The Block auctions will air at 7pm on Sunday, November 5 on Nine.