Page 38 of The Do-Over

In the end, he has to drop another £10,000 before a bid comes in, but then they flow in quickly and the property quickly climbs back to the guide price before finally selling at £240,000.

‘They’re all playing the same tactics,’ Rebecca observes. ‘Not revealing their hand until they absolutely have to. Ah, here we go.’

‘Lot twenty-one,’ the auctioneer calls. ‘A disused watermill with attached cottage and grazing land. Who’ll give me £800,000 for it?’

Again, no paddles go up and he progressively drops the price to £700,000. At £650,000, you can tell he’s starting to get frustrated but a paddle goes up near the front.

‘Finally!’ the auctioneer exclaims. ‘Right, six-sixty anyone?’

Another paddle goes up and I can sense Rebecca twitching next to me. ‘Hold your nerve,’ I encourage her.

The two current bidders push the price back up to £700,000 fairly quickly, but one of them drops out at that point.

‘Seven-ten,’ the auctioneer calls. ‘Can I get seven-ten from anyone? I have to tell you we’re still below the reserve here, so we aren’t selling.’

No paddles go up.

‘OK, if that’s how it is,’ the auctioneer continues. ‘Seven hundred thousand. Once, twice?—’

‘Go!’ I whisper to Rebecca, and her hand shoots up.

‘Seven-ten from the back of the room!’ the auctioneer announces with renewed enthusiasm, and I see the other bidder turn around with an annoyed look on his face, trying to locate his competition.

‘Yeah, buddy, we’re coming for you,’ I murmur under my breath as I smile sweetly at him. From that point on, the price climbs in increments of £10,000 until, at £750,000, the other bidder throws in the towel.

‘We could be there,’ Rebecca murmurs excitedly. ‘The reserve has to be within 10 per cent of the guide price, so that’s anywhere from £720,000 upwards.’

‘OK. We’re still not at the reserve,’ the auctioneer announces, puncturing our optimism. ‘But seven-fifty is the final bid. Any more for any more? No? Seven-fifty once, twice, and not sold. Contact the team afterwards if you want to make an offer. Paddle number 604. Right, lot twenty-two, four acres of land with planning permission for three detached houses.’

This is obviously the lot that everyone has come for, as the bidding is fierce and it ends up going for substantially more than the guide price. Although it’s entertaining, I feel spent and just let it wash over me. Everything depends on Ben now, and whether he’s prepared to accept our offer. If he does, we’ve got ourselves a bargain.

‘The suspense is killing me,’ Rebecca mutters. ‘How many more lots?’

‘A few, I’m afraid.’

‘I don’t think we should offer any more than £775,000,’ she says firmly. ‘We were the only bidders left, so I don’t think we should have any competition now.’

‘I agree,’ I tell her. ‘Let’s wait and see what happens though.’

After the flurry of enthusiasm for the building plot, the rest of the auction is fairly lacklustre, and I’m glad when the final lot grinds its way up to the reserve price and the gavel falls for the last time. When I bought my house in London, there was fast-paced bidding for every property, so this has been a bit of a let-down in some ways.

‘Let’s go and find someone to talk to,’ I tell Rebecca, heading for the cashier desks. Although a large number of lots went unsold, the area is still busy and we have to wait for nearly an hour before a desk comes free.

‘How can I help you?’ the woman behind the desk asks.

‘It’s lot number twenty-one,’ I explain. ‘We’d like to see if we can make an acceptable offer for it.’

She taps at her screen for a while. ‘OK,’ she says. ‘I have to inform you that there has already been an offer put in from another bidder. Let’s see the status of that.’

My heart sinks as she taps some more. I know it’s not the end of the world, but we’ve put enough work into this that it will still be disappointing to lose it.

‘I can see that offer hasn’t been accepted yet,’ she says eventually.

‘Can you tell me how much it was?’ I ask.

‘No, sorry. I can take your offer and put it to the vendor though. Or, if your offer happened to be above the reserve price, I can authorise the sale myself.’

‘We’d like to offer £775,000,’ Rebecca tells the woman behind the desk, and I find myself mentally crossing my fingers.

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