How a dollar secured this little slice of Paradise

A dollar won’t get you much these days, but for one lucky couple it was the difference between buying a home and leaving empty-handed.

It’s not every day that one dollar will buy you a family home, but that’s exactly what happened at an auction in Paradise on Saturday.

The original 1960s home at 5 Lewis Ave almost sold for $700,000 until auctioneer Troy Tyndall convinced an interested couple to make one more bid. They did – adding one whole dollar.

To the surprise of all gathered, the other bidding party walked away and the new owners secured the property for $700,001.

“The couple that bought it arrived at the auction and said they had changed their minds and almost hadn’t come to the auction at all,” LJ Hooker sales agent Greg Nicholls said.

“And when I started writing their number up and they said, ‘no, we want lucky number five, because the house is 5 Lewis Ave.”

Vendors Elizabeth Jedrzejczak (far left) and Catherine French (second from right) with the Sue Stephens and John Stephens, the new owners of the family home at 5 Lewis St that they secured with a bid increase of just $1. Picture: Supplied

Mr Nicholls said he occasionally had seen bidding come down to $1000 and even into the hundreds, but this was the first time he’d ever seen a raise of just one dollar. He said the new owners planned to rebuild on the block, but had plans to incorporate the home’s stonework and wooden floorboards into their new house as a nod to its history.

“They’re even planning to frame the original plans and hang them on the wall, so it’s a lovely story,” Mr Nicholls said.

“We could not be happier that the house has been sold to a lovely couple that will preserve some of the history of our family home,” vendor Elizabeth Jedrzejczak, who grew up in the home, said.

“Who would have thought that the someone that will love the bespoke elements of the home like the Basket Range stone frontage and timber floors throughout would be able to secure it for $1 over someone who would just knock it down and started again.”

Number 5 Lewis Ave, Paradise.