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Woman manages to outbid herself at house auction

One fifth of those surveyed had left for a holiday only to turn back due to worrying that appliances had been left turned on
One fifth of those surveyed had left for a holiday only to turn back due to worrying that appliances had been left turned on
Reuters

A woman revealed herself to be a bit too keen to secure a house after she outbid herself in an auction.

The three bedroom house in Sydney, Australia was sold for $1.62 million, after the eager buyer bid $1.619 million, then ramped it up needlessly.

Speaking to local press, Matt O’Shea, who oversaw the auction, said the woman was “embarrassed” and had made a genuine error. He added that the company would refund her the $1000 she did not need to spend.

“Oatley is a very small community, and we just don’t want a perception that we’re doing the wrong thing, or ripping someone off,” he said.

“What I think happened is that it was pretty frantic, they had 16 people there bidding. So they had numbers there going backwards and forwards.

“She’s put her hand up and bid 1.620 not wanting to miss out, not realising in the pace of the auction that she had the last bid.

“It wasn’t something that was intentional, it was just the speed of the auction.”

O’Shea added that the woman approached him when she realised her mistake and asked for a refund.

“It’s just a goodwill thing that we would just return that,” he said.

Oops. Lucky for the woman that the company had such goodwill or that $1000 would have been flushed straight down one of her new toilets.

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