The auctions were drama-filled and The Block 2020 winners Jimmy and Tam will go down in the record books for the biggest win in the show’s history.

We’re taking you behind the scenes with the Queensland couple who sold their renovated 1950s property for more than $4.2 million. Jimmy and Tam, winners of The Block 2020, have taken home over $1 million in profit and prize money.

We’ve been speaking to them just hours after they joined the rest of Australia to watch back the incredible auctions. So in this podcast exclusive for At Home with Lauren Keenan, find out what they thought of the incredible auctions, hear how they watched back the auction on TV with their buyer, and they tell us what they’re going to do with their winnings.

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THE MOST DRAMATIC AUCTIONS EVER!

Jimmy and Tam told us that before this weekend they hadn’t been involved in an auction. 

“We had no idea what was going on and no one heard what Danny had said. And when he said $4.2 million, you should have seen us – we were all looking around and saying ‘is this a joke’?,” Tam told us.  

“It was over before it started. And the feeling on that couch is utter disbelief. We came onto The Block just hoping to get enough money for a deposit for a home loan. And we’ve come away to buy a home without a mortgage,” Jimmy said. 

Before being named The Block 2020 winners, Jimmy and Tam had the pressure of choosing the auction order. They won the ‘super power’ after accumulating the most points through all of the room judging across the season. 

It was a really tough and emotional task. Firstly, they chose to send Luke and Jasmine from House Four to auction to set the bar high. Then Jimmy and Tam elected to go second. And they were advised to relegate Harry and Tash fifth in the auction order because they were such strong competition. But Jimmy and Tam revealed to us that they didn’t know what the other contestants thought of their decision. 

“We’ve watched it back, that episode. But we don’t really know. They don’t really tell you how they’re feeling or give you too much. We spoke to our real estate and other people’s real estate and Shelley had her input too. And everyone was saying the same thing. We just had to have faith that it was going to work,” Tam said.

“You’re holding everyone’s outcome in the palm of your hand. One false move and it could have ruined the whole auction. We’re just so glad that it turned out the way it did and everyone got rewarded for all of the work they did,” Jimmy told us. 

JIMMY AND TAM FIND THE ‘PERFECT’ BUYER

We also discovered that Jimmy and Tam watched the final episode with their buyers. So they all got to celebrate their crowning as The Block 2020 winners together.  

“It was very emotional. We all cried together. It was really beautiful. They’re invested in this house just as much as us. Obviously it is theirs now, but they’ve seen the journey we went on and what we went through to make this home. They’re the most perfect buyers we could have imagined,” Tam told us. 

“She also said that this house is a one-off house. She said you can’t go on Domain and see any other house like this. It’s very unique. It’s very different. And she loved that. The whole season, that was something that was narrowing our market down but it paid off and taking that risk was worth it.” 

They also revealed that the underbidder for their property, businessman Danny Wallace, donated one of the three homes he bought to charity. Wallace was the highest bidder for homes one, two and three. And house three, built by South Australian couple Daniel and Jade, is being donated to My Room a children’s cancer charity.

WHAT THE BLOCK 2020 WINNERS WILL DO NEXT

Jimmy and Tam wanted to be part of The Block in 2020 to try to win some money to buy a home. And now they’re in a position to buy one, mortgage-free. 

“It’s a very overwhelming feeling because it’s very hard to comprehend. We’ve never seen that sort of money. We’re humbled that we were given the opportunity in the first place to be here and we’re proud of ourselves. There are many different emotions,” Tam told us.  

This series was one of the most challenging in the history of The Block after coronavirus shut the site down just a few weeks into the build. 

“It’s been a massive roller coaster. That first shutdown was the definitely the most mentally tough part of the whole journey. We were pretty much told ‘don’t expect to come back and finish the build’,” Jimmy said. 

Jimmy and Tam said they spent lot of time overthinking things during the lockdown. 

“We knew what track we were on. We had mentally locked ourselves in. And to get taken away from it, you second guess yourself and you’ve got more time to make errors,” they said.

“We designed our kitchen in week two and because we had time to think in the lockdown we had a big freak out and tried to re-design it. Luckily for us it was too late. The kitchens were already manufactured and the one we got was the one we first designed and it worked out for us.”

APPLICATIONS FOR THE BLOCK IN 2021

The Block starts shooting the next season in February. And the show will feature five houses again in 2021, but the twist is that they’ve bought existing homes in a cul-de-sac. If you think you’ve got what it takes to tackle the biggest renovation reality TV show on the planet, check out the application forms now on the Nine website. 

MORE ABOUT OUR PODCAST

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