What does it mean when a house is passed in at auction?

During The Block auctions, there is one phrase the teams don't want to have to utter – "pass it in".

At the 2025 auction, two teams decided to pass their house in as it looked like it might not hit the reserve.

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Emma and Ben were shellshocked as House 1's auction closely crept towards their reserve price, leading to a last minute panicked call to their agent calling for the auction to be paused.

After a vendor bid failed to reinvigorate the crowd, they passed in their house.

The same fate fell on Han and Can, whose house went last in the 2025 auctions and failed to receive a bid besides their own vendor bid.

At the 2024 auction, all five teams were blown away by their profits, with even last place Kylie and Brad walking away with a whopping $650,000 profit.

In 2023, Leah and Ash decided to pass their house in as it looked like it might not hit reserve.

They were the last couple to go to auction and after a disappointing start, they stepped in and made the decision to pass in their home before a bid over reserve was made.

The phrase was also used twice in 2022.

Rachel and Ryan passed in their house, but still managed to negotiate a sale with the highest bidder, Danny Wallis, on the night.

While Ankur and Sharon and Dylan and Jenny also passed in their homes, they failed to sell their homes at auction but did so later.

We break down what it means to "pass it in" and explain why it is so important.

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What happens when a property is 'passed in' at auction?

When a property up for auction is "passed in" it means the top bid hasn't met the reserve price yet.

Before any bids reach the reserve price, the vendor has the opportunity to ask the highest bidder to step out of the auction to carry out private negotiations.

This process is known as "passing it in".

During these negotiations the bidder may offer more money than they did in the auction or the vendor make accept less money than they hoped.

More often than not, the results of these negotiations are that the two parties meet somewhere in the middle.

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Why is passing in a property so important?

Property is a dicey game and making the decision to pass a house in can be overwhelming.

But if played right it can work in favour of both the seller and the buyer.

In 2022, Rachel and Ryan made the calculated decision to pass their property in to go into negotiations with the highest bidder Danny.

Because of this Rachel and Ryan were able to balance their own expectations and Danny's and they met in the middle with a price of $4,249,000.85.

It was a price that they were also unlikely to get during the heat of their auction.

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The decision meant that the pair walked away with almost $170k.

Scott Cam dubbed the call "the smartest and best thing" Rachel and Ryan could've done in that situation.

"I'm so glad that we were just able to think clearly and have it passed in, that was the most important thing," Rachel exclusively told 9Entertainment moments after their auction.

"One hundred per cent we are glad, because that could've been it and we could've been in the same boat as House 1," Ryan added.

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Unlike Rachel and Ryan, Tom and Sarah-Jane did not pass their property in.

Unfortunately it meant that their house was on the market at a bid that was just $20,000 over the reserve price.

With no higher bids made and the house officially on the market, the house had to be sold.

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The contrast between the results of House 1 and House 2's auctions is why Scotty advised Houses 3 and 4 to also pass their properties in if the bids weren't going their way.

"If it's getting close to $4,050,000 or something like that and it's stalling, you've got to pass it in," the host told Ankur and Sharon ahead of their auction.

"Because if the auctioneer takes $4.1 million, you're gone."

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