Blog

You snooze you lose... why the early bird catches the worm

Friday 06 Sep 2019

Have you ever found a property that ticks all the boxes only to discover it’s been sold before you could blink?   Most sellers go to market very motivated with the aim of getting their properties sold, at a great price and in good time.  After all, they fork out thousands of dollars for photos, internet ads, brochures and signboards, and have to spend the next four weeks knowing that spotless isn’t good enough when it comes to open houses and often having to clear out the f ....

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Spring is around the corner…. and the market is bouncing back!

Wednesday 14 Aug 2019

As I predicted about 8 weeks ago, July 2019 saw the bottom of the market.  Unlike previous years where Winter suffered from low stock levels and therefore produced fantastic results, this year we have seen a great deal of “panic listing” and this actually made conditions worse for sellers causing a rock bottom market. Several major events in the last couple of weeks have now restored confidence for buyers and has produced an upswing in prices.  In particular the banks have ....

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A “no bull” attitude to underquoting….. here’s what you need to know

Sunday 07 Apr 2019

Everyone knows that the property market has changed in the last 12 months and is now well away from the heights of 2015/16.  It was something that we all knew would happen, because those prices just weren’t sustainable. Throw in a Royal Commission into the banking sector and changes to overseas investment, well, the bubble just had to burst at some point. Whilst property prices were on a fast upswing in 2015, the Office of Fair Trading looked into the practice of Agents underquoting.& ....

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For OUR eyes ONLY.... why buyers and sellers are keeping prices confidential

Saturday 09 Mar 2019

There are many reasons why you will see a confidential or undisclosed sale price after a property sells.  The request for privacy can come from the buyer or seller, so at the time of your purchase or sale, you’ll need to agree to the price being published or not and ask your agent to act accordingly. With a number of online real estate portals, once the price is published it will be embedded into internet history forevermore, so if you require privacy the first place is to start with ....

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How do you know the market has hit rock bottom? You’ll only know when it starts to go up…

Monday 12 Nov 2018

One of the hardest things to do in property is pick the bottom of the market and at present we are seeing buyers holding off until the market gets there.  But the only way to tell when the market has hit the bottom is when it starts to go up, and by then you may find that you’ve missed some good opportunities whilst trying to pick the markets lowest point.   History tells us that property markets work in cycles and obviously there is a top and bottom to any cycle.  But when ....

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The year of the Underdog. How buyers can win in Spring 2018.

Friday 05 Oct 2018

With the footy finals behind us and both underdogs holding the trophy, perhaps a new precedent has been set in 2018 for those that have been coming off second best in the property stakes. Just as smart sellers sell when no one else is selling, smart buyers buy when no one else is buying. So if you have been looking to buy in the last few years, now is the time to break away from tradition and give it all you’ve got, as your chances of taking out first place are the best they have been in a ....

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PROPERTY CLEARANCE RATES WE AREN’T TALKING ABOUT

Tuesday 25 Sep 2018

Property is always the talk around the table and auction clearance rates are on the tip of everybody’s tongue. But what are auction clearance rates used for? Typically, these numbers are indicators of how buyers perceive the market. When auction clearance rates are tracking above 70% this number is a key sign that the market is hot and is typically a seller’s market. Above 60% shows there is a steady demand of buyers to sellers and lower than this number increasingly suggests that th ....

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Spring 2018. FOMO turns to FOOP and why patience pays off

Saturday 15 Sep 2018

Welcome to Spring 2018. After six months of price correction, the Inner West market now seems to have stabilised and both buyers and sellers have mostly accepted the adjustment “that the market had to have”.  Market swings or changes traditionally take a bit of getting used to, especially for sellers who usually have to make the biggest adjustment. As opposed to last year where I saw buyers suffer from FOMO (fear of missing out), I am now seeing FOOP (fear of over paying), with ....

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Cutting to the chase… how, when & why you can buy or sell off market.

Monday 03 Sep 2018

About 10% of property sales in Sydney occur “off market”. An off market sale happens when a property is not advertised to the general public, so you might be left wondering exactly how to get involved. Sellers have a wide range of choices when it comes to offloading a property.  In a buoyant or rising market, most sellers choose a public sale to take advantage of strong buying conditions and the competitive marketplace.  Usually either by public auction or private treaty, p ....

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Opportunities Spring to mind

Friday 31 Aug 2018

As we enter spring it will be interesting to see if there is the usual increase in listed properties. This will be the first spring in 5 years that we could call a buyer’s market. After the downward price movement since April this year buyers are now out and about and closely monitoring activity. They may be sensing it to be an opportune time to make a move. If a large number of properties do come on the market, this is likely to create an oversupply, and buyers, seeing mediocre auction cl ....

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