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Professional Conversations Facilitate Happiness

Welcome to Marketnews, Saturday the 12th of September.

Another interesting week at James Buyer Advocates and James Seller Advocates.

Some transactions. Some successful. Some not.

Plenty of meetings, ratings, auctions, on-markets, off-markets — and plenty of professional conversations.

Some stressful. Some enjoyable.

But always trying to say what we genuinely think is happening.

So what is happening?

I think Melbourne currently has three very different price markets.

$1m–$2m — There Are Buyers

At the lower end, particularly the $1 millions into the low $2 millions, there is still strength.

Yesterday, Park Drive, Parkville.

We’d recently bought for these clients in the same street. Above $4m. Now we needed to sell their existing home.

We ran our multi-agent process and appointed Stephanie Hawke of Nelson Alexander, whom I owe a coffee too.

Good property. Some faults. Great position, garden, yard and future potential.

Most importantly….. listening clients (I&R)!

Priced correctly.

Our clients wanted to transact. We’d had that conversation before we even bought for them.

Quote $1.75m–$1.85m.

On the market at $1.85m.

Four bidders.

Volcano.

Sold just over $2 million.

That’s a functioning market.

Then it got personal.

My daughter and her boyfriend.

267 Coppin Street, Richmond. Quote $1.4m–$1.54m through James Vine of RT Edgar — a good, fair quote.

We really wanted to buy it.

We offered $1.5m before auction. Two challengers appeared.

Zoom boardroom auction.

Three bidders.

We lost it at $1.661m.

Okay.

That’s property… but unlike most it super affected me and of course my daughter and her partner.

Then, 48 hours later, 201 Coppin Street (Nicholas Corby of Jellis Craig – good decent agent) came along.

Now remember: that first property was the first we’d bid on in a year of looking.

You don’t want to make a mistake when it’s your daughter.

Was this rebound buying?

We walked between the missed (267) and the new possible (201) via the Swan St lights.

Ninety seconds.

201 is double-fronted. Good land. Excellent rear car access. Very liveable, although needing some work.

Pest and building done. Legals checked. Ratings done. Conversations had. Busy Friday!

And then?

No competition.

No auction, just a negotiation on a similar quote of $1.5m to $1.65m.

Bought for $1.57m.

Same street. Same week.

One property: three bidders, $1.661m.

Another arguably equally good, perhaps better long term, but different: one buyer, $1.57m.

That’s today’s lower Top End market.

Competition — and opportunity.

$2m–$5m — Price Sensitive

This market is different.

We have two clients whose properties haven’t sold.

A year ago (even less) we genuinely told both we thought their homes were worth roughly X plus 20%.

Today the market is saying X.

Were we unprofessional then?

That was our genuine advice.

But the market, as they do, has changed.

Now we need another professional conversation.

Look at our Marketnews from August 22. 

13 properties in this price sensitive $2m to $5m range.

Half sold. Half didn’t.

The ones that didn’t sell?

I checked today: ALL still have not sold. Three weeks later, and the one that I really liked and reported on in Grove Road is basically priced at what it sold for in 2018, is an A-grader and ready to move in, and still has no takers.

Good properties. Some excellent.

That’s not necessarily a property problem.

It’s a market problem.

$5m Plus — Where’s the Market?

Above roughly $5 million, things become really difficult.

GFC. 1990s. Call it whatever you like.

There are buyers and sellers, but NO buyer depth, no buyer urgency.

And this can also be seen at $3m in fringe suburbs where $3m is double the normal price.

At these levels you don’t necessarily have a market.

You have an individual buyer and an individual seller.

If they meet, transaction. If they don’t, nothing.

That’s not negativity. This is the information you need to hear so you can make informed decisions.

That’s a professional conversation.

Okay Mal. What Do I Do?

• Maybe you’re a doctor with growing kids and need to trade up.

• Maybe you’re retiring and want to move from the family home into an apartment.

• Maybe the kids are 10 or 12 and you want a better lifestyle or to be closer to school.

• Or maybe you’re 27, 30, 35 and desperately trying to buy your first serious home.

There are solutions for all four.

But first:

What do you really, really want?

If your $8m property is worth $6m but you want $10m because somebody got that four years ago?

Fair enough. I’m not arguing.

I just can’t help you.

And frankly, I don’t want to spend my energy there… I have clients who want to transact and I need to be fair to them.

Give me somebody with a $3m house who understands they may get $2.6m, while there’s a good $5m house down the road we can buy for less than $4m?

Thats where I want to be and if you do too, then please ring me (smiley face).

The Three Humps

So I’ll finish with three humps.

Hump One — The Market.

Melbourne went up enormously from around 2016 to 2021, looking to double in that 8 to 10 year period like it had for the past 25 years.

But it didn’t. Since then, particularly at the top end, much of that “decade” gain has disappeared. In some cases we’re seeing a 20% drop this year.

128 Victoria Road, Hawthorn East, this weekend, is an example. I attended.

Lovely home. About 80 people. James Tostevin, a really good agent, auctioning.

For a while, nobody bid.

One bidder eventually emerged and, after negotiations, it sold for $3.95m from a $3.825m pass in. It last sold for $3.915m in 2021, so in many ways a bloody good result in a severely falling market.

Hump Two — Your Sale.

If genuine buyers aren’t appearing in the first couple of weeks, don’t assume another three months will magically produce your price.

Usually it’s the opposite.

It’s not:

“Wait and I’ll get my price.”

It’s more often:

“Wait and I’ll eventually take less.”

Price correctly, and if you haven’t, reprice quickly.

Have the difficult conversation early.

Hump Three — Your Life.

Moving in 2026 is bloody stressful.

Finance. Pest and building. Inspections. Off-markets. Agents. Negotiations. Auctions. Contracts. Bridging.

For six months there will be some stress.

Maybe plenty of it.

But then?

• Your kids have their bedrooms.

• You’ve bought your first home.

• You’ve moved into the apartment and resting up.

• You’ve got the garden you wanted — or finally got rid of the bloody garden you didn’t.

And you’re on with your life.

That’s why professional conversations are positive.

If you ask the right questions and have the right conversations, and take the right actions.

Yet get over the humps and, as my daughter and her boyfriend did this week and you get on with your life. Love you!