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Melbourne Property: The Difficult Conversations That Get Deals Done

A good week at James Buyer Advocates.

A bit happened. Some buys. Some sells. Yes, some misses.

Looking back, one common thread. Difficult conversations.

Not negative (from my point of view). Professional. Conversations about what actually has to happen if you want to transact in this market.

Firstly, one we didn’t buy.

Early in the week, a good property we couldn’t buy. Poor pest and building report. I’m still amazed people buy without one.

This looked like a reasonable house. It wasn’t. Rising damp. Termite activity. Water leaks. Not a few cracks and a trip to Bunnings — potentially hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Difficult conversation with our client.

We didn’t buy it.

Sometimes good buying is the property you don’t buy.

One we did buy

At the other end of the week, a beautiful trophy home in Surrey Hills, agent was Tim Heavyside. Price already dropped through two previous campaigns with other agents. We found it for a client. Well done, Kathy.

Another difficult conversation.

Rather than grinding for the last dollar, we recommended a tight deadline and an offer strong enough to actually buy it.

That’s what we did. Competition came as predicted. They were beaten.

Difficult conversation. Positive result to our clients for listening.

Trading up — buying is only half the job. Now we sell. Their existing home needs work. Agent selection will matter. But the most attractive feature will likely be something simple — the right asking price. Code for: not higher than the market will bear.

Sale management via multi-agent, same story

Another home deal this week, a difficult conversation ($) about façade colour. It needed changing. It was changed. Presented completely differently.

We went off-market first. No interest. We recommended a public campaign. Another difficult conversation — this needed to be all-in.

Quote right. Presentation right. Agent work right.

The client listened. We went for it.

Did they get everything they wanted a year ago? Close but no. Did they get a good deal done and can they move on as they wanted to? Yes.

That was South Yarra – multi agent and good agent work from David Sciola – the successful multi-agent.

And yes, some we are managing didn’t sell. Interest, bidding, just not at the level clients wanted. Fair enough. But then, another difficult conversation — what next? Wanting a different market doesn’t create one.

The $7m–$10m conversation

Three different clients this week, selling around this level. Very few sales up here recently.

So convo was hold your nerve. Price correctly. Allow more than four weeks. Think properly about multi-agent, off-market, or public.

Difficult conversations, especially the pricing one. Off-market isn’t flying right now.

Why because too many agents ARE NOT having those difficult conversations…

…they are just kicking the can down the road…. that’s my code for unprofessional. And putting something online doesn’t solve a price problem either if priced incorrectly.

Summerhill Road (no financial connection to us) — when the pieces fit… it works

Which brings me to today’s auctions.

I’d rated Summerhill Road a couple of weeks back, looking at something nearby. I liked it. Good PPPs. Move-in ready, big family home, a little basic. AND priced correctly  quote of $3m-$3.3m. Two years ago, that quote might have been $3.4m-$3.6m, shooting for high threes. Not now.

Auction opened just under $3m. Four bidders to the halftime break, at $3.2m. Not frantic bidding — ten here, twenty there, limping rather than exploding.

Then Daniel Wheeler came back out. “We’re selling. On the market at $3.2m below the quote top of $3.3m.”

That brought out bidder five and a fifty-thousand-dollar knockout bid.

A well-run campaign. A well-run auction (it would have been very different even 12 months ago in how it was run and it would not have been on the market at $3.2m).

Across our smaller sample elsewhere today, results stay mixed. Bidderman — our measure since around 2008 — sits around one bidder per auction. That’s a falling market. Clearance rate, around fifty per cent. Not a good market, by any honest description.

Why the difficult conversations are not negative.

If your seven million dollar home has lost close to a million in value this year, you can wait another year, but with poor population growth, economic outlook, tax change; the market does not have an obvious catalyst to turn on a dime anytime soon. 

This is NOT a negative conversation, this a professional and ethical one as it might save you another million dollars from going out the door.

What is negative is a lie to you the buyer or seller and a quote over the odds  – that is an unprofessional conversation and negative.

If you’ve got an offer a hundred thousand below where you’d like — you can say no.

Maybe you get it back in six months. But also you need to be told that maybe in that time you will be three hundred thousand further away. Nobody knows for certain.

That’s the conversation.

Difficult. It is not negative if it’s ethical, professional, and aimed at helping you move on.

Sometimes I think I’m having a positive conversation. The client thinks I’m being negative.

Hey I’m just trying to work out — how do we get you where you actually want to go?

I’m here for people who want deals done. Buy. Sell. Trade up. Move on. And right now, getting a deal done often means somebody’s prepared to say what they genuinely think, even when it’s not what everyone wants to hear.

So a good week. Some wins, some misses, plenty of difficult conversations at James Buyer Advocates.

But when those difficult conversations are professional, realistic, and listened to, this market is transacting.