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Three Solutions: This Could Be a Great Market for You as a Buyer

Be you a doctor. A finance professional. A mum and dad. A business executive.

Be you someone slightly contrarian. Someone whose kids haven’t stopped growing.

Someone willing to act.

Yesterday’s auction at 2 Rosslyn Street, Hawthorn East (Anton Zhouk and Sam Wilkinson A-Z real estate) gave me a real buzz. I walked around the rest of the day, hyped. Happy.

Right price. Right property. Right position. The right PPPs.

About a hundred people there. Then it started. Bang. Two million, almost immediately.

On the market. Away it went. Like an F1 auction. I had nothing to do with it — I just turned up because I thought it might be interesting.

It was.

Because amongst all the noise right now, Rosslyn Street reminded me of something.

Quality still works. There are some really good opportunities out there.

So instead of another article on what’s wrong with the market, three solutions.

We see plenty in the market. Some throw the toys out of the cot. Some freeze. Some quietly hold their nerve, make good decisions, and get on with their lives.

I like working with that third group.

Solution one. Get your values right.

Not what your neighbour got three years ago. Not what you paid or even what I said a year ago. What is it worth now? Values have moved — in places, ten or twenty per cent below where people thought they were. Land once talked about at four thousand a metre might now be two thousand, seven hundred and fifty per sq metre.

I sound like the National Tiles bloke – Why pay 4000 you can pay us 2750.

But some buyers may still pay four thousand. Sometimes you have to pay that to buy these days – but many more times you don’t. Don’t always add 10% to the quote like a dinosaur… have a look also at subtracting that 10% instead.

We’ve worked with buyers in this current market for five years … it’s been dropping since Cup day 2021. Most of them also had something to sell. So the real question isn’t what’s the market doing. It’s what am I doing….what’s my changeover?

Solution two. Buy value.

Rosslyn Street was built sixty years ago. Still relevant. Still wanted. Still attracting bidders. That’s quality.

Warren Buffett doesn’t buy something and hope it becomes brilliant. He looks for quality and value. Property’s not that different. Our formula is PPP — price, property, position…. Eg ratings to help us find value… to help us grade for our clients. Buy the best combination you can. And don’t overpay.

Say you’re in a two million dollar home, always imagined the next step was five. Your two million market might still hold up if you market it right. But that five million property probably isn’t five anymore. Maybe it’s four or less. That’s the opportunity — not picking the bottom of Melbourne, just improving your position…. now?

Solution three. Its a whole, not a half of a deal. Get the changeover right.

Buying and selling aren’t two events. They’re one deal. What do you receive, what do you pay, what do you end up with — and what did it cost you in stress to get there?

Engage an advocate who then leaves you to flounder on the sale? Engage a selling agent who drums up a good price but you are left to fumble on the buy? It’s the whole transaction?

Your house used to be worth four. Maybe. But if you sell it for three point six and buy something that used to be seven for five — have you lost? Or improved your life for a million and a half? That’s dollars…. also has your youngest now got a bedroom…. See the little tackers don’t stop growing because the market is not firing for you.

Selling is stressful right now, I get it, I have empathy…. I am in the same market as you.

So ask for six million and go for it. But ask for seven in the wrong way and the stats say SO LOUDLY, you will get no sale at all.

It reminds me of walking in the mountains. Know the route, know the conditions.

My favourite saying — it’s not a successful summit if you die on the way down. Property’s nowhere near that dramatic, but getting so obsessed with the top dollar of yesteryear on your sale can wreck the move you actually wanted.

Climbing up, and getting down safely. That’s the job. Just my thoughts… reject them or not…. your call.

I watched the footy Saturday. The Blues changed direction, personnel, the plan — and look what can happen. Markets aren’t that different. Some of Melbourne’s biggest real estate businesses came out of the last long drop, the nineties. Sometimes the problem becomes the opportunity.

Many could say I have been unsuccessful in relationships… ok as I’ve had three long-term relationships in my life.

My thoughts are: One brought abundance. One brought excitement. One brings contentment. A great home isn’t remotely as important as the people in it — but strangely, it can bring some of those same feelings.

Abundance. Excitement (feel). Contentment (comfort). Move on.

There is stock.

There is time.

There is negotiating room.

Know the value. Buy quality. Get the changeover right…. with or without help… your call

You can get on with your life.

Have another look at that Rosslyn Street auction. A real buzz. Almost as much as being a Carlton supporter must feel right now. Although, as a Pies man, let’s not get too carried away.

Mal

James Buyer Advocates | Melbourne