May 11, 2026
Alternatives To Not Selling …. ACTUALLY SELL
Craig and Ali Tiley in depth
Last week I focused on the Ruminators, the Collaborators and the Determinators — the personalities, the emotions, the theories, and yes, the genuine difficulties of buying and selling in Melbourne’s Top End right now, and likely for some time yet.
This week, it’s back to the stats.
Once you truly face reality (the real reality…. is there such a thing), you/me/we can discover something important.
There is always a forward.
A way through.
Often, there is an ok to very good deal to be done: buying, selling, or both.. it is just can be hidden in the emotion.
Step One: Reality.
Step Two: Clarity (what you actually want).
Step Three: Finality.
Deal done. Life moving forward.
Get Reality, Get Clarity, Get Finality.
That’s what 90% of below is about.
Our lives do not stop for Trumpian politics, Reserve Bank edicts, One Nation headlines, interest rate chatter or market noise.
Your thoughts?
The kids. Those pesky little or big annoyances.
- Some are arriving.
- Some are growing… some annoyingly so.
- Some are leaving home…. and some of us cheer and some cry.
Families change, regardless of inconvenient economics
This is a positive article. A practical article. An article about movement, not paralysis.
And to some of the greatest humans on earth and in heaven, our mums:
Happy Mother’s Day. Without you, none of us are anything.
Love you.
Reality - yes this is the market Top End
Clearance for Single Agent Campaigns Close at 30%
Yes, around 30% sold at EOI close. Its now the norm.
Which means approximately 70% remained unsold at close.
These random samples produced the same result in September 2025 as they did again in February/March 2026.
These facts have been publicly available for months.
To date, they remain undisputed.
Spring 2025 – 29%
Autumn 2026 – 27%
We followed up FebMarch 2026 unsolds and below (today) is the status of each
4% - that's 1 in 23 have since sold in the first quoted range - the rest haven't.
If you don’t get the method right from the beginning — and/or you go public with the wrong price — you can very quickly find yourself between a rock and a hard place.
So why rush into a mistake?
Take your time before you launch, not after your initial mistake.
Do your homework. Understand the reality, keep your clarity, even when it is hard, so as you can get to the finality.
Our clients try to. We try to.
Best endeavours to check all results but so many withdrawn – any errors let me know and will publish next week. But this feels right.
All above were publicly listed – no off-markets have been listed here for privacy reasons
Clarity - you don't have to sell. But if you want to we suggest a different strategy to insanity repeating
I’m not claiming any special powers.
I took my home in Warleigh Grove, Brighton off-market and it didn’t sell.
Why did I do it?
- Because I wanted to help my children into homes of their own.
One down.
One happening now.
One still to go.
Why didn’t it work?
- I wanted too much. AND
- I wouldn’t meet the market.
Emotionally, it felt like I was giving away the “family farm.”
So instead, I refinanced.
Tricky? Yes.
Doable? Also yes.
I now have a buffer to help Child No. 2 using debt rather than selling investments. Smart or dumb? Time will tell. But after plenty of ruminating, collaborating and eventually determinating (see last week), it felt like the right decision for me and my family.
I got my clarity.
So now I’m Airbnb-ing the property in July (rockclimbing in the Dolomites) while also repositioning and redeveloping it for my children and for my future (already at council).
Could I have sold?
Of course… but not for what I wanted.
No debt.
Healthy cash balance.
Cleaner and simpler.
But it didn’t feel right.
The point is this: there are always solutions.
I am never suggesting you give your home away.
And if you genuinely don’t want to sell, then power to you: don’t.
But do understand the market honestly.
Its not the agents, its not bad luck. Its you and your decisions….. so make good ones.
Get reality: we are here in this for a while. And just because you are wealthy and own a big home….many agents will come to you on your command….. but its the market and your decisions that decide your outcome.
Get clarity: what is best for you and your family, what do you really want. And just because you are wealthy and own a big home….there is no magic wand….what there is, is, your good decisions and your bad decisions.
Get finality: Make informed decisions and jump in. Half-arsed ones like testing this market at 2022 prices do nothing but stress you.
Move forward – it may mean not doing anything – but move forward – life is too boring stagnating in unhappiness…. If you need to get finality, to make those tough decisions, ruminate, yes, collaborate yes and then determinate… and don’t look back. Let go and move on.
Families change…. thats not yours, mine, your agents’ or the market’s fault. Thats simply human life.
Even though annoyingly 😩😱⛑️ often against inconvenient economics…….
New phenomenon going viral: unsold & withdrawn
This is one of the clearest signs of today’s process-driven market.
The owner did not truly have reality when they went to market.
Because deep down, nobody spends a fortune preparing, marketing and emotionally exposing their home to be unsuccessful and potentially taint its future price position — unless they genuinely have no choice.
But in this case, they still own it.
Which means, in reality, they did have a choice.
These situations used to be rare.
Now they are becoming commonplace: the withdrawn home.
And when that happens, nobody really wins.
Buyers don’t win — because they waste emotional energy chasing something that was never truly aligned to market reality.
Sellers certainly don’t win — because they spend money, time and emotional capital without achieving a result.
Agents don’t win either — despite what some may think. Failed campaigns help nobody long term.
Perhaps the advertisers win briefly. But even that is questionable, because prolonged failure and withdrawal eventually reduce future stock levels and seller confidence.
If the price is wrong, nobody wins.
Reality first.
Then clarity.
Then finality.
Finality, we get the deals done and you can move on
Multi-agent takes longer and is not perfect but currently at 90% clearance for those with patience
At James Buy Sell Advocacy, we believe it makes sense to test a home first: quietly, off market, and through a select multi-agent approach….before going fully public (if unsold), armed with genuine market knowledge rather than hope.
And please, don’t wait until a campaign has failed publicly before saying:
“I should ring Mal and then try multi-agent off market…”
In most cases, by then the genie is already out of the bottle.
Do it right the first time.
The large majority of genuine buyers for your home, or any home, will inspect within the first fortnight of public display. After that, momentum fades, competitive tension weakens, and the market begins asking questions rather than offering answers.
First impressions matter.
Timing matters.
Strategy matters.
Test off market first.
Test multiple quality agents buyer depth, not their flashy presentation packs.
Discover the right ask.
Discover who the right agent truly is.
Some homes never need to go public at all.
I remember 21 Manor Street clearly. The clients had two seemingly rare things: time and trust in a better process.
Over five weeks, through the fifth agent introduced, we finally found genuine interest, then an offer, and then a rock-solid deal right in the range.
Reality.
Clarity.
Finality.
1% to the agent. 1% to James. No risk, no other outlay. No advertising spend.
At Melbourne’s top end, patience plus process can outperform noise and urgency. It is not written in stone that a four-week EOI campaign is somehow the higher path.
What is often written in the rubble of a failed public campaign — with one’s undies at one’s ankles for all to see — is that perhaps it wasn’t.
Below is our Clearance Rate through these tougher times. Not perfect, nothing is, but it’s truthful (real stats), it’s pretty handy, and surely something worth considering.
This week we have started on market multi-agent in Aspendale, off market multi-agent in Balwyn, Blackburn and South Yarra. All others apart from East Melbourne (off market, great family, fully renovated family home, circa $10m, happy for any agent to show through) in 2025 and 2026 have sold via multi-agent process.
our last 10 @ James Buy Sell
We are not one size fits all. Multi agent, off market yes - however when it makes sense we are also single or multi-agent, on market, with advertising
Craig Tiley is a man on a new mission and so is his wife, Ali.
While the Australian Open has lost them to the US Open, there will still be a major win for someone here in Australia.
In 2022, Craig and Ali paid $13.1 million for this extraordinary absolute beachfront home in Aspendale, outbidding a $13.0 million underbidder who promptly bought next door instead. It was a high press sale… google if you want to.
Now, in 2026, the Tileys recognise the market and also know their life is no secret…. hence we are being noisy.
The ask for this brilliant beachfront home is $11.5 million.
Craig has said sell.
However to find the buyer for a home like this, you cannot simply wait for someone to type “absolute beachfront Aspendale” into a search engine. You have to actively find them. Maybe that buyer is you.
Hence the multi-agent campaign…. leveraging the brilliant local agent Garry Donovan 0419 588 660 combined with public multi-agency.
Meaning:
Any quality agent or advocate can buy or sell this home and, in doing so, gain some profile, some income and deliver their buyer the bargain of the year.
Contact me Mal 0408 107 988 to book your time, once your buyer has been qualified.
Agents/Advocates earn $100,000 (1%) and more publicity than you can handle as Melbourne's Best!!
