Address: 44 Mary Street, Hawthorn
Auctioneer: Steve Abbott
SOI: $6,500,000 – $6,900,000
Crowd: 66
Opening Bid: $6,500,000 vendor bid
Passed in: $6,945,000
Sold After; Undisclosed
Bidderman: 2
Rating link: https://marketnews.com.au/44-mary-street-hawthorn-james-home-ratings/
Reporter: Randall
The Grace Park address drew a solid crowd that stood on the opposite side of the street. It contained two bidders who tested one another after the regulation vendor bid to open. Bidding moved firmly to $6,850,000, then from here a few $10,000 rises were added until the home passed in to the initial bidder.
26 Chatsworth Road, Prahran
Auctioneer: Tom McCarthy
SOI: $2,000,000 – $2,200,000
Crowd: 60
Opening Bid: $1,800,000
On the Market: $2,290,000
Under the Hammer: $2,290,000
Bidderman: 3
Rating link: https://marketnews.com.au/26-chatsworth-road-prahran-james-home-ratings/
Reporter: Kathy
After a slow start, with the opening bid under the quoted range, three bidders gradually increased their bidding pace. After a quick break, the property was declared on the market and sold to bidder two.
55 Well Street Brighton
For vendors considering auction in the next 60 days. The market looks strong (and it is)— but look a little closer.
It was a bitter wind blowing in Brighton today but not at 55 Well street where a crowd of 30 gathered to see a call for offers. Undeterred auctioneer Halle Moore opened proceedings with a vendor bid of $2,900,000 and bids were quickly underway between two parties. A referral at $3,200,000 saw the home placed onto the market and sold shortly afterward for $3,210,000.
G’day I hope you’re well and feeling the energy shift as we move into spring prep. I just wanted to share something I’m seeing that could make a real difference to your outcome if you’re planning a move.
Last week, Domain reported a 73% Melbourne auction clearance rate. But REIV’s Top 20 results? Just 50%. Dig deeper, and only 2 of the 10 failed auctions have sold a week on—one is under offer, the rest still unsold, most asking well above pass-in levels. This gap between spin and outcomes has not been closed.
Key Learnings:
- Market strength helps, but doesn’t guarantee success
- Agent pricing accuracy is still critical.
- Listening and adjusting early beats waiting and discounting later
Yes the world is alive with underquoting and it’s real but there is a flipside and that is overquoting. 7 of 10 of last weeks pass-in vendors remain unsold a week on!
This isn’t about being conservative. It’s about being smart and strategic in a nuanced market.
Good decisions now set you up for a great spring.
| 582 | Neerim | Rd | HUGHESDALE | $3,650,000 | Passed In | For sale | $3,899,000 | |
| 372 | Beach | Rd | BEAUMARIS | $3,400,000 | Passed In | For sale | $3,550,000 | $3,750,000 |
| 138 | Marshall | St | IVANHOE | $3,090,000 | Passed In | UNDER OFFER | $3,150,000 | |
| 67 | Swallow | St | PORT MELBOURNE | undisclosed | Passed In | For sale | $3,095,000 | |
| 192 | Drummond | St | CARLTON | $2,600,000 | Passed In | For sale | $2,910,000 | $3,100,000 |
| 104 | Abbott | St | SANDRINGHAM | undisclosed | Passed In | For sale | $2,600,000 | $2,800,000 |
| 135 | Through | Rd | CAMBERWELL | $undisclosed | Passed In | SOLD | $2,758,000 | |
| 4 | Lydson | St | MURRUMBEENA | $2,500,000 | Passed In | Withdrawn? | ||
| 10 | Speers | Ct | WARRANDYTE | $2,500,000 | Passed In | For sale | $2,595,000 | |
| 4 | Emo | Rd | MALVERN EAST | $2,500,000 | Passed In | SOLD | undisclosed |
Every week I see dozens of homes, but every so often one stands out — not because it’s the flashiest or newest, but because it simply works. This week, that home was 4 Loch Street, Surrey Hills.
I’ve always had a soft spot for Fasham Johnson homes, and this one is a textbook example of why. Built around 30 years ago, its design philosophy is timeless. Clean lines, clever use of light, and a floor plan that’s just as relevant today as when it was first drawn. Homes like this aren’t about showing off — they’re about living well.
On 710sqm, it’s not the largest block in Surrey Hills, yet the design captures every inch. A west-facing rear could be seen as a drawback, but not here — the home cleverly brings north light into the living areas, making the spaces bright and warm. The bedroom separation is smart, giving parents and children their own zones. Yes, the bedrooms might feel a little smaller by today’s oversized standards, but maybe that’s a gentle reminder that life doesn’t have to be about excess.
And that’s where this home really connects with me. Its simplicity isn’t spartan — it’s clarity. There’s space to breathe, space to live, but not so much house that you spend your life paying for it, cleaning it, or filling it with stuff. Compare that to a massive mortgage, endless overtime, and barely seeing your children — the choice feels obvious.
It’s the kind of place you can live in your whole life: from moving out on your own, to living as a couple, through the primary and secondary school years, to becoming empty nesters, and beyond. It’s all single-level, so it works beautifully as you get older. You can lock it up and travel for months. You can rent it out without lifting a finger. Buy once, pay the government once, and live the rest of your life incredibly well. This one’s a quiet achiever—but a brilliant home.
I thought of a wonderful couple I’ve worked with in Canterbury and revisited them this week — they chose the simple, humble life years ago. No unnecessary debt, no chasing appearances, just focus on family and what matters. And they’ve thrived. It’s the philosophy behind books like The Millionaire Next Door: true wealth is freedom, not consumption.
4 Loch Street embodies that same spirit. A timeless, functional home, family-friendly location, and value that will endure. For me, it’s the clearest example this week that good design and a simple life go hand in hand.
Key takeaways from “The Millionaire Next Door” regarding home buying:
- Affordability is key:
- Location, location, but not always luxury:
- Frugality over flashiness:
- Long-term perspective:
askJAMES
Melbourne real estate is going through a major change, just as it did with the freeing up of banking regulations in the ’80s, which allowed internationalisation of our market in the late ’90s to begin and rocket post-GFC with the relaxing of FIRB rules. This coincided with computerisation, productivity improvements for businesses and their owners, then the internet, then social media, and now AI.
What has this meant to you—are you happier and better off? Are your children in better positions than you were 30 years ago? Mmmmm.
Whatever your view (and mine is always “it is what it is and let’s deal with the cards we have in front of us”), whatever you believe, we are in the throes of major, major change. That may happen tomorrow, this year, or there may be a lag as there was with all of the above—whatever the case, it’s on its way.
That is what we are doing here at James—responding to that change rather than reacting.
We see a greater role in advocacy for us—more than ever before. To stay content, keep your family protected, and move forward, you need to buy and sell well. AI is the best and worst tool in facilitating that, for it is information—and the quality of it and how it is used—that determines your family’s trajectory.
More and more information, I have found, will not help you make better decisions. If anything, it helps you make poorer ones or non-decisions—which is a decision.
How do you know if you need help?
How do you know if the information you have, or how you are processing it, is not adding value to your life?
That is the big question I always ask when people ask me: “What do you provide, Mal, and why will it help me?”
How are you going yourself? And do you, in fact, know what you want?
Some advisors will do what you ask. We focus on doing what you really, really want. And that is where we are going with AI for you and askJAMES—better quality information, represented in a better way, more tailored to you so your options are more suitable and your outcomes far better.
askJAMES — Real answers, its real estate ai but only in the delivery, not the content.
We’re building askJAMES slowly and truthfully, so thanks for your patience. If you’ve got a question about a home, suburb, or strategy, please ask. We’ll always give you a grounded, honest view based on real inspections and experience. If there are any gaps along the way, apologies — we’re refining and improving this every week.
Practically speaking, as a buyer, are you finding what you want? With the market as it is, it’s false economy to be “saving” a 1% buyer advocate fee when you yourself don’t find a home and the market moves 10 or 20% in the next year while you’ve been renting.
Here’s a truth: If you don’t have a home to sell, if you don’t spend every week at homes talking to agents, if you don’t bid and negotiate, bid and negotiate, bid and negotiate, then you are not ahead of the game. And with a limited number of A-grade properties, you need to be ahead of the game.
As a seller, the guff you hear on social media about the powers of realestate.com.au and how it separates you from other sellers—when every seller is using them and last week’s clearance rate was only 50% amongst the top 20—defies any form of credible logic.
You need to attract, then engage, and then close on the best buyer(s). That does not come from being lost in the tumble dryer of a big agency machine.
The smart approach? Use the pluses (and there are some) of all the big agencies—not just one—and add it to the strategic thinking, market knowledge, and negotiation experience that comes from someone who lives and breathes this market every day.
Multi-agency advantages plus Mal James strategic oversight means you get:
- Access to every network, not just one agency’s database
- Independent advice without sales pressure
- Negotiation expertise honed over 1,500+ transactions
- Market intelligence that comes from seeing the whole picture, not just one agency’s slice
The market has changed. The tools are more complex. The competition is fiercer.
The question isn’t whether you can afford advocacy. It’s whether you can’t.
Does more information improve decision-making? Research shows it can—but only to a point. After that, you’re drowning in data while missing the decision.
I see this every week. Buyers armed with endless suburb reports, price histories, and market analyses who still can’t pull the trigger.
Sellers paralysed by conflicting agent advice, pricing opinions, and market predictions. More information didn’t help—it hurt.
The academic research backs this up. Whilst quality data reduces uncertainty (Pearl, 1988), excessive information creates cognitive overload, leading to delayed or poor decisions (Gigerenzer & Gaissmaier, 2011). In property, this plays out as buyers missing opportunities whilst “gathering more data” or sellers testing unrealistic prices because “the market might change or a lucky buyer comes along.”
How do you know when you have enough? When additional information stops changing your decision or you are still unable to make a decision—after all, a non-decision is a decision. When new data merely confirms what you already know. When the cost of gathering more exceeds the benefit of acting now.
That’s where askJAMES comes in.
Building on 25+ years of buyer and seller advocacy experience, it cuts through the noise. Instead of drowning you in data, it gives you the specific intelligence you need for your situation. It knows when you have enough information to act confidently.
askJAMES doesn’t give you more information—it gives you better information, tailored to your decision.
Because in property, the best decision isn’t the one with the most data. It’s the one with the right data, processed correctly, delivered when you need it.
Ready to stop researching and start deciding?
Try askJAMES—where 25 years of advocacy experience meets AI precision.
Recent James Home Ratings and their links
1.5 acres in Toorak – 58 Hopetoun Road Toorak – rating to follow early next week.
Do you have an off-market for any of our James Buyer Advocacy clients?
| PRICE | POSITION | PROPERTY |
| 3.5m | Brighton Church St Precinct | Apartment |
| 5m | Malvern East | Family home double garage |
| 2m | Carnegie to Richmond | Townhouse |
| 3.5m | Camberwell; Canterbury, Kew | New Home |
| 1.5m | Caulfield South Elsternwick Brighton North | 3B/2B/2C Land for dog |
| 7m | Larger block and family home | Bigger yard, will reno |
| 6m | Camberwell Hawthorn | Renovation Value Add up to $2m |
| 3m | Surrey Hills, Canterbury area | Low maintenance, no reno |
| 1.6m | Fitzroy North, Carlton North | First family home |
| 1.5m | Anderson Park Area – Hawthorn | Townhouse for single |
If you do great – we can come and have a look. Simone 0400304111 or Mal 0408107988
Some of the homes we are providing selling advocacy advice and services on this week
