Bleeding in a next-to-nothing market

You can never say nothing is happening, but next-to-nothing comes close. 

There’s cheery spin on offer and that’s about all that is moving. The plug has been pulled. 

EOI’s? Over the last few weeks they’ve been EO(lack of)I even when they were good homes in good positions. 

Down the coast? Land tax is taking its toll. Demand is on holiday. There will be prayers that it’s not long-service leave.

Betting on breaking the drought

Cranlana

The Myer family’s ‘Cranlana’ at 62-62A Clendon Road. Expectations of $100m. Heritage and renovation concerns may moderate that. Our prediction? Most likely that a local hand will be raised, the question is: How high?

No rush?


2 Macquarie Road
began with hopes of $100m, then $90m and now $70-75m. What’s $20m+ between friends?

16 Moule Avenue, Brighton. It’s been on the market for 705 days, starting at $50m and now all yours for $39.9-43m. You could get a good lunch, with wine, with the savings you make. 

Whisper

Rumours of a $24m sale in Brighton. Don’t say we told you. 

Attrition


12 Wallace Grove, Brighton
sold two years ago for $10.225m, sold again for $11m and sold in August for $10m. Cumulative capital gain? Minus $225,000 + $550k Stamp Duty. (Don’t spend it all at once.)

Land at 11A Linlithgow Road finally sold.  The vendor paid $10.5m plus stamps and sold it for $8.8m. That’s a $2m short back and sides in about a year. The Curse of Linlithgow strikes again. 

Gratuitous advice for agents

  1. Start real. 
  2. Engage with vendors on price expectations at the start of the campaign, not at the end when it has all fallen over.
  3. The days of being a door opener and counting the money are behind you.
  4. Work. Roll up your sleeves and work. 
  5. W.O.R.K. 
  6. Be straight
  7. Be there for your clients. 
  8. Be there for their buyers. 

PS. There are agents who don’t need our advice. They do this already. They do well.

Underquote or Amateur Hour?

184 Kooyong Road sold for $6.4m (as expected) against a $4-4.6m quote. People, this is Toorak. Prices are different here.

Pinocchio is on the phone?

You’re selling and have an agency? That’s not your agency on the phone, that’s Pinocchio trying to purloin your listing. 

The surprise is that he has the time. Just this week he has been visited by authorities muttering “underquoting” and maybe mentioning a cascade of complaints. Time, surely, is running out, Pino.

Prognostication

Because you expect one.

You’re buying? Good luck.

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