It’s up! Prices are up! Never seen a market like it!
Doom. Gloom. Regret (is there a violin in the house?). What happened?
Ah, the Top End. Every home an exception. On the ladders it’s never been better, on the snakes it’s bite, bite, bite. For buyers it’s hen’s teeth time, not helped by the election or even the cut in interest rates.
Snakes Alive!
23 Montalto Avenue Any more bids? One to start would have shattered the silence.
Around the corner. 10 Cole Court If anyone had dropped a pin it would have been the loudest sound of the day.
59 Avoca Street Six flats, good land, heritage issues. Anyone ready to go past $7.5m? No? Reality bites again.
Down where the trends are born. Greville Street, Prahran Double-fronted Victorian. No. 16. No.No.No.
Ladder Marathons
4 Ledbury Court On the market since … since for a very long time. Many agents, many failed attempts. Finally dispatched via quick private auction @ $6.37m. Scarcity = opportunity. Grins at Kay & Burton.
60 Stuart Street Offered privately forever. Worth at least $4m. Sold for $4.8m. Yes. Really.
Ladder Sprints
Fawkner Street Small block. Needs a reno. Expects $3m. Gets $4m. Who needs Tattslotto?
Come In Spinner Award
Agent knocks on a door with a buyer in tow who doesn’t know how the buyer/seller/agent thing is supposed to work. Sale made. Premium is $5m over market value. Ignorance ain’t cheap.
Stimulus Packages
Agents’ sales meetings where the emphasis has become on putting pressure on their vendor clients to get real about how much to expect. Will prices become more fragile as a result?
Chinese Burns
Properties bought at high prices last year coming back to the market for re-sale. FIRB at work? Oz no longer the flavour of the month?
Non-contenders
Agents sitting at home by the fire waiting for their drought to end.
Great Big Agency with (judging by the ads) nothing to sell.
Desperados scraping the bottoms of the barrels where their ethics disappeared.
Kids, it should not be that hard. You don’t pay for stock, you don’t pay for marketing. All you have to do is put people together honestly and with the cards on the table. But you keep it mysterious and that foot you’re shooting is your own.