Welcome back to our first new listings email of 2025!
For those loyal readers, I really appreciate you taking the time to consume my weekly musings, and thanks for all the positive feedback. (I’m almost as passionate about writing as selling houses).
2024 was a challenging time for vendors and real estate agents alike.
It wasn’t terrible. It wasn’t a bust market. In fact, we had a very productive and successful year – our third best in the last decade.
Nevertheless, it was more of a grind than an average year.
2024 was a far cry from the heady days of the Covid bubble of 2021, which, in hindsight, was a once in a lifetime boom market.
Our team sold more house in one month (October 2021) than most agents would sell in a good year. Thirty-one to be exact.
If a house didn’t sell within 15 days with multiple bidders, something was wrong.
Most vendors were achieving prices beyond their wildest dreams.
You could see the FOMO in buyers’ eyes… even via Zoom!
Job satisfaction was at an all-time high.
But the party had to end at some point. And what a party it was!
We’re still paying for the Covid hangover now. Literally. (Victoria apparently has the highest property taxes in the world after Belgium).
Flash forward to 2024 and our job description as agents had changed.
Resilience, empathy, honesty, and being great at having difficult conversations was the key skillset in 2024.
Vendors and buyers alike needed more handholding, guidance, encouragement, and frankly, emotional support.
But we embraced the grind and even relished in the challenge.
In spite of the negative sentiment and economic headwinds, the sales kept happening.
Team Fetter/Sciola sold 109 properties in calendar year 2024.
This speaks to the resilience of the Stonnington market, and the hard work of our team of now six.
We are very excited to welcome Duncan Fraser-Smith, Sales Consultant and Auctioneer, to Team Fetter/Sciola this year.
Duncan has a great reputation and proven track record in our market and is a terrific addition to our team.
Out of 116 properties we took to market last year, only four were withdrawn, and three are still on the market and likely to sell shortly.
Our success rate was 94 percent (109 out of 116) which we are very proud of.
We credit this to giving the right advice to our clients from the onset, and telling them what they need to hear, rather than what they want to hear.
I expect 2025 will bring more positivity.
Saturday saw our first round of open inspections for the year and it was, in a word, busy!
We had 16, 29, 34, and 54 groups of buyers through our new listings, respectively.
Compare this to an average first Saturday inspection count of about 12-15 groups over the course of last year and it points to a renewed enthusiasm to the opening market.
Inspection numbers always drop off in the subsequent weeks as stock levels build, but one thing is clear – there is no shortage of buyers.
After a long wait, the first rate cut, hopefully imminent, will be a welcome reprieve and will no doubt help with sentiment.
We hope we can assist you with your property plans this year, or at the very least give you some honest advice.
It is my naïve hope that we can marginally shift the perception of real estate agents, even if only in Stonnington, to at least being on par with used car salesmen!
(I know there will be at least one used car salesman reading so I apologize in advance for the comparison).
Feature property: 1 Hampden Road, Armadale
David Sciola 