Author; David

There were more surprisingly strong results last week, bucking the trend of the now widely reported price falls across Melbourne. A family home in Malvern sold (with a competitor) for half a million dollars above the range. It was a good house. It wasn’t exceptional or newly renovated, but it was attractive, well positioned, conservatively […]

Yesterday we visited Realestate.com.au’s head office in Richmond and were presented with some intriguing insights and statistics. REA is Australia’s dominant real estate portal, with 124million visits per month, which is 3.36 times their nearest competitor. I was amazed to find out that Armadale was the most searched suburb in all of Victoria. (List below). […]

The market has been cooling for nine months already. I picked the turning of the market on Cup Weekend 2021. We were finally out of lockdown (for good) and expecting the property market to continue on its merry way once restrictions eased and we had freedom of movement. The exact opposite happened. Our inspection numbers […]

Last year was unusual. Last year was extraordinary. Last year was a one-off. There was a Thursday in October when I called six Zoom auctions in a row and all of them sold with multiple bidders, above the range, in less than 18 days on market. Clearance rates were above 90 percent, and I can’t […]

When I bought my first family home my buying journey was stereotypical. We started looking at properties that were well within our means. Unfortunately, we didn’t like them. They weren’t big enough or good enough. They had too many compromises. We would have outgrown them too quickly. So what did we do? Like any self-respecting […]

Like humans, all properties have their faults. There is no ‘perfect’ home. Even at $7,000,000 in Stonnington you won’t necessarily get a garage or North orientation. When a house is struggling to sell with limited interest, it can be tempting to focus on its shortcomings to justify or explain the lack of buyer engagement. But […]

The news editor from realestate.com.au approached me this week for comment on Prahran and its appeal. The context being that Prahran has bucked the trend of stagnating prices by posting a quarterly median house price gain of 10.6%, and they would like to know why I thought this might be the case. At the risk […]

The real estate market is seasonal. Particularly in Stonnington. Our year goes like this: January – Closed (everyone is in Noosa and/or Portsea) February – Opening Market (a good month to sell with a full buyer pool and limited stock) March – Busy (a good month to buy and sell… Make sure your A/C works) […]

There is a reason why we encourage all our vendors to invest thousands of dollars in professional styling. Because presentation is everything. If you want a premium result you must look like and feel like a premium offering. Painting, new carpets, styling. This is the low hanging fruit. This is the $20,000 investment that can […]

Being a real estate agent is a competitive pursuit. We don’t get a salary. We don’t get paid while we sleep. We pay our own super and payroll tax. 100% commission means no sales for the month equals no income for the month. Feast or famine. And I don’t expect one iota of sympathy from […]