Welcome to this weeks offering of new homes to the market, information on current market trends, as well as a selection of my current listings, this weeks open homes and some of my very recent sales….
Pet hates – I guess we all have them…and no matter what you do for a living, I’m sure you have some aspects of your job that frustrate you.
If you’re in a service-related job or business, dare I say it but I’m sure most of your frustrations are centred around people.
Dealing with people can be incredibly rewarding and a lot of fun but on the other hand, it can also drive you bananas!
I suppose different people have different levels of tolerance when it comes to dealing with the general public…some people probably shouldn’t be in a service-related role but others have a level of patience for which I’m truly envious!
I’m usually quite non-confrontational but I’ll admit that that there are a few things that really tick me off when I’m dealing with people.
I guess I’m one of those people that bottles it up inside and won’t say much…until I’m pushed to a certain point and then I’ll open my mouth and probably say something that I’ll regret.
Whilst the human race are all wonderfully unique creatures, it amazes me how many times we see people do the same things that make me see red…I suppose the same actions become that little bit more frustrating every time you experience them.
Without trying to sound like a grump, let me share a list of the most common things that really tick me off in my role as a real estate agent.
But before I start, here’s my excuse up front…I do talk to other real estate agents and I know I’m not alone so it’s not just me (at least that’s now I’ll justify this in my own mind anyway)….
1. ’I don’t have to give you my details’ – For every 200 people that attend our open homes, there is usually one person that refuses to provide a name or contact phone number. Often, this person is argumentative and usually maintains the position of “I’ve attended plenty of other agents’ open homes and they’ve never asked me for my details so why should I give them to you?” I do try to politely explain that if the owners insist on us obtaining contact details, then refusing to provide them means that you’re not going inside the property. If I insist, the person with either… A. Turn around and walk away giving me a gobful as they’re leaving… or B. Provide a false name or number that is as obvious as the nose on your face. Serious buyers won’t have an issue providing details so anyone that thinks we (as agents) are missing out if these buyers refuse to attend is sadly mistaken. Every now and then, I’ll have someone that asks me to not contact them if they provide their details (perhaps they’re a shift worker and don’t want to be disturbed during the day) and I always tell them that this is not a problem but request they provide some feedback to me directly for the sellers before they leave. But when someone starts having a go at me because I won’t let them wander through a property without knowing who they are, I must admit that I instantly bristle.
2. Head down and keep walking – This one irks me even more! This is the buyer that thinks they’ve become invisible and when we ask them for their details, they hurry past you like you aren’t even there and ignore you completely. I must admit that I lost it a little at a buyer who did this to me late last year. It was the open home I attended when we attended the day we had the earthquake in Brisbane (do you remember this?) so perhaps this is my paltry excuse. We had a small line of people at an open home with two of us from my team taking names and numbers near the front door. A young couple walked straight past me but couldn’t avoid the second person on my team who had just finished taking someone else’s details. The buyer rushed past the team member and physically knocked him backwards by a step. I instantly saw red and yelled out quite loudly “Hey…come here! No details – no enter mate.” He sheepishly gave me his details and then went inside. In truth, I wasn’t proud of the way I handled this situation and if I had my time again, I wouldn’t have been as aggressive but I took immediate offence to someone elbowing one of our team members out of the way.
3. My shoes are staying on – Most of the time, we have a sign at the front door of an open home where we politely asks people to remote their shoes before entering. We do leave that decision up to our sellers – some of our sellers are happy for people to wear shoes inside but the challenge is that it’s very hard to be selective about this. If the home has beautiful flaying timber floors, it’s hard to tell the lady in stilettos who’s on her way to the horse races to remove her shoes when everyone else is wearing their shoes inside and just as equally, it’s hard to tell the tradie with his boots piled up with mud to remove his shoes before he walks on the nice light carpet when no-one else has been asked to do so. Sometimes people walk right over the sign and simply forget to remove their shoes – I totally understand this and often times, they’ll realise what they’ve done and apologise but you’d be surprised how many people read the sign, mutter something under the breath like “I’m damn well not taking off my shoes. They can get stuffed!” and just enter. I’m losing my mind on the inside when someone does this. I’ll admit to noting their name and thinking to myself… “If you’re difficult to deal with when simply walk into a property, you’re going to twice as hard to deal with if you enter into a contract so if your offer is close to another, I know which one I’m going to recommend that the sellers accept”.
4. It’s not a public toilet – The number of times people will use a toilet at an open home without asking would amaze you…and here’s the real kicker – in order to try to keep quiet about it and hope nobody notices, a decent proportion of them actually won’t flush it – No I’m not joking! Hey…we get it – if you have your kids with you and all of a sudden, one of them urgently needs to go, we completely understand and most people are really good about it and ask if they can use the toilet – That’s not a problem at all! Any rational every home-owner would rather the kids use the toilet than have to clean up a mess on the living room floor! I would estimate that one in every fifty open homes finishes with someone’s finished business sitting in a toilet! Seriously – What is this world coming to?
5. Unsupervised kids – Every agent who’s been in the game for long enough will tell you about this one.. It’s when parents bring their kids to an open home and they become completely engrossed in the home and let their kids run around and play, usually pulling things out of cupboards, jumping on couches, tapping heavily on fishtanks… anything you can imagine! Again, we get it – it’s not always easy to find a babysitter on a Saturday and you want to really talk to your husband, wife or partner about the home… but what fascinates me about this situation is that parents often see their kids behaving badly but take little-to-no action and let them run amuck. I’m not scared to ask the kids to stop and if they keep going, I will quietly have a word to the parents but many of them do bark back at me and justify their kids’ behaviour. It’s a different world nowadays to what it was when a was a kid – if I misbehaved, I’d get a clip over the ear but in the new world of positive parenting, it seems those days are gone and you need to protect little Johnny’s feelings these days. Anyway, I’m badly digressing – you get the point!
6. I’m a building and pest inspector – Yep…this irks me too! The buyer is not really in any way just happy to take the property in – they are there to conduct their own building and pest inspection at the open home. They’ll open and close windows, doors and cupboards, they’ll turn on showers and taps, they’ll even climb into the roof cavity through the manhole if they can – yes I am serious! And of course, they’ll always find an issue and come and tell me about it! “How long has there been a moisture issue in the ceiling?” they’ll ask! When you look at the ceiling, there’s nothing there except a mark right in the middle of the room where the owners obviously removed a light and patched it over as they replaced this one light fixture with multiple LED downlights but when you explain this to the buyer, they are not having any of it… “No – that’s not what it is!” they’ll loudly declare. How about leaving the building and pest inspection to someone that’s qualified to do one? That will be a good idea!
===more===
SoberBobMonthly on
Holy shit just the length of this screenshot says to me “i am not reading all of that”
But now you have intrigued me into what insanity lies within.
Edit: Holy shit
“Without trying to sound like a grump, let me share a list of the most common things that really tick me off in my role as a real estate agent.”
Proceeds to list the most banal shit that any home maker has to deal with on a daily basis without being paid.
This is the sort of shit you whinge to your mates at the pub about, CERTAINLY NOT DIRECTLY TO A CLIENT LIST OF ASSET OWNERS. Good god man acts like he has never heard of having a chinwag after a hard day
redbagmakeup on
18 pages..front and back!
Adam8418 on
The first 5 points are completely reasonable..
Dont piss in someone else’s house.
You need to give your details to enter someone’s home.
Dont let your kids run amok in someone else’s home.
byron_cheyne on
Somehow ended up on his list but I can’t look away
Warm-Depth-7638 on
Sorry is this a WEEKLY newsletter??
OptimusRex on
How does this cunt not have enough work in this economy.
thatasianguy88 on
Someone might want to forward this to sellers and home owners in the sunburns and surrounding d of his agency.
frasderp on
I still get real estates contacting me from when I was buying 10+ years ago – I’ve even been overseas for 7 of those years.
They don’t respect anyone (even tried unsubscribing and removing my details etc).
How disgusting.
Kookies3 on
I opened this and expected AI slop but actually it’s clearly not and I agree with way too many points and now I’m worried I’m the problem ….
Kookies3 on
Grubs who won’t remove shoes when asked are weird af to me. It’s totally fine if it’s not what you’re used to or what you do at your own home, but if you’re literally told or asked to remove your shoes in someone home… DO IT?! A huge portion of the world do this like most of North America and Asia …. Just … take them off
candlesandfish on
I’m so glad I unsubscribed to that one the minute we went unconditional on our place!!
HighByTheBeach69 on
Is it unreasonable to open some cupboards and turn on taps in a house you’re about to spend 1 million dollars on??
Master-of-possible on
I agree with most of it but it’s very poorly written. No wonder they work in an imbecile’s industry.
See_Football on
They all seem like pretty fair/genuine things but not sure it was manifesto worthy.
rogerwilko1 on
Lol. It’s Michael Spillane at innov8 Property. Never have I had such an out of touch wanker grace my inbox. This isn’t new for him, this is his last email before I unsubscribed:
“Welcome to this weeks offering of new homes to the market, information on current market trends, as well as a selection of my current listings, this weeks open homes and some of my very recent sales….
In what was considered to be absolutely no surprise, the RBA made the decision to lift official interest rates by 0.25% yesterday, effectively signalling the end of the ‘low’ cycle of interest rates.
There has been much speculation about the causes of the rising inflation with many pointing to the Federal Government’s spending being the driving factor.
I’m no economist so wouldn’t really have much idea what is driving the current inflation level but expert opinion seems to be divided.
The Federal Government has distanced themselves from the cause of the inflation but I thought David Speers from the ABC made a very pertinent statement to the Treasurer…
“Here you’re arguing in that answer that this has got nothing to do with you. I mean, voters remember you take credit when inflation falls. You said when it was falling it was proof of the government’s responsible economic management. But now, when it’s going up, it’s got nothing to do with you.”
Either way, the silver lining on the dark cloud is that this interest rate rise might finally start to quell the trajectory of property prices…well maybe!
The reason that the RBA’s decision was no surprise was that all four major banks quietly lifted their own interest rates last week anyway so it was always a forgone conclusion.
But with our weekend just gone, the appetite for property in Brisbane would have to be considered ‘insatiable’.
Over the weekend, we experienced some results that were just incredulous!
We listed a home where we thought the selling price would fetch around $1,700,000 and it ended up achieving a smidgeon under $2 million.
This property experienced more than 50 groups of buyers though the open home and a total of 13 offers.
Another property not too far away (at the other end of the scale) was expected to fetch around ‘Mid $900’s’ and it will go under contract today for a little under $1.1 million with 72 groups of buyers attending in a little over one week…and a total of 17 offers submitted.
Not every property is experiencing this sort of result but there’s no question that the market is hotter than we’ve ever seen it – probably more competitive than the ‘COVID’ era.
In other news, the numbers of new listings to the market in January were released this week and quite surprisingly, the total number was barely higher in January than what it was in December.
You may recall that December was a 20-year low for total stock levels currently on the market.
Quite frankly, the current stock levels over the past 3 months have been alarming if you look at the big picture.
I must admit…sharing results like this do come with some trepidation!
In today’s culture of ‘wokeness’ (is that even a word?), sharing a result like this can be taken the wrong way.
You might have seen a story in the media last week where a real estate agency in Perth gained attention for all of the wrong reasons by posting a photo of an open home that they ran, sharing that they met ‘120 people’ at an open home that they conducted on the weekend.
The social media post attracted more than 1000 comments with the vast majority of these comments being particularly toxic.
“And you’re lapping up the spoils from their misery like the mercenary scum you are!” was just one example of the comments that were made.
The agent’s response was that they were just trying to keep people updated on how hot the market is right now…and to be honest, I can see that what they were saying is true.
Many of you will know that I’m the first to call out agents for dirty tactics, dishonest actions and deplorable behaviour but at the same time, agents can become the target of many people’s frustrations when it isn’t their fault.
An agent from the Bayside of Brisbane that I know posted a link on his Social Media account to an online news article that illustrated how much home prices have increased over the past twelve months with his recommendation to buy now rather than wait as he believes that prices will continue to rise.
His social media account was also decorated with some pretty nasty comments as many people seemed to want to blame him (and other agents) for the dramatic rise in house prices.
I made a comment on his post and defended his post…and a result, my comment seemed to invoke more nasty discussion.
Subsequently, I broke my own rule of social media and started to get involved in an online debate about who’s to blame for the situation we find ourselves in here in Australia with a ridiculous imbalance of buyers to sellers in the property market.
I’ve said before that blaming real estate agents for property price rises is akin to blaming the checkout operator at Woolies for the price rise for bananas – it just doesn’t make sense!
Someone who’s obviously dealt with me before accused me of lying….citing an instance where they experienced me working to drive prices up in a negotiation of property for which they made an offer.
I responded to say that this is part of my job – after all, it’s the sellers that pay the commission.
He didn’t like that comment and returned to the theory that this was proof that it is indeed agents that were driving up real estate prices and that he’d never use me to sell his home because of this.
I asked him (sarcastically of course) if he’d prefer I sell every property for the lowest price possible just to please him and keep prices down as best I can – of course, at the expense of the sellers who pay the commission.
A few more keyboard warriors chimed in and the banter soon turned to the old chestnut…”Homes sell themselves and agents do nothing”…a comment for which my new-found friend seemed to support.
I then asked…”I think you need to make up your mind! One minute it’s greedy agents that are driving prices up but next minute, homes sell themselves and agents have nothing to do with it”.
It’s a bit of an argument like our old mate Treasurer Jim who claims it’s his brilliant Government policy that brings inflation down but when inflation goes the other way, he has nothing to do with it!
I started wondering whether it was J.Chalmers sitting anonymously behind the keyboard that I was debating with!
But I quickly put my suspicious mind to bed when I realised that Jim has better things to do than debate with greedy agents like me…he’s mapping out ways to improve his popularity – lets’ face it – he’s probably reasoned that it’s not hard to make a decision that would improve your popularity when it’s at all-time low so any decision could only make a difference in a positive direction.
In saying that he’s possibly analysed the current popularity of the Coalition and then realised that it is possible for your popularity to be lower.
So what are Jim’s plans?
How does he try to balance the books by off-setting the huge national doubt that the Government is deepening through the spend-a-thon that’s happening right now…and appeal to the largest growing demographic of the voting population (Generation Y and Z)?
It’s easy – increase taxes on the baby boomers…that’s an easy way to kill two birds with one stone!
Expect that changes are coming and Dr Chalmers only yesterday left the door open to these sort of changes so expect that changes of this nature on are on their way!
Is it ironic that the Winter Olympics is upon us and there are replays galore on the TV of Australia’s very first Winter Olympic gold medal event with Steven Bradbury sailing effortlessly across the line whilst the other competitors wiped each other out on the final turn?
I swear that I can see Pauline Hanson’s head stuck on Steven Bradbury’s body coming from last but crossing the line with her hands in the air celebrating victory whilst Labour, the Libs, the Nats and the Greens all untangle themselves and jostle for minor placings – it just seems to be history repeating itself in some sort of weird way!
Anyway, this blog has taken a sharp tangent from where it started.
Will the interest rate rise make a difference to the property market?
I’ll certainly let you know how we see the effects over the coming weeks.
Until next week and as always…Happy Listing and Happy Selling!”
No_Perspective1595 on
You are way too respectful hiding his name. As a previous PM myself and tbh massive interest with real estate- when I can see the lunacy
19 Comments
Full Text:
Welcome to this weeks offering of new homes to the market, information on current market trends, as well as a selection of my current listings, this weeks open homes and some of my very recent sales….
Pet hates – I guess we all have them…and no matter what you do for a living, I’m sure you have some aspects of your job that frustrate you.
If you’re in a service-related job or business, dare I say it but I’m sure most of your frustrations are centred around people.
Dealing with people can be incredibly rewarding and a lot of fun but on the other hand, it can also drive you bananas!
I suppose different people have different levels of tolerance when it comes to dealing with the general public…some people probably shouldn’t be in a service-related role but others have a level of patience for which I’m truly envious!
I’m usually quite non-confrontational but I’ll admit that that there are a few things that really tick me off when I’m dealing with people.
I guess I’m one of those people that bottles it up inside and won’t say much…until I’m pushed to a certain point and then I’ll open my mouth and probably say something that I’ll regret.
Whilst the human race are all wonderfully unique creatures, it amazes me how many times we see people do the same things that make me see red…I suppose the same actions become that little bit more frustrating every time you experience them.
Without trying to sound like a grump, let me share a list of the most common things that really tick me off in my role as a real estate agent.
But before I start, here’s my excuse up front…I do talk to other real estate agents and I know I’m not alone so it’s not just me (at least that’s now I’ll justify this in my own mind anyway)….
1. ’I don’t have to give you my details’ – For every 200 people that attend our open homes, there is usually one person that refuses to provide a name or contact phone number. Often, this person is argumentative and usually maintains the position of “I’ve attended plenty of other agents’ open homes and they’ve never asked me for my details so why should I give them to you?” I do try to politely explain that if the owners insist on us obtaining contact details, then refusing to provide them means that you’re not going inside the property. If I insist, the person with either… A. Turn around and walk away giving me a gobful as they’re leaving… or B. Provide a false name or number that is as obvious as the nose on your face. Serious buyers won’t have an issue providing details so anyone that thinks we (as agents) are missing out if these buyers refuse to attend is sadly mistaken. Every now and then, I’ll have someone that asks me to not contact them if they provide their details (perhaps they’re a shift worker and don’t want to be disturbed during the day) and I always tell them that this is not a problem but request they provide some feedback to me directly for the sellers before they leave. But when someone starts having a go at me because I won’t let them wander through a property without knowing who they are, I must admit that I instantly bristle.
2. Head down and keep walking – This one irks me even more! This is the buyer that thinks they’ve become invisible and when we ask them for their details, they hurry past you like you aren’t even there and ignore you completely. I must admit that I lost it a little at a buyer who did this to me late last year. It was the open home I attended when we attended the day we had the earthquake in Brisbane (do you remember this?) so perhaps this is my paltry excuse. We had a small line of people at an open home with two of us from my team taking names and numbers near the front door. A young couple walked straight past me but couldn’t avoid the second person on my team who had just finished taking someone else’s details. The buyer rushed past the team member and physically knocked him backwards by a step. I instantly saw red and yelled out quite loudly “Hey…come here! No details – no enter mate.” He sheepishly gave me his details and then went inside. In truth, I wasn’t proud of the way I handled this situation and if I had my time again, I wouldn’t have been as aggressive but I took immediate offence to someone elbowing one of our team members out of the way.
3. My shoes are staying on – Most of the time, we have a sign at the front door of an open home where we politely asks people to remote their shoes before entering. We do leave that decision up to our sellers – some of our sellers are happy for people to wear shoes inside but the challenge is that it’s very hard to be selective about this. If the home has beautiful flaying timber floors, it’s hard to tell the lady in stilettos who’s on her way to the horse races to remove her shoes when everyone else is wearing their shoes inside and just as equally, it’s hard to tell the tradie with his boots piled up with mud to remove his shoes before he walks on the nice light carpet when no-one else has been asked to do so. Sometimes people walk right over the sign and simply forget to remove their shoes – I totally understand this and often times, they’ll realise what they’ve done and apologise but you’d be surprised how many people read the sign, mutter something under the breath like “I’m damn well not taking off my shoes. They can get stuffed!” and just enter. I’m losing my mind on the inside when someone does this. I’ll admit to noting their name and thinking to myself… “If you’re difficult to deal with when simply walk into a property, you’re going to twice as hard to deal with if you enter into a contract so if your offer is close to another, I know which one I’m going to recommend that the sellers accept”.
4. It’s not a public toilet – The number of times people will use a toilet at an open home without asking would amaze you…and here’s the real kicker – in order to try to keep quiet about it and hope nobody notices, a decent proportion of them actually won’t flush it – No I’m not joking! Hey…we get it – if you have your kids with you and all of a sudden, one of them urgently needs to go, we completely understand and most people are really good about it and ask if they can use the toilet – That’s not a problem at all! Any rational every home-owner would rather the kids use the toilet than have to clean up a mess on the living room floor! I would estimate that one in every fifty open homes finishes with someone’s finished business sitting in a toilet! Seriously – What is this world coming to?
5. Unsupervised kids – Every agent who’s been in the game for long enough will tell you about this one.. It’s when parents bring their kids to an open home and they become completely engrossed in the home and let their kids run around and play, usually pulling things out of cupboards, jumping on couches, tapping heavily on fishtanks… anything you can imagine! Again, we get it – it’s not always easy to find a babysitter on a Saturday and you want to really talk to your husband, wife or partner about the home… but what fascinates me about this situation is that parents often see their kids behaving badly but take little-to-no action and let them run amuck. I’m not scared to ask the kids to stop and if they keep going, I will quietly have a word to the parents but many of them do bark back at me and justify their kids’ behaviour. It’s a different world nowadays to what it was when a was a kid – if I misbehaved, I’d get a clip over the ear but in the new world of positive parenting, it seems those days are gone and you need to protect little Johnny’s feelings these days. Anyway, I’m badly digressing – you get the point!
6. I’m a building and pest inspector – Yep…this irks me too! The buyer is not really in any way just happy to take the property in – they are there to conduct their own building and pest inspection at the open home. They’ll open and close windows, doors and cupboards, they’ll turn on showers and taps, they’ll even climb into the roof cavity through the manhole if they can – yes I am serious! And of course, they’ll always find an issue and come and tell me about it! “How long has there been a moisture issue in the ceiling?” they’ll ask! When you look at the ceiling, there’s nothing there except a mark right in the middle of the room where the owners obviously removed a light and patched it over as they replaced this one light fixture with multiple LED downlights but when you explain this to the buyer, they are not having any of it… “No – that’s not what it is!” they’ll loudly declare. How about leaving the building and pest inspection to someone that’s qualified to do one? That will be a good idea!
===more===
Holy shit just the length of this screenshot says to me “i am not reading all of that”
But now you have intrigued me into what insanity lies within.
Edit: Holy shit
“Without trying to sound like a grump, let me share a list of the most common things that really tick me off in my role as a real estate agent.”
Proceeds to list the most banal shit that any home maker has to deal with on a daily basis without being paid.
This is the sort of shit you whinge to your mates at the pub about, CERTAINLY NOT DIRECTLY TO A CLIENT LIST OF ASSET OWNERS. Good god man acts like he has never heard of having a chinwag after a hard day
18 pages..front and back!
The first 5 points are completely reasonable..
Dont piss in someone else’s house.
You need to give your details to enter someone’s home.
Dont let your kids run amok in someone else’s home.
Somehow ended up on his list but I can’t look away
Sorry is this a WEEKLY newsletter??
How does this cunt not have enough work in this economy.
Someone might want to forward this to sellers and home owners in the sunburns and surrounding d of his agency.
I still get real estates contacting me from when I was buying 10+ years ago – I’ve even been overseas for 7 of those years.
They don’t respect anyone (even tried unsubscribing and removing my details etc).
How disgusting.
I opened this and expected AI slop but actually it’s clearly not and I agree with way too many points and now I’m worried I’m the problem ….
Grubs who won’t remove shoes when asked are weird af to me. It’s totally fine if it’s not what you’re used to or what you do at your own home, but if you’re literally told or asked to remove your shoes in someone home… DO IT?! A huge portion of the world do this like most of North America and Asia …. Just … take them off
I’m so glad I unsubscribed to that one the minute we went unconditional on our place!!
Is it unreasonable to open some cupboards and turn on taps in a house you’re about to spend 1 million dollars on??
I agree with most of it but it’s very poorly written. No wonder they work in an imbecile’s industry.
They all seem like pretty fair/genuine things but not sure it was manifesto worthy.
Lol. It’s Michael Spillane at innov8 Property. Never have I had such an out of touch wanker grace my inbox. This isn’t new for him, this is his last email before I unsubscribed:
“Welcome to this weeks offering of new homes to the market, information on current market trends, as well as a selection of my current listings, this weeks open homes and some of my very recent sales….
In what was considered to be absolutely no surprise, the RBA made the decision to lift official interest rates by 0.25% yesterday, effectively signalling the end of the ‘low’ cycle of interest rates.
There has been much speculation about the causes of the rising inflation with many pointing to the Federal Government’s spending being the driving factor.
I’m no economist so wouldn’t really have much idea what is driving the current inflation level but expert opinion seems to be divided.
The Federal Government has distanced themselves from the cause of the inflation but I thought David Speers from the ABC made a very pertinent statement to the Treasurer…
“Here you’re arguing in that answer that this has got nothing to do with you. I mean, voters remember you take credit when inflation falls. You said when it was falling it was proof of the government’s responsible economic management. But now, when it’s going up, it’s got nothing to do with you.”
Either way, the silver lining on the dark cloud is that this interest rate rise might finally start to quell the trajectory of property prices…well maybe!
The reason that the RBA’s decision was no surprise was that all four major banks quietly lifted their own interest rates last week anyway so it was always a forgone conclusion.
But with our weekend just gone, the appetite for property in Brisbane would have to be considered ‘insatiable’.
Over the weekend, we experienced some results that were just incredulous!
We listed a home where we thought the selling price would fetch around $1,700,000 and it ended up achieving a smidgeon under $2 million.
This property experienced more than 50 groups of buyers though the open home and a total of 13 offers.
Another property not too far away (at the other end of the scale) was expected to fetch around ‘Mid $900’s’ and it will go under contract today for a little under $1.1 million with 72 groups of buyers attending in a little over one week…and a total of 17 offers submitted.
Not every property is experiencing this sort of result but there’s no question that the market is hotter than we’ve ever seen it – probably more competitive than the ‘COVID’ era.
In other news, the numbers of new listings to the market in January were released this week and quite surprisingly, the total number was barely higher in January than what it was in December.
You may recall that December was a 20-year low for total stock levels currently on the market.
Quite frankly, the current stock levels over the past 3 months have been alarming if you look at the big picture.
I must admit…sharing results like this do come with some trepidation!
In today’s culture of ‘wokeness’ (is that even a word?), sharing a result like this can be taken the wrong way.
You might have seen a story in the media last week where a real estate agency in Perth gained attention for all of the wrong reasons by posting a photo of an open home that they ran, sharing that they met ‘120 people’ at an open home that they conducted on the weekend.
The social media post attracted more than 1000 comments with the vast majority of these comments being particularly toxic.
“And you’re lapping up the spoils from their misery like the mercenary scum you are!” was just one example of the comments that were made.
The agent’s response was that they were just trying to keep people updated on how hot the market is right now…and to be honest, I can see that what they were saying is true.
Many of you will know that I’m the first to call out agents for dirty tactics, dishonest actions and deplorable behaviour but at the same time, agents can become the target of many people’s frustrations when it isn’t their fault.
An agent from the Bayside of Brisbane that I know posted a link on his Social Media account to an online news article that illustrated how much home prices have increased over the past twelve months with his recommendation to buy now rather than wait as he believes that prices will continue to rise.
His social media account was also decorated with some pretty nasty comments as many people seemed to want to blame him (and other agents) for the dramatic rise in house prices.
I made a comment on his post and defended his post…and a result, my comment seemed to invoke more nasty discussion.
Subsequently, I broke my own rule of social media and started to get involved in an online debate about who’s to blame for the situation we find ourselves in here in Australia with a ridiculous imbalance of buyers to sellers in the property market.
I’ve said before that blaming real estate agents for property price rises is akin to blaming the checkout operator at Woolies for the price rise for bananas – it just doesn’t make sense!
Someone who’s obviously dealt with me before accused me of lying….citing an instance where they experienced me working to drive prices up in a negotiation of property for which they made an offer.
I responded to say that this is part of my job – after all, it’s the sellers that pay the commission.
He didn’t like that comment and returned to the theory that this was proof that it is indeed agents that were driving up real estate prices and that he’d never use me to sell his home because of this.
I asked him (sarcastically of course) if he’d prefer I sell every property for the lowest price possible just to please him and keep prices down as best I can – of course, at the expense of the sellers who pay the commission.
A few more keyboard warriors chimed in and the banter soon turned to the old chestnut…”Homes sell themselves and agents do nothing”…a comment for which my new-found friend seemed to support.
I then asked…”I think you need to make up your mind! One minute it’s greedy agents that are driving prices up but next minute, homes sell themselves and agents have nothing to do with it”.
It’s a bit of an argument like our old mate Treasurer Jim who claims it’s his brilliant Government policy that brings inflation down but when inflation goes the other way, he has nothing to do with it!
I started wondering whether it was J.Chalmers sitting anonymously behind the keyboard that I was debating with!
But I quickly put my suspicious mind to bed when I realised that Jim has better things to do than debate with greedy agents like me…he’s mapping out ways to improve his popularity – lets’ face it – he’s probably reasoned that it’s not hard to make a decision that would improve your popularity when it’s at all-time low so any decision could only make a difference in a positive direction.
In saying that he’s possibly analysed the current popularity of the Coalition and then realised that it is possible for your popularity to be lower.
So what are Jim’s plans?
How does he try to balance the books by off-setting the huge national doubt that the Government is deepening through the spend-a-thon that’s happening right now…and appeal to the largest growing demographic of the voting population (Generation Y and Z)?
It’s easy – increase taxes on the baby boomers…that’s an easy way to kill two birds with one stone!
Expect that changes are coming and Dr Chalmers only yesterday left the door open to these sort of changes so expect that changes of this nature on are on their way!
Is it ironic that the Winter Olympics is upon us and there are replays galore on the TV of Australia’s very first Winter Olympic gold medal event with Steven Bradbury sailing effortlessly across the line whilst the other competitors wiped each other out on the final turn?
I swear that I can see Pauline Hanson’s head stuck on Steven Bradbury’s body coming from last but crossing the line with her hands in the air celebrating victory whilst Labour, the Libs, the Nats and the Greens all untangle themselves and jostle for minor placings – it just seems to be history repeating itself in some sort of weird way!
Anyway, this blog has taken a sharp tangent from where it started.
Will the interest rate rise make a difference to the property market?
I’ll certainly let you know how we see the effects over the coming weeks.
Until next week and as always…Happy Listing and Happy Selling!”
You are way too respectful hiding his name. As a previous PM myself and tbh massive interest with real estate- when I can see the lunacy
Jesus man. TL:DR
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