George & Jemma’s Journey

Just last week I had the pleasure of assisting a fantastic couple with the acquisition of their new home. What could have been an ordinary process was far from what actually happened though. .. and their quick decision making, fast solicitor action and lucky timing all contributed to a very pleasing result.

Their search was tough, but as I often say, “do-able with a bit of patience and hard work”. I had to find a 4br, 2 bathroom townhouse with its own street frontage, and within 8km from the city for under $700,000.

We thought we had found the perfect one when we spotted 45 Bradley St Newport.
It addressed all of the criteria on our checklist and my clients loved the property. The agent shared with me that other interested parties were floating around, but the vendor would consider offers prior to auction if they were reasonable. I coordinated a fast contract review, booked in a building inspection for the very next morning and conducted the due diligence with the broker and the rest of my client’s team. We were ready to buy this property at auction for $700,000 and I wanted to be in a position to pounce with an early offer if the agent facilitated that.

We did have an exciting twist to our adventure – another very similar property had come up for private sale at 89A The Avenue Spotswood – just 1km away from this property and featuring more land and being one of just two in the block.

It tempted my buyers also, so we had to make a tough decision between which property to go for. I could feel the resistance of the agents on Bradley St to support a pre-auction offer. They had other buyers (including a buyer’s agent) and they were encouraging their vendor to run the property to auction. I asked around the other opposition agents in the area to find out what this particular buyer’s agent had bid to on previous auctions for his client – and it unfolded that he had a significantly higher budget than us. So with swift action, I appraised the new property, got the contract reviewed, phoned the builder to swap his inspection over from one to the other, and made a firm offer of $690,000 which bought the property within hours of the inspection.

Bradley St sold to a strong buyer on auction day for $742,500 and left the other buyer’s agent the underbidder yet again. My clients secured themselves a property which, had we waited, would have potentially above their budget to the other advocate, who, as the underbidder, would have had this property earmarked for his Plan B just as I had.

Sometimes just having a Plan A and a Plan B in motion can make the difference between securing your dream home and completely missing out.