The “Getting on the Same Page” Story

There’s a lot of lessons in this next Story Behind The Numbers. The theme of this story is “same page.” So, what happened?

And this is from Nicole, one of our great Buyers Agents here in Melbourne, who was dealing with our clients who had also built a Property Portfolio Plan with us through Damien. They’re mid-to-late 40s, professional couple, very time poor with couple of kids and Sydney-based. But again, they’re looking to buy down in Melbourne.

What we saw here was a situation where one person was the primary contact, but it was potentially the other person in the relationship who was the major decision maker.

If you have a misalignment in what they’re thinking should be bought, but you’re not dealing with the decision maker, it can be really difficult. So, Nicole was able to learn that she needed to get both of them on the same page to be able to get the result.

And early on, we weren’t getting that result. So, we were presenting properties and those properties weren’t necessarily meeting the brief, and it was confusing because we thought we had the brief right. To get a result for this particular couple was one of Nicole’s longer assignments, but I think the end result here speaks volumes of making sure you’re having that open dialogue. What we’re talking about here is what’s working and what’s not working. And Nicole is fantastic at reading the play, in terms of whether we were on the right page or not. So, there was some direct feedback, which was given and that allowed us to get that brief right again, in terms of what property we were really looking at. Again, one partner driving the conversation; the other one a little bit more conservative, listening to a lot of the market noise, which is very relevant when you’re in a market downturn. It’s only human nature that you feel that way. But if you lift your eyes and you’re playing the long game, you can understand that property is a fabulous long-term investment. It’s an essential shelter.

So, a great brief in the end. We went shopping. We got a great little cottage, a weatherboard cottage in Footscray, corner allotment. So, really, really good. The story of the negotiation here for Nicole was really a great one because it was passed in at auction, and so we just waited and waited and waited until the vendor adjusted their expectations and came down to the offer we put forward. So, it was a good negotiation. It wasn’t rushed, and that ultimately led to a great result. That property is now rented out. We’re talking purchase price of around $850,000, getting $520 a week in rent — so, a 3.2% gross rental yield. It rented on the first open.

In short, we know that this area here is very good for long-term prospects. A good allotment of land, corner block, future opportunities. So, I feel that the Sydney couple are going to look back on this journey and learn more about what’s important to them, how to get the brief right, and making sure they get on the same page early on. And I suspect, based on the fact that we’ve got a Plan for them to buy more properties, that the next purchase is going to be a little bit easier and we’re going to understand from our end that we get that brief right. So, there’s lessons on both sides here. I really like this story because, for me, it’s a story of a turn-around. We’ve been able to get that that not on the same page into a turnaround scenario. That’s been done. We bought a great little asset and that’s a good news story all around.