Posts by Cate Bakos

We often hear the word “over-capitalise”, yet so many investors and home owners don’t consider the risk of over-capitalisation. “Over capitalisation – what is it? The term over capitalisation means to improve a property beyond its resale value, in other words it means that you spend too much money on the renovations of your property and are not able to recoup this…

From a crazy run following our 2019 Federal Election result to our market being plunged into mask-wearing, COVID-fearing purchase activity, this year has been one out of the box. It was interesting to climb into Google Analytics to see what our data said about our readers, and even more intriguing to challenge some of the…

Buyers often assume that they know how the auction will go. Auctioneer rings the bell. Selling team go inside for one last consult with the vendor. Auctioneer strides out and starts bellowing at the crowd. “Ladies and Gentlemen… Welcome to the auction of 42 Derby Street…” and so it goes. But what they don’t always…

Wedged between Parkville, (Melbourne’s hospital and university precinct) and Flemington, this little-known, teeny-tiny little suburb is both highly revered by the locals, and abundant in intra-war architectural style. Interestingly, for a suburb only 5km from CBD, and in particular; one that most Melburnian’s have travelled through (albiet over), Travancore is one of the least-known inner…

In the state of Victoria, auction rules apply to all publicly listed auctions. From auctioneer discretion to no late bids, the list is lengthy. But there is still a lot of confusion out there when it comes to defining an auction, versus a simulated auction, such as a ‘boardroom auction’. Buyers are often taken by…

Risk and reward generally go hand in hand, particularly when it comes to investing. Interestingly, gambling demonstrates risk and reward superbly. Consider roulette; betting on either black or red gives the gambler a much greater chance of winning. The gambler’s chances would be 1.111111 to 1. However if the gambler chose just one number on…

The Bear and Bull market phrase has been so universally used over the past two years, and like no other time in our residential property market, we have had rapidly alternating bull and bear commentators forecasting the Australian property outlook. A Bear Market refers to a declining market. A Bull Market refers to an increasing…

We are all familiar with the concept of an auction reserve price. It’s the price at which a vendor (owner) is prepared to sell their product. Online e-commerce sites such as ebay have managed to bring this concept to most Australian households and familiarity isn’t just limited to adults. Children are growing up with an…

It felt like a switch had been flicked yesterday when I was out in the trenches. Managing private sale negotiations and two auctions, this week felt different. Competition felt stronger, buyer willingness to stretch harder seemed obvious and the change in sentiment since our COVID numbers have reduced feels palpable. Could it be the media’s…

We negotiate about how the negotiation will go. Often. This blog was prompted by a conversation I had with a prospect yesterday. He, (like many do) asked me about my negotiation ability. I decided it would be a good illustration if I could share my past three negotiations which span the last five days. For…