Posts by Cate Bakos

Every.single.day we are approached with requests for help. In this challenging climate, buyers are reaching out for professional assistance to help navigate our current seller’s market. Many of these buyers could technically prepare their own brief, back-test the feasibility of their purchase strategy and go out to the open for inspections themselves, however in many…

Now that half of our country’s population are in lockdown, real estate, (like many other industries) have had to adapt historically standard practices in an effort continue trading. From digital contract execution to virtual inspections, many agents have embraced such methods for some years, but the truth is that COVID-19 lockdowns have shaken up how…

There is so much more to property investment than merely buying a property and watching its capital value movements. From rental yield to outgoings, vacancy rates to tax considerations, the elements are all inter-twined and all important. What is often missed is the strategy. Our long term property investment strategy underpins our approach and our…

For those who have glanced across disused rail yards while driving over Melbourne’s north on the Citylink freeway, many may not realise that a new suburb is underway. Considered a bit of a rarity for a central city location, a large area of land, (approximately fifty hectares) wedged between Kensington and North Melbourne’s streets is…

“Off-market” is a popular way for buyers to purchase property right now. We’re in hot, seller’s market and buyers are feeling disadvantaged by the market conditions. So many buyers assume that the ‘secret sauce’ to buying well is to target off-market opportunities. Little do they know that only a small proportion of off-market sales are…

We often hear about strata title; it’s the mainstream variant of ownership when we consider a property in a block of other properties. Typically these types of properties are apartments, townhouses and villa units. The owner of a strata property will own the specifically bounded property and an equal (and undivided share) of the common…

This is a common question, particularly in a heated, seller’s market. I’ve heard so many ‘rule of thumb’ ideas, and some of them are concerning at best, and costly at worst. Some prospective buyers apply +15% stretch, assuming that either all agencies are underquoting, or all competitive bidding is driving the price to this arbitrary…

We are often asked about capital growth by prospective investors and clients. Nobody can accurately pinpoint exactly how a property’s future performance will track, but thorough regression analysis can give us some insight into the impact of certain variables when it comes to tracking past performance. For example, location, or dwelling type. What we do…