Every Sunday Cate shares a recent adventure or interesting industry observation.

Bidding for investor clients in Ballarat’s beautiful pocket of Soldiers Hill yesterday required some fortitude when the rain arrived. Bracing for the downpour and congested on the little verandah, buyers, onlookers and neighbours gathered to watch the gorgeous two bedroom, renovated weatherboard cottage go under the hammer.   We had selected 303 Ligar St as… Read more »

Victorian property legislation has quite a few interesting quirks including the Cooling Off Period. The Coooling Off Period offers buyers the chance to change their mind for any particular reason for three days from the date of signing. There are two things about this benefit that are often surprising for buyers. The first is that… Read more »

Over the years I’ve helped several hundred buyers with their search for their home. Every single journey has been different, and some of the adventures have remained as terrific memories. Whether they anticipated it at the beginning or not, every single client had to work with me to initially formulate a plan. A road map…. Read more »

There is a strong investor consensus that houses on full blocks out-perform units or strata properties. In the same quality street within the same suburb this may be true, but this long-held investment philosophy has many angles. And often this philosophy is wrong. The four common reasons that influence buyers to hold this firm view… Read more »

Yesterday’s auctions in Melbourne were a challenge for agents and auctioneers when our skies turned grey and rainfall struck. Some auctioneers battled the rain as it came in sideways, with staff offering umbrellas and buyers taking cover under eaves and garages. Others chose to take the buyers inside, with their auction calls held in vendor’s… Read more »

Years ago as a young real estate agent I had a great boss who reminded us all that an offer was never an offer until it was on a contract. He also used the line “strike while the iron is hot”, and while these were good pieces of advice for selling agents, they are ingrained… Read more »

When searching and shortlisting for property in a familiar area, our strike rate for spotting an investment-grade property on the internet is around 25%. Out of a possible hundred properties, we can filter the off-the-plan options out, recognise main roads and reject them, spot a busy neighbouring allotment and skip past, recall a less desirable street, steer… Read more »

When we facilitate our strategy session with our new investor clients, we spend time discussing the importance of criterion. Any past client could cite me including ‘proximity to train station’ as a must-have criteria for a good investment property. And those who quiz me about locations in a public transport ‘blackspot’ will get my all-too-familiar “nope,… Read more »

This week’s excitement included an appearance in the Australian Financial review and while it was novel to get some industry peer acknowledgement, the topic itself was very relevant for a lot of past and present clients of ours. Duncan Hughes (the journalist who wrote the article) asked me to comment on some of the reasons… Read more »

This Sunday’s blog could be forgiven for appearing like a foodie’s write up (except I am no foodie.) Yesterday I enjoyed my observations in sunny Belmont. The recent changes within this nine square kilometre patch just south of Geelong’s CBD, and home to over 13,000 people is a fascinating case study. Geelong has experienced impressive… Read more »