Sunday Blog - Expert property investment insights

When markets adjust abruptly, typical analytical routines can become very challenging. In the property industry, the reliability of relevant data such as comparable sales comes into question, and it’s not just agents who struggle to keep up. Buyers and vendors also experience confusion around price expectation because their data points are changing at a rapid…

Most buyers would approach an auction with trepidation and caution. Plenty don’t have a firm plan. And very few would be on first-name terms with the auctioneer, but they should be. In most cases, we make sure we meet and greet the auctioneer every time before we bid. Knowing the listing agent and being familiar…

Now that property values in Melbourne are back on the rise after a miserable downturn, one social observation is loud and clear. Buyers are getting upset about under-quoting. This increased upset has struck consistently over the cycles as our market has started to show green shoots and spell recovery. Buyers who sat back to adopt…

Over the last two decades in particular, many Melburnians have gravitated to a more inner urban lifestyle where they can enjoy cafe precincts and connectivity to their favourite places without the need for a car. Since the days of the ‘quarter acre block with the Hills-hoist in the yard’, our preferences have shifted to a…

Prospective clients ask us all the time, “Do you get access to properties that aren’t advertised?” We do. All the time. They are called Off-Market properties, and just over a quarter of our acquisitions are done off-market. But not all off-markets are good. The difference between a good off-market and a bad one comes down…

In 2014 our prudential regulator, APRA issued a recommendation to our banks to slow down the rate of new investment loans being approved. Not until two years later did our lenders fully adopt the recommendations, but when they did; things got serious. The methodology adopted included; a reduction of the maximum Loan to Value Ratio…

This week I had the pleasure of presenting to a room of eighty-something property managers from around the country at the PM Reach Conference. Not only did I enjoy sharing my insights as a Buyer’s Advocacy business owner, I loved hearing the adventures and proud stories of some amazing industry professionals. Topics were varied and…

Dads… every professional bidder’s nightmare, and often a Buyer’s Agent’s challenge when it comes to overriding their best-intended (bad) advice. A father’s support always comes from a good place, but often it can threaten an inexperienced buyer’s chances of success. We see constant examples of this in our travels and it is one of the…

Two years ago I bid on a majestic block of land in Portarlington for a lovely client who was away on the day of the auction. I recall a huge crowd, flags flying in the strong breeze and a long line of onlookers queuing for their free bite at the Lion’s club sausage sizzle trailer.…

The property pundits have already put up their Saturday night reports, several with similar angles about the strength of our auction clearance rates, and more specifically, the fact that it hasn’t been this strong since 2017. Surely for anyone who has paid the slightest bit of attention to the doom and gloom stories about our…