How a nurse working night shift cracked the property market

How a nurse working night shift, looking for an apartment for months was able to crack the property market by buying off market in the Inner-West

Missing out at auction and a search dragging on for several months is a common story in the Sydney market. Abby found herself in this same situation. Abby is a female in her 30’s trying to navigate the Sydney market and purchase a home for herself to get onto the property ladder.

Abby reached out to us at Hunter James Buyers Agents when her search led her to the perfect apartment in her dream building. As Abby monitored the property through the auction campaign, she felt the pressure of the rising market and the increasing competition and wanted a professional to do the bidding on her behalf.

Representing our clients at auction, we don’t just turn up on the day and give the auction a crack. We guide our clients through a process of understanding 3 key points prior to auction; what the property is worth, what the property will likely to sell for and what Abby was prepared to pay for it.

Firstly, we compiled an independent property report for Abby (ignoring those unreliable automatic valuation reports!) to advise on what we believe, the property is worth. We also used our rapport with the agent to tease out the vendors price expectations and suss out the likely competition. Then we discussed strategy and most importantly, the absolute maximum Abby was willing to pay for the property with all of the information on the property and competition as context.

With this information we were armed and ready for auction. With a stoic face and firm
bidding, I fought it out for several minutes with 4 other parties, until it became a
competition with only one other buyer. Back and forth we raised our bids until we reached our limit and let the property sell to another buyer for $2,000 more than out limit.

In a hot market with low stock and extreme buyer demand, it’s common for prices to
exceed expectations. That’s why it’s important to set a walk away price and stick to it. The emotion of auction is real. However, we want to try as hard as possible not to get caught up in the FOMO. In our case, Abby’s walk away was firm and stress tested to the point that she felt comfortable to lose the property if it sold for 1 cent more than her limit.

Months had passed after the auction and Abby still couldn’t crack the market. Fed up and overstretched for time to search, Abby decided to contact us again and hand the full search over to us. This meant that rather than just bidding at auction if Abby found property herself, she handed over the reins and I took over the search.

Conventional searching through realestate.com.au wasn’t going to cut it. During a market where there’s not many properties to choose from and prices are soaring, proactive searching for off-market opportunities is required! ‘Off-market’ means the seller does not want to market their property online or go to auction, they want the selling agent to use their contacts to sell the property under the radar. The other type of off-market is when buyers agents proactively approach leasing agents or owners directly and asks if the owner would be open to selling their property. This can be a daunting task for buyers but to me, it’s all a part of the job!

Using this approach, I was able to find Abby a cracking apartment in, wait for it… her dream building! Abby was so excited to have found an apartment meeting all her criteria within her budget and felt so relieved to avoid the auction process.

By avoiding auction and negotiating privately without any other competition meant we
could negotiate a fair deal without the market gripping it with both hands and running away at a crazy price.

We walked Abby through every step of the process to ease the burden of understanding how to appraise a property, how to make an offer, at which stage required a contract review, how to organise a strata report, how and when to exchange a contract. Abby had all the information she needed at each stage to feel comfortable, confident, and excited in the purchase.

Having secured an apartment meeting all of her wants and needs and at a fair price, Abby felt so relieved to be able crack the Sydney property market and so excited to get onto that ladder!