Opening doors to the perfect fit for a first home buyer 

The brief for our client was a 1- 2 bedroom Art Deco apartment in Sydney. The apartment had to have character and the complex needed to be boutique, charming and quietly positioned. 

The search started in April 2021 when the property market was running red hot following the highest monthly growth rate in 2021. Scouting for on-market, pre-market and off-market properties, our search led to a cracking two-bedroom apartment with water views. With fierce competition we knew the property would fetch a premium under the hammer. And it did… 
Staying firm on the property criteria, we continued our search in the face of a severe lack of stock during Sydney’s lockdown. Holding firm meant we said ‘no’ many more times than we said ‘yes’ to properties. It was important not to feed into the FOMO.  

While it’s always important to stick to the brief, it’s also important to know how to quickly assess if a property is going to be realistic in a rapidly rising market. There’s no time to waste on properties that are out of reach. 

We remained persistent and knew it was vital to stay ahead of the market. We did not wait for the next listing to go live on Domain or Realestate.com. We knew our market and the selling agents and focused our efforts on uncovering the off-market opportunities. Not every off-market property is a good deal, so when we uncovered off-markets and they didn’t meet the criteria, we moved on. 

Our persistence paid off.  When an apartment sold at auction inside an iconic building in the perfect location, we worked quickly to find two more options in the same building, off-market. We were able to find these options because we built strong rapport with selling agents who represented the vendors in the building. Being represented by a buyer’s agent also signaled to the vendors that we have a serious buyer and can run a seamless transaction. 

We moved quickly to inspect both options and the client immediately fell in love. One of the apartments overlooked the water, oozed original Art Deco character, and ticked all of the boxes.

We needed to move quickly to block any other competition from seeing the property and falling in love with it too. We immediately moved to independently evaluate the property and manage the due diligence. Once all the due diligence was complete, we developed the purchase strategy and negotiated the property for our client. 

We successfully negotiated the property under budget and for a lower purchase price than the comparable apartment that went to auction! 

The client was so thrilled to purchase her first home. She was so grateful that we had persisted, said no to many and eventually, found the perfect fit.