Some friends of mine have been looking to buy for over a year. They sold their property just before the COVID cloud descended over our planet and with money in their pocket they thought they had timed their run perfectly. They looked at properties, picked them apart and noted how ‘out of touch’ every seller was with the ‘real value’. They would turn up at auctions, not bid and if they passed in they would label the buyer a ‘wood duck’ who paid the money post auction. They were delightful (I’m eye-rolling).

It got worse. Reluctant to move quickly, they dismissed the rising market and increasing competition as ‘short-term craziness’ and at every interval quoted “Wait until Job Keeper stops”, then there was “You’ll see when the loan deferrals stop, the market will be flooded with stock” until finally after watching the market bolt further and further into the distance they conceded, “I think we might have missed the market”.

At this juncture they were ready to change tactics and consider another way.

My first job was to show them why Brisbane was due for a price increase and that this market movement was not a ‘flash in the pan’ moment. We have had ten years of relatively no capital growth, renting in many areas was more expensive than interest only repayments and major international infrastructure was about to mature our city like never before. Tick, they could now see the value.

Then it was over to their strategy. You can’t buy a property without making an offer and you can’t buy at an auction without bidding. A strategy without offers or bidding is a bad strategy. I sent them to watch some auctions to see who’s strategy was successful and set their new game plan. I told them to put in offers on properties they liked and bid at auctions they wanted to buy.
They did.

Armed with that information and a new lens on the market, they sat in our auction room last Monday night. I watched as they exchanged blows (bids) with other buyers eager to secure a piece of Brisbane property and with a thrill, after it really dragged out, I slammed the gavel down and joyfully congratulated the new owners!
In a moving market it’s not the agents nor the owners who buyers are competing with, it’s the other buyers. Yet most buyers focus on out-thinking the agents and trying to push back on the owners. The strategy in this market, as it has been in Sydney/Melbourne for a decade, is to beat other buyers. This means working with agents and owners. Because if you won’t, there are other buyers lining up who will.

~ Haesley Cush