Ninja In A Blazer - 1st April 2025

What a month March has been with ex-cyclone Alfred impacting all our lives significantly one way or another. We hope you were not significantly impacted by the cyclone. We have tried to reach out to many of our clients to assist if required. If you still have any damages and require any trade recommendations, please reach out. Our office manages a large number of properties and in the lead up, we were doing all we could to get ready for the worst-case scenario, after the 2022 floods we were prepared for all sorts of phone calls, luckily it was much quieter this time around. 

Impact to the market 

We saw quite an impact on the property market in terms of activity levels and transactions, from our previous updates where we had been talking about the high level of transactions in January and February, we saw a drop of activity for the week leading up and week post cyclone.  March has seen about 50% less properties sold than we’d expect, however the good news is, it appears the buyers have returned to the market and they’re making good offers.

Despite lower transaction numbers the properties our office has sold are still at peak prices.  The office has seen a large number of off-market transactions, allowing for flexibility for home sellers with 70% of these properties selling to interstate investors via buyers’ agents and 30% through our internal buyers database.  If you have been considering selling, but you’re in two minds and would like to “test” the market, an off-market strategy could be a good option.

Tips on securing top prices if you are planning to sell

In the past 12 months is that the key to securing the best outcome for your home is ensure that you solve any “deal breaking issues” or “significant reduction issue”. Buyers are happy to pay premium prices for secure a home they would like to move in to and many of these buyers do not want to have to spend a significant amount of money to do major repairs.  In many cases, the pre-sale building and pest inspection allowed the seller to fix any major issues prior to committing to going to market, so this has been a key to selling for a premium price.

In the past month for example we ended up doing pre purchase inspection for homes that are less than 10 yeras old.  Despite not expecting any issues, the inspection uncovered a large number of issues that were easily rectified before going to market.  We believe in the many buyers will terminate or ask for a significantly higher price reduction than the actual repair would cost. Some agents have had buyers cancel the contract of the house they were buying, which means the property is effectively taken off the market while the issue is rectified, and this lost time could impact the final sale price. 

The cost of doing a pre-sale building and pest is generally less than $700 depending on the size of the house which is a very small investment to ensure you get the best outcome. Therefore, if you are planning to sell your home regardless on which agent you choose to work with, we highly recommend you make it clear that you should consult with your agent about conducting a pre-sale building and pest.

Just so you know how easy we make it for our clients, we not only organise the entire inspection but when the report returns, we will advise exactly which items should be fix and we can arrange the quote and the repairs through our network of trades.  Some of us have even rolled up our own sleeves to help.  This allows our clients to relax and let us take the stress out of organising these tasks by doing the heavy lifting.

What to expect in April

The April school holidays, and Easter are coming up and traditionally we will see a decrease in market activity, and less buyers out and about.  Due to the disruption in March and the fact that buyers are keen to secure their next home or investment as the inflation is hedging towards more interest rate cuts, it is our opinion that April might actually be a busy month, we look forward to confirming what actually happened in the next month update.

Have a wonderful Easter