BY Mal James 28th February 2015
Welcome to 2015 $3m plus buyers. Wow what a start. The Top of the Top End has begun with a Volcano Vapour Trail – there is no other way to describe it. Check out the auction results below if you think we are exaggerating.
4 bidders in Middle Park over $5m, 3 bidders at $7m in [...]
BY Mal James 25th October 2014
Week Ending Saturday, October 25
James Buyer Advocates are busy:
Number of auction homes involved in buying this week was well into double figures.
Our mid week activity securing homes BEFORE AUCTION for clients was intense. At the time of writing we had bought before in Toorak (Michael Armstrong), Mont Albert North (Mark Read) and Glen Iris (Paul [...]
BY Gina Kantzas 18th October 2014
Inner City
417 Canning Street Carlton North sold today with 2 bidders for not much under $3,000,000 in a fairly solid market statement on the value of a major land proposition.
As we mentioned last week, there are currently 2 other similar propositions (albeit with their own unique characteristics) at 918 and 973 Drummond Street which [...]
BY Mal James 4th October 2014
The Age. Weekly Review, James Buyer Advocates Young Homebuyer is an 8 part series designed to take young homebuyers through the entire homebuying process from the inside.
This week is the second last. The Pointy End. The Money Part. The Negotiation.
Are you a good Negotiator?
Why not take the Harvey Norman test?
Before you take on the $800,000 negotiation [...]
BY Mal James 29th September 2014
This week we have gone practical in the quest for a million dollar good home buying decision. This is a supplementary article to Article 5 on values in The Age, Weekly Review, James Buyer Advocates eight article series – Young Homebuyers Guide.
How do we put a number to our value opinion?
In today’s modern society we [...]
BY Mal James 30th August 2014
The Age. Weekly Review, James Buyer Advocates Young Homebuyer series is designed to take homebuyers through the entire homebuying process from the inside. The article series has become the biggest read online series of its type. It has been been published throughout Australia and internationally. It continues on from James Home Ratings – an industry standard in [...]
BY Gina Kantzas 23rd August 2014
Has Spring Arrived Early?
It felt hot out there today and indeed we felt the build-up during the last week or so.
Today we bought 2 at competitive auctions (low $1m’s and low $3m’s) bought at Off-market circa $4m, missed at one of the longest bidding auctions I’ve been to (at the mid $2m’s) and during the [...]
BY Gina Kantzas 9th August 2014
Inner City
People love these Inner City areas for their condensed urban profile, which is great for convenience and proximity to the city, but brings with it a different type of living. For example, buyers here are prepared to trade off the possibility of noise for the reward of being in the action. Car parking is [...]
BY Mal James 7th August 2014
Off-markets and the Duck Test
On the subject of off-markets, we buy a fair number – but we reject an awful lot more than we buy.
For the inexperienced buyer, many off-markets are not what they are cracked up to be (by the agents). A number of inexperienced buyers are lured by the romance of an off-market [...]
BY Mal James 2nd August 2014
At 6.00 pm on Saturday, the James Clearance Rate for Melbourne’s $M+ property was 77% on the 26 auctions we covered. The Weekly Review Bidderman, our bidders per auction measurement, was at 2.2.
This weekend’s first run of the high end auction market after a good spell in July saw a “strongish” start on limited [...]
BY James Buyer Advocates 31st May 2014
There were mixed results last weekend, which was also a ‘Super Saturday’. Bidderman dropped to an average of 1.7 bidders per property and whilst this is not alarming (it is only the fourth weekend we have covered this year that has averaged under 2, and the other three were on lesser quality, low stock weekends), [...]
BY Mal James 28th May 2014
Part 2 of a 2 Part Masterclass on Buying Homes through Liars
Good Negotiators see lies as actions
What is it we are trying to do? Reach an agreement.
Why is the agent lying to us? To reach an agreement – hopefully with us!
Lies can be very positive things
They can be an attempt by the other side [...]
BY Mal James 18th May 2014
Lies or perceived lies are endemic within the Melbourne Property market. Many dinner party conversations include the “fact” that some real estate buying and selling agents are liars and whether that is true or not is irrelevant, as many people believe it to be so.
Lies can be very hurtful and we all want to avoid [...]
BY Mal James 31st March 2014
The action is not all Auction-based right now. While by the end of last week we had cleared the decks a little and were down to only four ongoing negotiations, a week later we were back up to eleven ongoing negotiations that were being discussed and picked apart at our twice weekly Negotiation Councils.
A number [...]
BY Mal James 1st March 2014
At 6.00 pm Saturday the James Clearance Rate for Melbourne’s $M+ property was 56% on the 45 auctions we covered. The Weekly Review Bidderman, our bidders per auction measurement, was at 1.7.
Market Summary
On the face of it that was a big drop from last weekend’s “red zone” numbers.
We agree – but it should be noted that our [...]
