Negotiating an off-market property under budget!

The Brief

We sat with Tori and Levi to understand their current and future circumstances and to also identify their wants and needs for their next home so we can ensure we only present them a shortlist of properties which met their criteria.

Tori and Levi wanted a home with 3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms and space for their car. They also loved the idea of a property with a pool and an outdoor space for entertaining. They had a budget of $650,000 and were keen to continue their lifestyle of living in a trendy suburb with a good ‘café culture’ and that was close to amenities.

Tori and Levi wanted to employ a buyer’s agent who could educate them on the Brisbane market and identify the specific suburbs where they could fulfil their lifestyle criteria.

 The Challenges

At the time, Brisbane was in a very hot market with properties selling for up to 20% above price guides. With their budget in mind, we were able to identify specific suburbs where they could achieve a home of the size and style they desired as well as being close to nice café’s.

We presented to Tori and Levi a shortlist of properties that met their criteria and they were happy to move forward on 2 of the properties. We put forward strong offers on these properties but they were highly desired by home owners and unfortunately, we were out bid to purchase these properties with other buyers being emotionally attached and willing to pay ‘whatever it takes’ to secure the property. This is typical in a hot market when buyers start to worry they will miss out altogether and so are often willing to pay too much for a property.

The Result!

With the Brisbane market moving quickly, we wanted to get an advatange over other buyers so were in constant contact with agents to get first look of new listings.

Due to our contacts with local agents in the area, we found a property which was off-market in Tori and Levi’s preferred suburb, which also met their criteria plus more. The property was a 3 bed, 2 bath, 1 car highset property. The property had an ideal outdoor entertaining area with a nice swimming pool that met their wish list needs. In addition to meeting their size requirements it also had an added bonus of a downstairs ‘parents retreat’ which was ideal for when their family and friends wanted to come up from Sydney to visit. They could alternatively have this as an additional entertaining area, children’s rumpus room, or a large at home office area when not being used by visitors. The vendors wanted to consider offers over $640,000 which was below Tori and Levi’s budget but as we were willing for a quick exchange and giving the vendor the advantage of not having to have their property listed and open homes, we were able to successfully negotiate a purchase price of $630,000. Tori and Levi were over the moon to not only secure a property that met all their current and future needs, that was in their preferred suburb but also being able to secure the home for $20,000 under their budget in a hot fast moving market.

* Their real names have not been used due to privacy.