WHAT HAPPENS WHEN AN AUCTION ATTRACTS 144 BIDS?

SOLD! 79 Rockingham Beach Road

It has been a monumental week for our hard-working sales team, successfully negotiating contracts on no fewer than 10 properties.

While this is massive feat in itself, the finer details are particularly impressive.

Of the properties sold, 6 went for more than $1 million, 3 of them went for more than $2 million, and 1 went for more $3 million.

With such confidence demonstrated by buyers in the upper end, it’s certainly a special time in the market.

We are routinely receiving multiple offers for our properties and our auctions are attracting large crowds and frantic bidding.

3 properties sold under the hammer over the weekend, and 1 auction in particular stunned onlookers. After a whopping 144 bids (no, not a misprint), 170 Preston Point Road, East Fremantle, sold for $2,052,000. This was more than $400,000 above the reserve price.

Similarly, we also saw strong bidding from three main protagonists at the auction for 30 Kitchener Road in Melville with the hammer falling at $703,000.

After witnessing these results, some auction attendees asked us whether an auction is an expensive option compared to selling via private treaty.

The answer will surprise many. Besides the small additional costs for the services of an expert auctioneer (normally around $600), an auction campaign generally costs virtually the same.

And critically, an auction is designed to truly maximise the sale price, which as we saw on the weekend, may be many thousands of dollars higher than expected.

DO YOU BELIEVE IN LOVE AT FIRST SIGHT?

Call it a feeling or instinct or maybe even love, but sometimes you instantly know when you’ve found the right one. When this special moment occurs, as it did a few days ago, there’s no point in wasting time. Life is just too short.

A buyer entered one of our home opens in Winthrop and was immediately struck by Cupid’s bow. After seeing the property for less than five minutes, this buyer decided to write up an offer on the spot, even before seeing the bedrooms!

It was perhaps the fastest deal we've ever done and one of nine our team negotiated over the past week. 

With strong competition amongst buyers, we’re certainly achieving outstanding results for our clients. Stock levels are now running low, which is creating a real opportunity for potential sellers.

We’re very excited about the week ahead because we’re kicking off our much-anticipated auction season. 

With no fewer than eight Caporn Young auctions scheduled over the next two weeks and a lot of interest from buyers, we expect to see some fireworks. If you’re nearby, why not drop by and sample the excitement.

Who knows, you might even meet your perfect match.

IT'S A GREAT TIME TO UPGRADE YOUR LIFESTYLE

There's never been a better time to upgrade 

Any expectation that we’d see a tentative start to 2014 has been well and truly dashed.

In only the past few days, our sales team has successfully negotiated contracts on another 12 properties.

And it’s not just the volume of property we are selling that’s encouraging, but also the variety. Whether we’re working with a block of land for under $500k or a multi-million dollar home, our strategy is achieving strong results for our sellers.

With prices expected to rise in the coming months, particularly in the premium segment of the market, there is currently an excellent opportunity for trade-up buyers.

If you are looking for a better home, a better location or both, there is value in selling your existing home and upgrading as soon as possible before the “trade-up gap” increases.

Delaying your move could easily cost you tens of thousands of dollars more. In fact, many of the buyers we are working with are already jostling for the best locations in Perth.

And some, it seems, are focused almost entirely on the location, confident that they can improve the property down the track to suit their needs.

 This is a great sign for any potential sellers with well-located properties that are in need of some modernising.

SATURDAY AUCTION WRAP - 30 NOVEMBER 2013

Although our “on the day” clearance rate fell this weekend, our overall auction clearance rate remains steady, as the post auction sales continued through the week.

Out of the three offered on Saturday, our under the hammer highlight was at 23 Holdsworth Street, Fremantle, where a piece of Fremantle’s history - and still on a “purple title” - went under the hammer.

Believed to have been built around the turn of last century, No. 23 Holdsworth Street is part of a row of terraces originally constructed to provide accommodation for warders stationed at the adjoining Fremantle prison. If only those walls could talk!

One tactical buyer put himself in the best position to buy here with a combination of bidding and negotiations during the auction culminating in a winning bid of $560,000 which saw the property knocked down - much to the disappointment to the buyers in the crowd who couldn’t make auction conditions.

Trends? Always hard to pick on a weekly basis. Perhaps in some cases, eg for properties disadvantaged by location, supply & demand etc, there’s a need for price expectations to be reasonable in order for a buyer to see opportunity.

Melbourne’s The Age newspaper made the following comments after this weekend’s results - and I think some of this pertains to our marketplace:

“The supply of housing stock in Melbourne is growing quickly, giving home buyers greater flexibility to reject B-grade and over-priced properties. B-grade houses and units (unrenovated, on main roads, or near commercial areas) come second at the best of times, but in this market, which is top-heavy with a pre-Christmas rush of stock, they need to offer fair value to sell.

A key market trend seen since October - fierce competition for A-grade properties, but lackluster interest in properties seen to have faults - appeared to intensify on Saturday.At many auctions, buyers steadfastly ignored the properties on offer, and these were passed in on a vendor bid. But other properties were fought over, attracting six or more bidders.”As usual, however, our Auctions are still providing our sellers with the best way of identifying exactly where the market sits - from there it’s their decision."

And for buyers - we can’t urge you more strongly to get yourself into a position to act. We can help with flexibility in relation to the amount of the deposit required and when the settlement takes place - we just need to know what suits!

Until next weekend,

Phil

Keep up-to-date with all the auction action by following us on Twitter @CapornYoungEA and liking us on Facebook!

IT'S WHAT HAPPENS BEHIND THE SCENES THAT REALLY COUNTS

Have you ever thought about how much work goes into producing a 2 hour motion picture?

For every minute of entertainment enjoyed by moviegoers, there are literally thousands of hours of effort that go largely unnoticed.

The same principle is true when selling real estate. There are hundreds of tasks that get performed behind the scenes to ensure that the final outcome meets expectations.

At Caporn Young, the hard-working individuals who perform these often thankless tasks make up our magnificent support team.

Whether it is keeping clients informed, booking ads, ordering brochures or making sure everything is ready for inspections, our support team performs a major role in the process.

Importantly, it allows our sales team to focus on driving the strategy, working with buyers and negotiating the best price for our sellers.

In fact, we often wonder how some agents can perform their role productively without this support.

Any agent can sit in front of a seller and make bold promises about what their agency will deliver, but keeping those promises requires the right systems and people that only a few can truly claim.

CY MAGAZINE MAY 2012

CY Magazine May 2012

THERE'S NO PLACE LIKE HOME

I think it was Dorothy from The Wizard of Oz who said it best: there’s no place like home.
For most of us, a home is much more than a dwelling. It’s a place of memories and shared family experiences. It offers security and familiarity, and for the homeowner, there’s just no place like it.

But this emotional connection we have with our homes can create challenges when it comes time to sell up. As much as we might consider our homes to be one of a kind, the fact of the matter is that no property exists in isolation. Buyers will always compare a property with others.

While some properties have unique features, on the sales market every property has its competition. Competing properties may include similar properties in the area, but also those in other areas offering a comparable lifestyle.

Buyers will assess the value of a property not just based on what the property offers, but what other properties offer. It’s the market that determines value, not the seller or agent. While an owner may think their property is well-priced, the market could easily say otherwise.

So, while it’s important to analyse recent sales when determining a price for a property, it’s equally important to understand what is on the market – in competition with the property.

For buyers, there will always be more than one place they can call home.