For my team, last weekend saw the highest number of buyers attend our open homes in more than seven months....

…..so it seems that the Spring selling season has started a little early this year (perhaps it’s the beautiful weather we’re experiencing).

We’re selling properties for excellent prices right now so there’s never been a better time to get your property on the market and capitalise on the relatively low supply of properties compared to the rapidly increasing demand.

Now back to today’s topic…

Over the past few weeks, we’ve heard numerous weird and wonderful stories from agents about open homes that they’ve conducted throughout their careers.

So today, let’s look at open homes from another perspective – through the eyes of a buyer.

Here’s some of the unique stories that have been sent to me…

The first story was sent to me from Bianca…

• “I loved hearing about your funny stories I sure did have a giggle to myself!  My husband and I were looking at purchasing a house in Ningi last year and we arrived early to the open home. Excited as usual we did a couple of laps around the nearby neighbourhood.  To our surprise we found another house that had an open home so we decided to be nosy and take a look inside.  We thought, well things do happen when you least expect them maybe it’s our lucky day!! We were greeted by the real estate and we gave him our details.  We had a chat before he started showing us inside the house.  It was big and we were impressed.  We then went into the back yard and there were chooks roaming around and it was peaceful.. We thought we were onto a winner here and ready to tell him we wanted to put in an offer.  It then came time to see the shed.  Hubby is into sheds as most blokes are with their toys! Well…Hubby walked in first and looked at me, the real estate gentleman was explaining the shed was big enough to fit in 4 cars.  Hubby and I had our jaws to the floor… There were chains from the ceiling with collars and whips, beds in each garage space.. You can see where I am going with this. We soon worked out what their garage was used for!  Unfortunately after seeing that we had to say thank you and goodbye.  We got in the car hubby and I quickly drove off and had a good laugh to ourselves, well we truly weren’t expecting that! We did however buy the house down the road instead, it is something we will never forget. “

Our next story is from Susan…

• “I attended an open home a few months ago. We really liked the home and were just standing on the rear deck having a talk about it. There were a few other people standing near us as well. There were two agents in attendance and one of them came up to us and started chatting to us about it. All of a sudden, we were horrified as he lit up a cigarette in front of us and kept talking. A few minutes later, the other agent walked out the back and quite loudly chastised the first agent for smoking – not because he was smoking but because there was a serious gas leak somewhere and only a few days before, a buyer became quite nauseous standing in the same spot. We left quickly. After no-one followed us up during the following week, we contacted the agent and asked him about this leak. He told us that the owner would “eventually get someone to have a look at it”.

Our final story for today was submitted by Belinda and Andrew…

• “We turned up to view an open home and the agent didn’t show up at all. We first thought that we must have mistaken the time but then another two couples showed so we realized that we had the correct time. We called the agent and she told us that she had made another appointment as she didn’t think that anyone would turn up. We asked her why she didn’t cancel it but she said that she was too busy as there were so many buyers to handle right now and she had “other priorities”. We wondered whether the owners knew where they stood in her list of priorities.”

Thank you kindly to all our contributors for taking the time to share their stories.

Next week, I’ll share some more of your memorable moments that you’ve encountered at open homes…and some of these will leave you speechless.

Until then, Happy Listing & Happy Selling!

My ‘Feature Property Of The Week’ is 29 Fred Campbell Drive, Albany Creek

5 Bed / 2 Bath / 4 Car

Offers Above $675,000

Open Home – Sat, 2 Sep 9:00AM to 9:30AM

A sprawling low-set family residence that offers an abundance of space, upmarket finishes and more features than you could ever need…all on a fabulous 700m2 allotment that backs onto a leafy nature reserve. Featuring 4 bedrooms plus a separate office and extra bedroom that’s currently used as a retreat, three generous living spaces, a well-designed gourmet kitchen, two bathrooms and four car accommodation including a double tandem lockable carport with extra height that’s perfect for boats or caravans. Offering a plethora of extra features that include a sparkling in-ground swimming pool with a pool shelter, a spacious private entertainment area with high-pitched roof, air-conditioning, solar hot water, a security system and ‘Crimsafe’ style screens…just to name a few. This fabulous home is new to the market and bound to attract huge interest – make sure you see this one!

Did You Know?

• Many years ago, Michael was conducting an open home and a lady fell into the swimming pool whilst walking around the edge. Very red-faced, she dried herself off and left very quickly. Her husband joked that she must have wanted to “Try before they buy”

• Lilliana (Michael’s daughter) recently overheard Michael discussing some marketing ideas so she decided to come up with a flyer of her own. We think it’s pretty good. Perhaps she has better ideas than Michael.

Fun Fact….

Each king in a deck of playing cards represents a great king from history:

Spades – King David

Hearts – Charlemagne

Clubs – Alexander, the Great

Diamonds – Julius Caesar

Quote of the Week….