There’s been much discussion in the media and within the property sector about how the real estate market is currently performing across Australia.

Certainly, it should come as no surprise that the Sydney and Melbourne markets are now in decline and there’s been plenty of media attention focussed on how far these markets will fall…some economists say as much as 40% whilst others are suggesting falls of somewhere between 10 and 20%.

As I discussed in my blog a few weeks ago, much of the hype around the ‘Australian Market’ is very ‘Sydney’ and ‘Melbourne’ focused and whilst real estate transactions in these two cities do account for approximately 40% of all sales across Australia, some do forget that there is another 60% of sales transactions that are outside these areas.

The Canberra and Hobert property markets are experiencing solid growth right now so it’s certainly not all ‘gloom and doom’ across Australia.

I do meet a lot of people on a weekly basis and I must say that I’ve never seen more confusion about what’s happening in the Brisbane market than we’re seeing right now.

There’s many people forming an opinion that our market is surging ahead, and they believe that it’s a real sellers’ market whilst others seem to be influenced by some of this National media speculation and they believe that the market here is sliding quickly.

Given we, my personal team, made 8 sales last week alone (with many of these being street record prices), I can honestly say that the market in my area is in very good shape right now!

Additionally, we currently have offers on another 7 of our properties…a couple of these will likely turn into a contract but there’s a few offers that are way too low and won’t go any further.

I’m a huge believer that there’s always micro-markets within the greater market and you’d be surprised how you can list a home in one suburb and have 20-30 buyers through the first open home but head 2-3km away and you’d be lucky to have 2-3 buyers attend – and there’s levels of ‘supply and demand’ are always in a state of change.

It would come as no surprise to you if I suggested that many sellers believe their properties are still increasing in value whilst many buyers are of the belief that the market is struggling.

As an agent, it does create an interesting dynamic.

Often, sellers may have an idea of what they’d be prepared to sell their property for whilst buyers make offers that are no-where near the asking price and have an expectation that their low offers should be seriously considered.

We’ve noticed a huge increase in property sellers changing agents in the hope that a different agent might be able to secure a sale price that the first agent couldn’t obtain.

I was interested to read a post in a private real estate chat group on Facebook where a particular agent has just purchased an agency that was carrying around 50 listings.

The first thing she did was to call every seller and ask them to reduce the price in order to get it sold…and therein lies an inherent problem within the real estate sales industry (in my opinion).

The only thing many agents know how to do if things are tough is to ask their seller to reduce the price and whist price does have a bearing on the outcome of a successful sale, it’s not the only contributing factor towards a successful property sale.

In my opinion, an agent should have a number of weapons in their artillery to work towards a successful sale and again, I have discussed these ideas in this forum before.

To highlight this effectively, I thought I’d share with you the action plan of a ‘real life’ meeting that I’ve recently had with one of our sellers…a seller that has had a home on the market for sale with us and not yet sold within the first 90 days of being listed.

I like to keep these blogs raw and honest and it’s easy for me (and every other agent) to sit here and share with you the successful sales that have occurred quickly and without fuss, but what about the properties listed that haven’t sold for ridiculous prices within the first few weeks?

Without divulging personal information and sharing any names and addresses, next week I’ll share with you the journey we’ve taken with this seller and give you an insight into how we work with our sellers to ensure they have every opportunity to get the best possible price…and how we operate when things don’t go perfectly to plan!

Until then, Happy Listing & Happy Selling!