Property Hub - Investment Insights & Inspiration - Realty Talk: Getting information from the listing agent

Episode Date: December 24, 2022

You don’t have to be all at sea when you are preparing to go to an auction to bid and hopefully buy the perfect property for the family or as an investment to fit into your portfolio.  There are some key things you can uncover from the agent before the day of auction but sometimes it is knowing what to ask.  Cate Bakos is a buyers agent based in Melbourne and this week she details the questions to ask. RealtyTalk is part of the Property Hub podcast channel, your home for property investment insights, inspiration, and stories from Australia’s top property experts, investors, leaders, and analysts. Subscribe now to get every RealtyTalk episode delivered to you each week for free, and also get full access to Get Invested, the leading podcast for Australians who want to unlock their full ‘self, health, and wealth’ potential and get inspired by the stories of investors, founders, and entrepreneurs. Subscribe to RealtyTalk on the Property Hub channel: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Google Podcasts | Email Property Hub is a collaboration between Bushy Martin from KnowHow Property, Kevin Turner from Realty, Andrew Montesi from Apiro Marketing and Apiro Media, and Australia’s largest independent podcast network DM Media. Business and partnership enquiries: [e-mail] omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Welcome to Realty Talk, the show that brings together the country's most authoritative and respected property experts. Follow us on all the socials and subscribe for updates and exclusive offers. Realty Talk is powered by Realty.com.au, connecting buyers, sellers and agents differently. Hello and welcome to another one in our summer series of auction updates. We're taking you behind the scenes with Kate Bakos and educating you, hopefully, if you're going to be bidding for a property. in the next few weeks or months or year ahead. Who knows? You know, you don't really have to be all at sea when you're preparing to go to an auction to bid and hopefully buy the perfect family home or even another property that you want to put into your property portfolio.

There are some key things that you can uncover from the agent in preparation, but all you've got to do is know what questions to ask. You don't need to know the answers. That's obviously why you asked the questions, but knowing the questions is the key thing. Kate Bacos is a buyer's agent. She's based in Melbourne and she is going to help us detail some of those questions today. Kate, welcome to the show once again. Thanks for your time. It's great to be here. Let's walk through some of those questions. You've given me a list here and you say, how many people have already inspected the property? I mean, it's fairly obvious why you would ask that, but how relevant is it really? Buyers are always petrified of missing

out at auction and getting pipped by someone who's stronger and obviously the number of bidders per auction can be a reflection of just how competitive it could be if you've ever set your heart on a property and you've missed it at auction it can feel quite a devastating blow so buyers are very reluctant to throw their hat in the ring if they think there's a lot of competition but i always say that the knowledge is power so find out how competitive it is and not just so that you can build a plan to counteract that with a high price but it might be you can have plan a and a plan b property and have them running in tandem you've got obviously an upcoming auction for two but if you're favoring one that looks like it's about to spin out of control and sell

for a crazy price it might be the right impetus to go to plan b so having knowledge obviously does give you that power and it gives you choice and there are a few ways that you can find out just how competitive an auction is. Indeed, and last week when we spoke, we talked about asking the agent certain questions and also going to auctions to become familiar with how the agent works and how the auctioneer works. I also think it's a good idea, Kate,

I'd love to get your feedback on this, about going, if you're interested in a property, go to a couple of open homes, not just one, and be prepared to stay for a while to see how many people are turning up, what sort of questions they're asking and even suss the opposition out a bit, Kate. Absolutely. I hover around that front door and listen to what people are asking the agent. I also quiz the agent. Sometimes you can say to them, what do you think this could sell for?

Now, there are plenty of agents that will talk in riddles and not want to give you the direct answer. But when you get them talking and you're doing it respectfully, you're not letting them think that you're about to take them to the tribunal for underquoting or anything like that. that you're actually trying to position yourself to be able to buy the property with the right budget, just by asking the agent what sorts of comparable sales would have you thought are reflective of price or what sort of buyers am I up against? Have you seen any of them bidding who have exceptionally strong budgets?

You'd be surprised how many agents will tip you off and let you know what sort of dollars they've seen your possible competition spend at other auctions. I think another good question to ask as well is how many of these people have had multiple inspections and, you know, how many have they had? Because sometimes I find two or three inspections are OK, but if it's any more than that, sometimes they're looking for a reason not to buy it as opposed to a reason to buy it, Kate. You're absolutely right. I remember when I was a selling agent years ago and I was a young agent in an office of very experienced male agents and I was so excited that I had a buyer who had come back for her fourth inspection. And they all had that look on their face of that warning noise for me.

And I asked them what they meant. And they said, if a buyer comes through twice, they're paying three times. They might be measuring something up or showing a family member four times or more. There's a reason why they aren't comfortable to go ahead with it. They're either checking something out that's troubling them or, as you said, they're looking for a reason not to buy it. Yeah, indeed. I love your point too about checking for a plan B, having another property in standby.

That's going to give you a lot more leverage in the negotiations and a lot more knowledge about what's happening. But it's also good to know what properties are competing with the one you're looking at to give you an idea about value, Kate. Absolutely, because if you've got a property in the middle of winter that's a standout property and a crowd pleaser and there's nothing else quite like it, you can anticipate that that sale price will be enormous.

The agents will have a fantastic auction and they'll have lots of bidders. As soon as you roll into late spring, you start to see more properties coming onto the market and they might threaten that campaign. They can cannibalise each other's buyers and agents are well aware of that. So you do see some more erratic behaviour

when you're in a very vibrant market with more stock. You'll see a willingness to do deals before auctions, so to have a negotiation or a sale before the auction date and you'll also see some expectations that aren't aligned with reality so agents might be thinking they've got three or four solid buyers on a particular campaign and the next thing we hear it passed in so things do get erratic when there are quite a few options dying but buyers to be well aware of what's competing with their particular property and who could be on that property who the agents think is on the current property, that can give way to some really happy surprises if the agents get it wrong.

Very good advice, as we always expect from you. Kate Bacos is a buyers agent head of Melbourne and joining us for this special summer series. Next week when Kate comes back, Kate, I'd like to ask you about some more of the homework that we need to do, some of the things that we can uncover to make sure that when we go to auction, we're fully prepared and there aren't going to be any surprises. That's coming up next time when Kate Bacos joins us. Kate, thanks for your time and we'll talk to you then. See you next week. Miss something in this week's show or want to catch up on past shows? Do it anytime at realty.com.au where we connect buyers, sellers and agents differently.