How a 'killer offer' helped this Melbourne couple buy their dream home
Sometimes when you’ve set a goal to find your next dream home, the hunt is over before it’s ever really begun.
That’s great news when you’ve already lined up a buyer for your existing property, but somewhat stressful if you haven’t. It’s even more challenging when you need to sell not just one, but two properties before you can commit to the next purchase.
This was the situation Melbourne couple Alan and Bernie Meager found themselves in as the spring selling season hit full stride last year.
“We had an apartment in Elwood and we had a weekender in Daylesford,” says Alan Meager. “We did have visions of ultimately retiring to Daylesford but with the advent of grandchildren and the way my work evolved we were finding we just weren’t getting up to Daylesford anywhere near as much as we wanted to. And when we did get there we were spending the whole weekend doing maintenance, so we weren’t enjoying it as much.”
The Meagers came to a decision to sell the Daylesford home, hunt for a house in Melbourne and then sell the Elwood apartment. What they hadn’t banked on was finding their dream home – a weatherboard charmer in Black Rock – so quickly.
“If someone had come along and said, ‘Where’s your dream location and what house do you want to put on it?’ this is the house,” Meager says. “One of our daughters found it for us. The only time I could get there was on the day of the auction. I got there 15 minutes before the auction started and no one bid on the day. I came back the next day with the girls and they loved it.”
With Daylesford already on the market with Rae Corris from Biggin & Scott Daylesford, Meager contacted Sam Gamon from Chisholm & Gamon Elwood. The Elwood specialist had a strong reputation and Meager had seen him in action at a number of local auctions.
The Meagers were keen to buy Black Rock, but first, the risk-averse couple needed a risk management plan.
They asked each agent to provide a conservative estimate of what the respective properties would sell for and then started negotiations with the Black Rock selling agent, armed with the knowledge of what they could afford to spend.
“What we were prepared to pay and what the vendor wanted was a long way apart,” says Meager. “We got to the point where we gave a final offer, it was declined and we walked away.”
Now the Meagers were back to square one, with two properties to sell and one to buy. But two weeks later Meager bumped into the agent.
“It was the night before I was due to fly to London and we did a mini-negotiation on the spot. I offered an extra $20,000 and 48 hours later I heard it had been accepted.”
Meager was back in Melbourne in time for the first inspection at Elwood where a stylist had “made the place look great”.
A buyer’s advocate representing an overseas client had made a private appointment prior to the first public open house. They were clearly impressed because the following day they made a “killer offer” $100,000 more than Chisholm’s conservative estimate that took the property off the market straight away.
Meager says people questioned his decision to accept that first offer.
“They said why not take it to auction if you got such a good upfront offer. I always say you’ll never go broke taking a profit.”
Things weren’t moving quite so quickly in Daylesford.
Agent Rae Corris says there were “very good inspections and inquiries” in the initial weeks of the campaign but no serious interest at the listing price of $880,000.
Corris says she valued the property based on other sales in the estate, but as luck would have it, vacant land holdings on either side of the Daylesford’s weekender had recently been sold to developers and construction had begun.
“It was almost like a war on two fronts,” says Meager. “People were seeing a whole bunch of earthmovers and big piles of dirt.”
The asking price was adjusted to $868,000, flushing out a new set of potential buyers but still failing to secure a sale. Meager says having the Elwood sale locked in above expectations meant more leeway for the price on Daylesford. And while the campaign was turning out to be a “slow burner”, he says he never lost faith in Corris.
“We bought the block of land from Rae way back and we didn’t even think twice when we were ready to sell,” he says. “We had such a good experience dealing with Rae when we bought.”
As part of their risk management plan, the Meagers made arrangements with their long-standing bank to have finance for a bridging loan should they need it.
“We had made an offer on a property that would go unconditional in three days so we wanted to make sure we had funds available in the unlikely event that the property didn’t sell,” he says. “In the end, we needed it for five days.”
It took 10 weeks to find a buyer and the eventual sale price of $822,000 was below the $850,000 conservative valuation provided, but the Meagers were ready to move on.
“Not all owners will accept such a gap in the price, but they had specific reasons to sell,” sells Corris. “The market is what dictates the price and they were very pragmatic in accepting that offer.”
“We could have kept Daylesford on the market for a year if we’d wanted to; it’s a nice place to be,” says Meager. “It would have been a completely different story if Elwood had crashed, but it worked out perfectly.”
Both Meager and Corris made mention of how important it is to have trust between the agent and the client.
“Our view is that you engage a professional to sell your property and, unless they suggest something that’s clearly not what you want, you go with what they say,” Meager says.
Corris describes the Meagers as “exceptional vendors” with really good communication throughout the campaign.
Meager says another factor in smoothing the selling process was having good relationships established with other key professionals, most notably with a broker/bank and with a solicitor.
“Having those relationships in place is absolutely critical and you need to treat everyone with respect, including the potential buyers,” he says.
Finally, Meager says his trump card is planning for all outcomes.
“Always do your risk management,” he says. “Look for weak points and points that might cause you pain and look for ways to address those.”
“You cannot leave things to the last minute because that boxes you into corners and you’ll make decisions you wouldn’t normally make.”
This is part of a series looking at how Australians sold their homes. For more advice, read Domain’s ultimate guide to selling your home.
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