What these Brisbane veteran renovators learnt selling their eighth home

If Lucy Beikoff could give just one piece of advice when it comes to your first property sale, it’s to do your market research.

“Go to lots of open houses, go and meet different agents when they’re in action,” she says. “That way you can be realistic about your price because you’ll know what your property is worth, and you’ll figure out who’s going to be the right agent for you.”

Beikoff is a veteran of eight home sales. She and husband Gary have just sold their latest project, Greygables, a picture-perfect Hamptons-style residence in Brisbane middle-ring suburb Hendra where the paint has barely dried on a complete rebuild.

Beikoff describes herself as “a bit masochistic” when it comes to buying and selling property.

“We could have quite happily stayed here, but I really enjoy renovating and I’m always seeing potential in other houses,” she explains. Of the decision to sell, Beikoff says she always has mixed emotions, especially when moving from a beautiful new home into a “renovator’s delight”.

“We always feel a little bit sad about leaving and also moving is exhausting, you’ve got the prospect of packing up the house, but we focus on being happy about a successful sale and moving on to the next house.”

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37 Manson Road, Hendra QLD 4011

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Her young daughters, nine-year-old Sasha and six-year-old Pippa, are less enthusiastic, both about leaving behind their new bedrooms and spending yet more weekends at open homes. Beikoff says managing their grumbling has become part of the selling process.

But keeping the kids happy was an easy ask compared to the challenges presented by COVID-19.

The Beikoffs chose Ray White New Farm agent Christine Rudolph to market their property, in part because Rudolph was an established agent with experience in challenging market conditions.

They had also made a previous property purchase through Rudolph and were familiar with her selling style and negotiation skills.

“Her manner suited the house, she’s got a lot of buyers in her database and she does handle quite a few houses in this price bracket.”

The first hurdle was to set a price guide in a nervous market.

Beikoff wanted a private treaty sale rather than an auction but understood that ultimately the house would be worth what the market was prepared to pay for it.

Visiting plenty of open homes and watching comparable sales gave them a good understanding of their price point.

“It’s important to keep an eye on what the sold price is,” Beikoff said. “What they actually achieve rather than the asking price.”

Their strategy to sell first and buy second avoided the pressure introduced when a vendor is looking to cover the purchase price of their next home.

“One time we bought first and the whole experience was quite painful, so we learnt from that,” Beikoff says.

Rudolph says valuing the property was more difficult than usual because of the pandemic. A property she’d recently sold had a pre-COVID valuation done by a respected property valuer that turned out to be $300,000 more than the sale price.

“That correction in the market was something we had to be mindful of,” she says. “I know they would have liked to have gone for a premium price in the mid $2 millions but the price was more likely to be in the early $2 millions.”

With a home aimed squarely at busy families, Rudolph convinced the Beikoffs to appear in the marketing material.

“Including us in the photos gave the house personality,” Beikoff said. “That’s something we haven’t done before and the kids got a kick out of it. It was nice to show the house has a life of its own.”

Rudolph agrees. “Those Hamptons homes are very emotive homes and it was highly commented on as a charming, romantic house, very much on-trend,” she says.

“We did an extensive digital campaign on the property including the Domain social media channels and we really captured the target audience with 100 groups through the property in three weeks.”

Rudolph says there was one group of buyers that missed out: those hailing from interstate and overseas.

“We had lots of those buyers interested but because of the lockdown they were unable to view, which excluded about a third of our market.”

Even though the house was new, Beikoff still went shopping for new cushions and fresh linen for the campaign.

“You need to dedicate time to making sure the house is spot-on for every inspection,” she says.

“All those tips you read all the time are really worth the effort. We packed the valuables away, made sure we’d put away the kids’ toys; we were running around the garden cleaning up after the dog. We got throwing the laundry basket into the back of the car down to a fine art!”

Within two weeks the Beikoffs had several compelling offers, and in week three of the campaign contracts were signed for $2.2 million, a record price for the street.

Beikoff says it’s likely they could have achieved a better price pre-COVID, but she reasons as long as you buy and sell in the same market it’s okay, and they still locked in a profit on the build.

The buyer was someone Rudolph had been working with for five years who knew exactly what type of property she wanted.

“She was stuck on Ascot and Clayfield but when I listed this house I knew it would be perfect for her. That buyer just fell in love with the property instantly. Her husband loved it, the kids loved it, the in-laws loved it, so it was a real family decision to buy that property. It’s one of the happiest sales I’ve ever done.”

Beikoff was also delighted to find such an enthusiastic buyer.

“You have an emotional link to your home so it’s nice when it goes to someone who is going to love it as much as you have,” she says.

This is the first in a series looking at how Australians sold their homes. For more advice, read Domain’s ultimate guide to selling your home.