24 Trigg St, Geelong West.
Keeping your cards too close to your chest when inspecting a home that you clearly want to buy is a strategy with obvious pitfalls that can end in missing out.
It’s lucky that a good real estate agent looking to sell a property prior to auction due to the apparent low level of interest will take the time to canvas the field of potential buyers before locking in a pre-auction offer.
That’s exactly what played out at 24 Trigg St, Geelong West, where Gartland agent Will Ainsworth thought he had just one serious buyer showing interest in the renovated house.
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“There was one interested party who showed their hands through the whole campaign, and others were sort of being a bit coy and guarded with their interests,” he said.
24 Trigg St, Geelong West, has sold prior to auction.
Stainless steel appliances feature in the kitchen.
“So with the one buyer, the owners and I decided we’d look at getting an offer from them prior to auction. And once we did, it was at a price point that the owners were happy with.
“As we deal with every campaign, we alerted all the other buyers who had attended, and low and behold, two other buyers came out of the woodwork and we had a bit of an auction before the auction scenario.
“It ended up selling to a couple of first-home buyers who love the property because it’s ready to move straight into and obviously in Geelong West.”
The home sold for close to the top of the $750,000 to $820,000 price guide, but the purchaser was one of the parties that hadn’t revealed their interest during the campaign.
Plantation shutters, ceilings fans and split-system airconditioning were features in several rooms.
The updated bathroom.
Mr Ainsworth said the floorplan had fundamentally remained the same, but the rest of the house had been updated with new flooring, pain, kitchen, bathrooms and laundry.
“The north-facing backyard and the driveway – Trigg St is a fairly narrow street, so to have a driveway that you can get your cars off the street was a big one,” he said.
Mr Ainsworth said a lot of buyers don’t want to let on how keen they are on a property, but it can backfire.
“We don’t expect them to lay out all their cards, but at a minimum, just say that ‘we do have some interest. If you could keep us informed with any activities prior to auction’,” he said.
335 Church St, Herne Hill, sold after auction.
Meanwhile, a three-bedroom house on a corner block in Herne Hill was snapped up after auction after a group of potential buyers remained on the fence at Saturday’s auction.
The Belmont buyer inspected the house at 335 Church St in person for the first time on Saturday, having already done due diligence during the campaign.
Mr Ainsworth said the buyers would likely move in but down the track would look at developing the 758sq m site.
The undisclosed sale price fell within the $620,000 to $680,000 price guide.
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