In this episode of the Brisbane Property Podcast, Melinda and Scott Jennison are joined by Sally Phillips, the newest team member at Streamline Property Buyers, to explore how buyers can stand out and succeed in Brisbane’s ultra-competitive property market.
With limited stock, rising demand, and emotional fatigue hitting many buyers hard, Sally shares expert insights from her years of experience as a buyers agent—including what truly matters beyond price when it comes to making a winning offer.
You’ll learn:
- How to gain a competitive edge without overpaying
- What sellers really want beyond the highest bid
- Why buyer hesitation can cost you thousands
- How to balance emotion with strategy (especially for homebuyers)
- The critical role of confidence, clarity, and preparation
- How local knowledge and professional representation can fast-track your success
Whether you’re a first home buyer, investor, or relocating to Brisbane, this episode is packed with practical tips to help you avoid costly mistakes and buy with certainty.
Connect with Us:
- Subscribe on Youtube https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCW30uBCnHQ2YllnwGKHNfxg
- Listen on Spotify https://open.spotify.com/show/5tODCtY54iQrxadNqqmevs
- Ready to work with us directly? https://streamlineproperty.com.au/contact/
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Transcript
[00:00:00] Scott Jennison: In this episode of the Brisbane Property Podcast, Melinda and I are joined by Sally Phillips.
[00:00:04] Melinda Jennison: Sally has recently joined the Streamline Property Buyers team representing our home buyers and she has years of experience and we’re going to share some tips with you about how you can make yourself stand out in today’s competitive market environment. We hope you enjoy this episode.
[00:00:19] Unknown Speaker: Welcome to the Brisbane Property Podcast with your hosts, Melinda and Scott Jennison.
[00:00:23] Scott Jennison: Hello, everyone and welcome to another episode of the Brisbane Property Podcast. Today, we’re going to chat about helping, obviously, standing out in the in a very competitive market and to join us today is Sally Phillips. Welcome, Sally and welcome to the team.
[00:00:37] Sally Phillips: Thanks so much, Scott and Melinda.
[00:00:40] Melinda Jennison: Sally has joined the Streamline Property Buyers team but has come from a background already serving as a buyers agent across many suburbs here in Brisbane. So she has a wealth of experience that she’s going to be able to share some of that with our podcast audience today and that’s why we thought we’d pick Sally’s brain to some extent. Obviously, Scott and I always have an opinion on ways to make offers stand out in a competitive market, but we’re hoping today to showcase some of the experience that Sally is now also contributing to our clients. And the whole goal is to ensure that if you are in the market and you’re not represented, you’re able to take away some hints and tips that’s going to help you to get ahead when purchasing property here in Brisbane, especially in a competitive market.
[01:22:20] Scott Jennison: I think as Melinda mentioned and Sally, you know, I mean, you know, now here at Streamline, and we work really close as a team. So I think it is great that, you know, I might have an opinion, which will be different to Melinda’s. Sometimes that happens, which could be different from yours, but to bounce those ideas off in the office as we do sometimes in different circumstances with buyers. Obviously, at the moment in the market, it’s pretty competitive.
[01:47:40] Sally Phillips: Very competitive out there.
[01:49:10] Scott Jennison: So some sort of things that I mean, what’s contributing to it? Obviously,
[01:53:70] Sally Phillips: Well, it comes down to low stock. Well, low stock, by that, I guess we mean low properties. So the the supply of properties for sale on the market is significantly down. We have demand, I mean, it’s simple economics, but I was reading ABS stats, there’s something like 1600 people moving to Brisbane each week. So the demand for properties, and particularly for units and townhouses and properties that are sitting under the median house pricing in greater Brisbane, they’re just being snapped up so quickly. It is a competition out there.
[02:22:50] Melinda Jennison: Yeah, and competition obviously creates FOMO or that fear of missing out. And, you know, if you are a buyer in the market, we’ve seen so much evidence of this where, you know, if people have missed out on multiple occasions, you can almost see those buyers that are at the end of their tether and they they might find an opportunity and they just throw everything at it and sometimes they’ll overpay by a significant amount just to secure the property and it’s simply because they’re exhausted with the process. Well, hopefully here today will help you understand reasons why you don’t have to do that. We don’t want you to be that buyer that throws everything at it and overpays. This is about making your offer more competitive outside of price and hopefully some of the hints and tips that we’ve got to share with you will really assist you in this competitive market.
[03:09:00] Scott Jennison: So, I I guess one of the questions then, how do people succeed? and apart from, like Melinda said, some some people will just throw everything at it. Um they’re sick of looking, they’re they’ve just dealing with agents, dealing with everything else, life. They’ve got kids at sport. All those sorts of there’s so many different factors involved in it. What’s is there anything else that people are sort of succeeding in in buying?
[03:31:70] Sally Phillips: Well, I think being confident, uh and there’s lots of ways to be confident. But if you are confident in the market because you’ve researched the market, you understand what properties in your preferred suburbs have sold for. Um if you have confidence in your ability to make an offer because you’ve had finance approved, uh if you understand the agents and you’ve developed a relationship with them, perhaps, so you feel that you can talk to them and and obtain advice. So if you have confidence in moving forward, you have your finance, you know the market, you know the approximate sales price, what it’s going to look like, then that enables you to move forward with confidence. Because throwing money at it isn’t really the answer and that often leads to buyer’s remorse and that’s what we want to avoid in a market like this.
[04:17:10] Melinda Jennison: Absolutely. There’s nothing worse than seeing buyers have that buyer regret or as you’ve described it as buyer’s remorse. What we want to ensure is that buyers are confident and that they feel really empowered to make the right decision and not feel like they’ve overpaid or that they’ve been manipulated. And I think it’s important for all buyers to understand that sellers have various circumstances as well and price is not always the primary motivator. So for buyers that think that price is the the primary driver of sellers’ decisions, that’s actually not always correct. Um understanding sellers’ motivations and how you can potentially position offers to appeal to the seller outside of price becomes critical and that’s obviously the topic that we’re going to be unpacking a lot more in today’s episode.
[05:03:60] Scott Jennison: I think one thing which you touched a little bit on there um Sally as well is when you talked about the confidence in the market and knowing the market, so not getting caught up in things, the emotion. So when we look at home buyers, there’s always emotion. And whether it’s from the the buyer or the seller, generally you’ll find there’s there’s a fair level of emotion involved in it. So knowing that market and understanding it to try and keep that emotion side of thing down.
[05:27:00] Sally Phillips: And I think having emotion is really important because we’re talking about buying homes. And we want to be engaged and we want to fall in love with the property, but I think understanding what you’re looking for, and particularly if you’re in a partnership, you’re a couple, you’re a family, having a property brief that’s been defined about what you need, what you’d like, and and what you won’t compromise on the deal breaker, we might call it. And if you’ve got some sort of brief that you’ve mapped out yourself, then that gives you a counterbalance to emotional purchasing. Um having a trusted advisor, a buyer’s advocate, somebody who could perhaps help you so that they can also counterbalance because so often we hear about people who perhaps do have a property brief, they know what they want, but then they throw that out the window because they find a property that they love. And I think in this market, it’s really important to have defined what you want. And then, of course, you can um you can get people to help you. You can ask agents to help you if you’ve defined your brief. But it’s very difficult to help someone if they haven’t actually determined what they’re looking for and that sort of hesitation or inability to move can actually cause delay.
[06:33:00] Scott Jennison: You made me think of a story. Um we had a client, this was this was a while ago now, um and when you’re talking about keeping them accountable and having a brief, um I think they had two or three children, I don’t remember, I think it was three children, young children. Um we’ve had, well, not had, but we’ve got three boys, still got them. they were they have been younger. They’re older now, but one of the things I talked to them about on this property, and might have known the story I’m going to, it it was a beautiful house. They loved it, it had the pool, it was perfect. location was great. One of the things when I turned up and I said, your kids ride scooters. And when you come in the driveway, there was no storage. There was nothing, you couldn’t put these scooters and I said, I can tell you you’ll be picking up those scooters for the next five to 10 years and they’ll be in your driveway in your garage and in the way because I’ve done it. And you need to that’s one thing we had to look at, can we put storage in or is there another way you can actually store them or is it something you’re willing to compromise on? They’re the sort of things that people have to and you can make them accountable for those types of things and make them think and go, yeah, actually, you know what, it’s a deal breaker or no, it’s something I’m happy to pick up scooters for the next five to 10 years. We can build a storage.
[07:41:00] Melinda Jennison: That’s exactly right. And I think that’s the important thing. It’s almost like an accountability coach, if you like. Someone that reminds you of what it is that’s most important to you because there’s always going to be compromise and the perfect property doesn’t exist. We always say, unless you build it and then sometimes depending on budget, you still might not get what you consider to be perfect. So you must understand where you’re willing to compromise and understanding up front what are the essential things that you’re looking for in a home and I know in the story that you’ve just shared Scott, we remember those clients essential to them was storage because they had a lot of equipment for the yard, they had a lot of fun toys for the children and when we arrived at this home, it ticked so many boxes, but it really did not have the storage that was for them one of the critical elements of what they were looking for and it was our job to remind them about what it was that was most important to them when they first came to us before they become emotionally connected to that home. They did move on, we ended up finding them the perfect home that aligned with what they were looking for and they were really happy buyers, but of course, having someone to be able to remind you what it is you were originally looking for becomes really important in the home buying process.
[08:55:00] Scott Jennison: I like that the accountability partner. Yeah, that’s true.
[08:58:00] Sally Phillips: And obviously making when buyers to try and make themselves look more attractive um to to the seller. So obviously going in to to buy a property, you you’re wanting to connect in a way to say, you know, if I’m going to put an offer in, this is my connection, or this is what it is. Um obviously there’s there has to be advantages there in a way or people can take advantage of certain little things to be able to make themselves more attractive as as a buyer.
[09:22:20] Sally Phillips: Of course, I think asking questions is really key. Uh often I’ve I feel that buyers go to open homes and they keep their cards really close to their chest. They almost perhaps feel a bit defensive. And you can understand that you don’t want to put all your cards on the table, but equally asking questions of the agent of why are they selling, where are they going, when would they like to leave, and taking notice of small things. So, um I have an example recently where I helped a client secure a property and we secured it not on price, but on the fact that we’d picked up that the uh the owner loved the garden and she had this pride in the roses and my buyer loved the roses. So we could create a connection there and pointing out, you know, some renovations that have been done. We really love the fixtures or the fittings and focusing on the positives. Some buyers I think perhaps try to find negatives and use those to negotiate down on price. Whereas I’ve always found that finding the positive and connecting with the vendor through the agent by understanding what their needs are can position you for a much smoother negotiation because people really, when you in your own home, if you imagine selling it, you want to sell it to someone who’s going to love your property, not someone who’s picking it to pieces. So creating that connection can often create a really nice segue for sale.
[10:42:60] Scott Jennison: Don’t say negative things about someone’s house that they love.
[10:45:60] Sally Phillips: That’s exactly right. Because you will get them straight off side at the very beginning and they will remember that straight away.
[10:51:30] Melinda Jennison: And when it comes down to, in this market, being so competitive, we’re often up against what we call multiple offers or multiple buyers out there vying for one property. If you want to position yourself and make yourself stand out, be positive, write a note to the vendor and tell them why you love the property.
[11:07:30] Melinda Jennison: Absolutely. And it is interesting because there are a lot of buyers that are buying into Brisbane from interstate, they’re time poor, they’re not located here, they’re unable to do physical inspections. But they may not engage the services of a buyer’s agent. In that situation, like, what do you say to those buyers? Like how can they put their best foot forward? Because it’s going to be tough for them.
[11:41:40] Sally Phillips: Well, it’s a bit tough if you have to get on a plane every weekend and come up and inspect and if you aren’t going to hire a buyer’s agent and have local representation on the ground, then I guess um relying upon family and and friends. But I’ve heard that it’s taking people an average of somewhere close to six months from when deciding to buy a property to actually settling on a property and given the pace of growth of the market, that’s a lot of time and expense. And I I don’t know, I I can’t begin to imagine how difficult it would be if someone said to me, Sally, go and buy a property in Sydney, but you can’t go there. How would you do it?
[12:17:50] Scott Jennison: I wouldn’t. I wouldn’t do it.
[12:18:60] Melinda Jennison: And I think just not understanding the nuances of the local market, it could be tricky. But at the end of the day, you know, regardless of whether you’re engaging a professional buyer’s agent or um getting the assistance of friends and family, I think it’s important that there is someone on the ground that is local that can physically inspect the home for you because it’s incredible what you’ll pick up at a physical inspection, well and truly above anything that you could research online. Would you agree?
[12:46:10] Sally Phillips: Well, absolutely because the photographs are taken from the best position, of course. I think some of them use the beautify app uh to make rooms look larger or it’s their job to conceal things that may be unsavory. Uh but if you go there and inspect it yourself, you’re not just looking at the size of the rooms, but you’re looking at the condition of the property. Some properties I’ve seen say that there is no flood overlay, but when you go there after heavy rains, there is a lot of water pooling and you think these are actually factors that you couldn’t never pick up if you hadn’t gone and physically inspected it.
[13:19:10] Melinda Jennison: And the smells and the Yeah.
[13:19:90] Scott Jennison: Interesting when you when you see the the real estate.com photos and uh all the concrete’s wet on the outside, yet the sky is blue as anything. hasn’t been photoshopped at all.
[13:31:30] Melinda Jennison: Not at all. Um, and I think it’s a, it’s a good point to make that the selling agent will always present the property um to in its best light. So of course they’re going to have the best photos to help uh showcase that property in a way that’s going to present it in the best possible way for the seller. And I think that’s the critical point. Regardless of what conversations you’ve entered into with the selling agent, regardless of what information they’ve shared with you, regardless of how much rapport you’ve built with them as a buyer, it’s critical to always understand that a selling agent is retained by a seller and gets paid by the seller. So their job is to get the best price for the seller. So don’t be lured into a false pretense thinking that they’re your friend. Yeah, that’s exactly right. Because we’ve seen that time and time again with buyers that think the selling agent is really helping them, but in actual fact, they’re helping them to put forward an offer that’s going to be in the best interest of their seller because they’re getting paid by the seller.
[14:35:10] Scott Jennison: So all of those confused and frustrated buyers out there that need help should reach out to Streamline Property Buyers and I’m sure as a team, we can help them and and avoid all those things and they can keep doing what they do in life and enjoy things while we take all the hard yards. a little bit of advice. Um any advice for for buyers who seem to have missed out a few times and feel discouraged?
[14:55:50] Sally Phillips: Don’t be discouraged because Brisbane is a fantastic market and there are opportunities and it’s a great market to continue to invest in for the foreseeable future. But if you have been missing out, perhaps take a moment to think about why. Is it because you hesitated? Is it because you didn’t understand the value of the property? Um what are the reasons? Maybe there’s a blockage that you yourself have created and if you can analyze that without going into analysis paralysis, but if you can work out what’s been stopping you moving forward, and perhaps work on that, listen to some podcasts, do some research, and equip yourself to be prepared so that you have the confidence in acting. But you need to have your finance approved. I think that’s key. One thing I often see is that buyers find the property of their dreams and then they sort of do it in reverse, try and get finance, try and do the due diligence. You really need to be going in prepared. So educate yourself and work out what’s stopping you.
[16:05:40] Scott Jennison: I think that’s a fantastic piece of advice because if you’re not analyzing what the issue is retrospectively, you’ll never quite know why you’re missing the market.
[16:13:30] Melinda Jennison: And I can’t tell you how many buyers I’ve seen walk out of an auction, even if they have started to bid, which means they don’t actually see the result and the sale price. And that just astonishes me that they wouldn’t at least be interested to understand where the current market sits, especially if it was a home or a property that they had interest in enough in that they’ve registered to bid on the the home. And yes, we know and understand that everybody’s busy and um some of the auctions are drawn out, especially if there’s a negotiation period. But if you’re there enough and you love it enough that you’ve registered to bid on the the home, even if you’ve been outbid and someone else is prepared to pay more, stay, learn, be educated by the eventual sale price because that becomes the new benchmark upon which any other homes in that area are going to base value on. So it’s critical, market knowledge is going to set you apart and it’s one of the reasons why as a team, every Saturday, we are out and about not just inspecting homes and investment properties for our clients, but we’re also actively getting a good cross section of the market at auctions so we can understand real time value as it’s happening. If we’re waiting for something to become a settled sale, we’re already behind the market because it does take four to six weeks at least for that information to become available to us. So stay in the market, understand current values and really don’t walk away from an auction. If you’re there to bid, understand what it sells for so that you can understand current market conditions.
[17:48:40] Scott Jennison: It’s interesting when you you see the real estate.com photos and all the concrete’s wet on the outside, yet the sky is blue as anything. It hasn’t been photoshopped at all.
[18:00:20] Melinda Jennison: Not at all. And I think it’s a a good point to make that the selling agent will always present the property to in its best light. So of course they’re going to have the best photos to help showcase that property in a way that’s going to present it in the best possible way for the seller. And I think that’s the critical point. Regardless of what conversations you’ve entered into with the selling agent, regardless of what information they’ve shared with you, regardless of how much rapport you’ve built with them as a buyer, it’s critical to always understand that a selling agent is retained by a seller and gets paid by the seller. So their job is to get the best price for the seller. So don’t be lured into a false pretense thinking that they’re your friend. Yeah, that’s exactly right because we’ve seen that time and time again with buyers that think the selling agent is really helping them, but in actual fact, they’re helping them to put forward an offer that’s going to be in the best interest of their seller because they’re getting paid by the seller.
[19:00:20] Sally Phillips: It’s disheartening. And it happens so often, but equally on the other side, sometimes we see people turn up to auctions and they haven’t done their homework perhaps, or they’re not quite sure how to appraise a property and they’ve only looked at the the bands on real estate.com and it looks like it fits within their price range and they go along and they have their paddle and you have a chat to them and you wish them luck and they walk out because their the opening bid was lower than their highest their their sort of maximum amount that they could bid because they just hadn’t been able to work out where the property sat. And I think that’s really disheartening for buyers as well.
[19:37:30] Melinda Jennison: Absolutely. I think that’s a a fantastic piece of advice because if you’re not analyzing what the issue is retrospectively, you’ll never quite know why you’re missing the market. And I can’t tell you how many buyers I’ve seen walk out of an auction, even if they have started to bid, which means they don’t actually see the result and the sale price. And that just astonishes me that they wouldn’t at least be interested to understand where the current market sits, especially if it was a home or a property that they had interest in enough in that they’ve registered to bid on the the home. And yes, we know and understand that everybody’s busy and um some of the auctions are drawn out, especially if there’s a negotiation period, but if you’re there enough and you love it enough that you’ve registered to bid on the the home, even if you’ve been outbid and someone else is prepared to pay more, stay, learn, be educated by the eventual sale price because that becomes the new benchmark upon which any other homes in that area are going to base value on. So it’s critical, market knowledge is going to set you apart and it’s one of the reasons why as a team every Saturday, we are out and about, not just inspecting homes and investment properties for our clients, but we’re also actively getting a good cross section of the market at auctions so we can understand real time value as it’s happening. If we’re waiting for something to become a settled sale, we’re already behind the market because it does take four to six weeks at least for that information to become available to us. So stay in the market, understand current values, and really don’t walk away from an auction if you’re there to bid, understand what it sells for so that you can understand current market conditions.
[20:47:60] Scott Jennison: The auction bidding one is an interesting one. We were at an auction last week and there was people there that didn’t really know, obviously, um what they’re doing. The property was on the market and they asked whether they’re allowed to offer $2,000, which we sort of went, wow, you can offer whatever you like, really, because it’s on the market and they’ll take it. But I I know we talk and obviously we’re buyers advocates, um and we do obviously, we’re pro that side of it. So obviously our listeners would would have picked that up by now. But I think if people are frustrated or interested or curious on the type of service, it it, I mean, look, I know from our side of it’s Streamline, it’s free to talk to us. You can ask the questions. There’s no obligation. You don’t have to go ahead with it. Um get some other advice. Have a look at Reba, have a look at those sort of websites for those sort of people that are recommended. Talk to an agent. Okay? Ask who would they recommend? Those types of things. But do your research and open up to talk to a few people. So even when I say for for ourselves at Streamline, you don’t have to just talk to us. You can talk to a few people because there’s going to be different people that match for certain clients. Not everyone is the perfect match for each other. So that’s okay. But if that service is something people are interested in, have a conversation and just get to know what it is and how it works.
[22:04:30] Melinda Jennison: Absolutely. And I think just not understanding the nuances of the local market, it could be tricky. But at the end of the day, you know, regardless of whether you’re engaging a professional buyer’s agent or um getting the assistance of friends and family, I think it’s important that there is someone on the ground that is local that can physically inspect the the home for you because it’s incredible what you’ll pick up at a physical inspection well and truly above anything that you could research online. Would you agree?
[22:46:10] Sally Phillips: Well, absolutely because the photographs are taken from the best position. Of course. I think some of them use the beautify app uh to make rooms look larger or it’s their job to conceal things that may be unsavory. Uh but if you go there and inspect it yourself, you’re not just looking at the size of the rooms, but you’re looking at the condition of the property. Some properties I’ve seen say that there is no flood overlay, but when you go there after heavy rains, there is a lot of water pooling and you think these are actually factors that you couldn’t never pick up if you hadn’t gone and physically inspected it.
[23:19:10] Melinda Jennison: And the smells and the Yeah.
[23:19:90] Scott Jennison: Interesting when you when you see the the real estate.com photos and uh all the concrete’s wet on the outside, yet the sky is blue as anything. hasn’t been photoshopped at all.
[23:31:30] Melinda Jennison: Not at all. Um, and I think it’s a, it’s a good point to make that the selling agent will always present the property um to in its best light. So of course they’re going to have the best photos to help uh showcase that property in a way that’s going to present it in the best possible way for the seller. And I think that’s the critical point. Regardless of what conversations you’ve entered into with the selling agent, regardless of what information they’ve shared with you, regardless of how much rapport you’ve built with them as a buyer, it’s critical to always understand that a selling agent is retained by a seller and gets paid by the seller. So their job is to get the best price for the seller. So don’t be lured into a false pretense thinking that they’re your friend. Yeah, that’s exactly right. Because we’ve seen that time and time again with buyers that think the selling agent is really helping them, but in actual fact, they’re helping them to put forward an offer that’s going to be in the best interest of their seller because they’re getting paid by the seller.
[24:35:10] Scott Jennison: So all of those confused and frustrated buyers out there that need help should reach out to Streamline Property Buyers and I’m sure as a team, we can help them and and avoid all those things and they can keep doing what they do in life and enjoy things while we take all the hard yards. a little bit of advice. Um any advice for for buyers who seem to have missed out a few times and feel discouraged?
[24:55:50] Sally Phillips: Don’t be discouraged because Brisbane is a fantastic market and there are opportunities and it’s a great market to continue to invest in for the foreseeable future. But if you have been missing out, perhaps take a moment to think about why. Is it because you hesitated? Is it because you didn’t understand the value of the property? Um what are the reasons? Maybe there’s a blockage that you yourself have created and if you can analyze that without going into analysis paralysis, but if you can work out what’s been stopping you moving forward, and perhaps work on that, listen to some podcasts, do some research, and equip yourself to be prepared so that you have the confidence in acting. But you need to have your finance approved. I think that’s key. One thing I often see is that buyers find the property of their dreams and then they sort of do it in reverse, try and get finance, try and do the due diligence. You really need to be going in prepared. So educate yourself and work out what’s stopping you.
[26:05:40] Scott Jennison: I think that’s a fantastic piece of advice because if you’re not analyzing what the issue is retrospectively, you’ll never quite know why you’re missing the market.
[26:13:30] Melinda Jennison: And I can’t tell you how many buyers I’ve seen walk out of an auction, even if they have started to bid, which means they don’t actually see the result and the sale price. And that just astonishes me that they wouldn’t at least be interested to understand where the current market sits, especially if it was a home or a property that they had interest in enough in that they’ve registered to bid on the the home. And yes, we know and understand that everybody’s busy and um some of the auctions are drawn out, especially if there’s a negotiation period. But if you’re there enough and you love it enough that you’ve registered to bid on the the home, even if you’ve been outbid and someone else is prepared to pay more, stay, learn, be educated by the eventual sale price because that becomes the new benchmark upon which any other homes in that area are going to base value on. So it’s critical, market knowledge is going to set you apart and it’s one of the reasons why as a team, every Saturday, we are out and about not just inspecting homes and investment properties for our clients, but we’re also actively getting a good cross section of the market at auctions so we can understand real time value as it’s happening. If we’re waiting for something to become a settled sale, we’re already behind the market because it does take four to six weeks at least for that information to become available to us. So stay in the market, understand current values, and really don’t walk away from an auction if you’re there to bid, understand what it sells for so that you can understand current market conditions.
[27:48:40] Scott Jennison: The auction bidding one is an interesting one. We were at an auction last week and there was people there that didn’t really know, obviously, um what they’re doing. The property was on the market and they asked whether they’re allowed to offer $2,000, which we sort of went, wow, you can offer whatever you like, really, because it’s on the market and they’ll take it. But I I know we talk and obviously we’re buyers advocates, um and we do obviously, we’re pro that side of it. So obviously our listeners would would have picked that up by now. But I think if people are frustrated or interested or curious on the type of service, it it, I mean, look, I know from our side of it’s Streamline, it’s free to talk to us. You can ask the questions. There’s no obligation. You don’t have to go ahead with it. Um get some other advice. Have a look at Reba, have a look at those sort of websites for those sort of people that are recommended. Talk to an agent. Okay? Ask who would they recommend? Those types of things. But do your research and open up to talk to a few people. So even when I say for for ourselves at Streamline, you don’t have to just talk to us. You can talk to a few people because there’s going to be different people that match for certain clients. Not everyone is the perfect match for each other. So that’s okay. But if that service is something people are interested in, have a conversation and just get to know what it is and how it works.
[29:03:50] Sally Phillips: There’s so many roles that the buyers agent can play, but I think one of the key roles is working with those clients to educate them about the speed of the market, the likely price of a property, um helping narrow down their brief so that they can take out a little bit of that emotional perspective and have it in balance with what they’re looking for. I think coaching’s a wonderful aspect of working with a buyer’s agent because they can step you through things that you didn’t know that you didn’t know. So there’s a little bit of guiding and coaching there, but I think one of the key attributes that a buyer’s agent brings or representation brings is time. Because we apply time to studying the market, doing the due diligence, making sure that any property that we go and look at on the Saturday, we’ve already done all the groundwork. We know everything there is to know about the property. We’ve appraised it. So we give them confidence to say, this property ticks nine out of 10 of your boxes. If you like it, let’s make an offer. We don’t need to make wait until midweek. So I think it’s that confidence that the coaching and the knowledge brings along, of course, with the networks. Yeah.
[30:20:90] Scott Jennison: The smells and the Interesting when you when you see the the real estate.com photos and uh all the concrete’s wet on the outside, yet the sky is blue as anything. hasn’t been photoshopped at all.
[30:31:30] Melinda Jennison: Not at all. Um, and I think it’s a, it’s a good point to make that the selling agent will always present the property um to in its best light. So of course they’re going to have the best photos to help uh showcase that property in a way that’s going to present it in the best possible way for the seller. And I think that’s the critical point. Regardless of what conversations you’ve entered into with the selling agent, regardless of what information they’ve shared with you, regardless of how much rapport you’ve built with them as a buyer, it’s critical to always understand that a selling agent is retained by a seller and gets paid by the seller. So their job is to get the best price for the seller. So don’t be lured into a false pretense thinking that they’re your friend. Yeah, that’s exactly right. Because we’ve seen that time and time again with buyers that think the selling agent is really helping them, but in actual fact, they’re helping them to put forward an offer that’s going to be in the best interest of their seller because they’re getting paid by the seller.
[31:35:10] Scott Jennison: So all of those confused and frustrated buyers out there that need help should reach out to Streamline Property Buyers and I’m sure as a team, we can help them and and avoid all those things and they can keep doing what they do in life and enjoy things while we take all the hard yards. a little bit of advice. Um any advice for for buyers who seem to have missed out a few times and feel discouraged?
[31:55:50] Sally Phillips: Don’t be discouraged because Brisbane is a fantastic market and there are opportunities and it’s a great market to continue to invest in for the foreseeable future. But if you have been missing out, perhaps take a moment to think about why. Is it because you hesitated? Is it because you didn’t understand the value of the property? Um what are the reasons? Maybe there’s a blockage that you yourself have created and if you can analyze that without going into analysis paralysis, but if you can work out what’s been stopping you moving forward, and perhaps work on that, listen to some podcasts, do some research, and equip yourself to be prepared so that you have the confidence in acting. But you need to have your finance approved. I think that’s key. One thing I often see is that buyers find the property of their dreams and then they sort of do it in reverse, try and get finance, try and do the due diligence. You really need to be going in prepared. So educate yourself and work out what’s stopping you.
[32:56:50] Scott Jennison: I think that’s a fantastic piece of advice because if you’re not analyzing what the issue is retrospectively, you’ll never quite know why you’re missing the market.
[33:07:30] Melinda Jennison: And I can’t tell you how many buyers I’ve seen walk out of an auction, even if they have started to bid, which means they don’t actually see the result and the sale price. And that just astonishes me that they wouldn’t at least be interested to understand where the current market sits, especially if it was a home or a property that they had interest in enough in that they’ve registered to bid on the the home. And yes, we know and understand that everybody’s busy and um some of the auctions are drawn out, especially if there’s a negotiation period. But if you’re there enough and you love it enough that you’ve registered to bid on the the home, even if you’ve been outbid and someone else is prepared to pay more, stay, learn, be educated by the eventual sale price because that becomes the new benchmark upon which any other homes in that area are going to base value on. So it’s critical, market knowledge is going to set you apart and it’s one of the reasons why as a team every Saturday, we are out and about, not just inspecting homes and investment properties for our clients, but we’re also actively getting a good cross section of the market at auctions so we can understand real time value as it’s happening. If we’re waiting for something to become a settled sale, we’re already behind the market because it does take four to six weeks at least for that information to become available to us. So stay in the market, understand current values, and really don’t walk away from an auction if you’re there to bid, understand what it sells for so that you can understand current market conditions.
[34:37:60] Scott Jennison: The auction bidding one is an interesting one. We were at an auction last week and there was people there that didn’t really know, obviously, um what they’re doing. The property was on the market and they asked whether they’re allowed to offer $2,000, which we sort of went, wow, you can offer whatever you like, really, because it’s on the market and they’ll take it. But I I know we talk and obviously we’re buyers advocates, um and we do obviously, we’re pro that side of it. So obviously our listeners would would have picked that up by now. But I think if people are frustrated or interested or curious on the type of service, it it, I mean, look, I know from our side of it’s Streamline, it’s free to talk to us. You can ask the questions. There’s no obligation. You don’t have to go ahead with it. Um get some other advice. Have a look at Reba, have a look at those sort of websites for those sort of people that are recommended. Talk to an agent. Okay? Ask who would they recommend? Those types of things. But do your research and open up to talk to a few people. So even when I say for for ourselves at Streamline, you don’t have to just talk to us. You can talk to a few people because there’s going to be different people that match for certain clients. Not everyone is the perfect match for each other. So that’s okay. But if that service is something people are interested in, have a conversation and just get to know what it is and how it works.
[35:54:10] Sally Phillips: There’s so many roles that the buyers agent can play, but I think one of the key roles is working with those clients to educate them about the speed of the market, the likely price of a property, um helping narrow down their brief so that they can take out a little bit of that emotional perspective and have it in balance with what they’re looking for. I think coaching’s a wonderful aspect of working with a buyer’s agent because they can step you through things that you didn’t know that you didn’t know. So there’s a little bit of guiding and coaching there, but I think one of the key attributes that a buyer’s agent brings or representation brings is time. Because we apply time to studying the market, doing the due diligence, making sure that any property that we go and look at on the Saturday, we’ve already done all the groundwork. We know everything there is to know about the property. We’ve appraised it. So we give them confidence to say, this property ticks nine out of 10 of your boxes. If you like it, let’s make an offer. We don’t need to make wait until midweek. So I think it’s that confidence that the coaching and the knowledge brings along, of course, with the networks. Yeah.
[36:50:80] Melinda Jennison: and if it is on YouTube, don’t forget to subscribe to our channel. As always, we hope you’ve enjoyed this episode and we look forward to speaking with you again next week. Thanks so much for joining us. Bye for now.