Posts by Cate Bakos

Having dealt with road closures, disruptive civil works, bus replacements on train services and a huge trade shortage since the project commenced in 2017, Melburnians can look forward to some positive changes next year. The Metro Tunnel consists of twin tunnels, 9km long, connecting South Kensington in Melbourne’s west with South Yarra, in Melbourne’s south…

Over the past two years, we have seen a marked increase in the number of Sydneysiders buying in Melbourne, but why? Some have chosen to move for sheer affordability reasons. Some have continued to rent and live in Sydney, but have circled in on Melbourne as their next home destination. While others have contacted us…

Prior to COVID, Pete and I caught up regularly when he was down in Melbourne. Our catch up of choice is usually a late night pizza restaurant in the city and we’ve paved out plenty of budget night webinars, podcast chats, and other fun ideas. I asked Pete one evening, “why don’t we write a…

When it comes to predicting a likely selling price, is there a rule of thumb that should be applied to the agent’s quoted range? This question comes up so often, but applying a general rule of thumb can spell trouble for buyers if they don’t do their homework. The reality is that agents and agencies…

We often have clients refer to the council valuation when setting a bidding limit, but this is not a reliable indicator for likely price. This cartoon has been going around for years, and while we can laugh about it, the point of it is that appraisals vary greatly. In Victoria, rates notices are issued by…

The latest data from the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) reveals that 2,245,539 Australians are invested in property. The most recent available data is from the 2020/2021 financial year. The data is broken down in many segments, from numbers of investment properties held, to age and state/territory of the property owner. The chart below shows the…

We’ve seen literally thousands of building and pest inspection reports. Building and pest inspections are usually coordinated before an auction and they can be costly if a buyer misses out time after time. It’s important to note that contracts for non-auction properties provision for a building and pest inspection clause. However, there are three reasons…

Clients come to us for a variety of reasons, and surprisingly, being time poor is not the main reason. Many tell us that they have been searching for months on end, (and sometimes years), and to no avail. Unfeasible expectations can create havoc for a buyer. For a significant proportion of our first meetings with…

We get this question often. In competitive climates, pre-auction offers occur a lot more frequently. This can create a lot of stress for buyers who suddenly become aware of an urgent time pressure. So how quickly can we pivot, and how fast can a property be purchased…. with all of the due diligence completed? Auction…