My, How Things Have Changed

MY, HOW THINGS HAVE CHANGED Did we pay too much? In 20 years’ time, we’ll

probably talk about how Y oung Brisbane couple Marna and Josh began searching for their first home mid-2020. ACT-based John Buckley has been in real estate since 1994. How do their experiences compare? We asked John to reflect on the MARNA: Houses were already hard to find by the time we began looking and prices had already gone up. In the end, we accepted that we would have to pay a lot more than we’d thought - and settle for less. We ended up paying $100k more little we paid. ‘old days’ and Marna whether she could relate. John had been in the building industry but wanted to get into real estate sales. He approached three than probably the property’s true value, but everything was inflated due to COVID. The market fell for the first six years that - Marna agencies and got three job offers. He thought he must have been a stand-out but soon realised that everyone got a job if they John was in real estate, which was a good market for an agent to cut their teeth on. Price reductions were the norm. asked because it was commission only and there was such a high turnover. He said, “They asked “You had to be good at getting a property sold. how long you could survive without income, It was a tough market that only got tougher. then threw you in the deep end.” There was little regulation and a lot of cowboys.” Back then, every real estate office had Advertising has changed a bit from the early days enormous window displays with hundreds of of John’s career. Canberra Times property ads listings. In 1995, the average price of a Canberra were devoid of colour. Letterbox dropping with home was $110,000. Now it’s $949,700. photocopied ads was another avenue.

John’s office had the first five pages of advertising. These were 35-word ads, occasionally with a line drawing. Very few photographs. “We were told what a difference it would make when colour arrived,” he said, “but not much changed at all, just colour headings.”

Comparatively speaking, that advertising was enormously expensive in relation to the property’s value. “When you scored an editorial, you gave them what they wanted as quickly as you could because you wanted to be asked again,” he said. “A single photo was taken at stock inspection, developed at the local 1hr photo shop and that was used for the window card.”

MARNA: We didn’t look at print ads at all, mainly because things were selling so quickly. The only homes in those glossy pics were way out of our reach. We spent hours each week searching online – Domain and realestate.com – then went to open homes on the weekend. We liked the agents who used 3D tours. These gave us a much a better idea of a property and helped us narrow down what to prioritize come the weekend.

Today, John is database and digitally driven, with a lot of off-market sales. He displays a 3D tour of every property he lists, though says only about 30 per cent of Canberra agents offer this. In John’s early days as an agent, he drove his wife’s white Ford Laser. He explained, “She was a nurse who worked night shift, so I got to use it during the day. If a big bloke was in the passenger seat, I’d have to ask him to move his leg so I could change gears.” Given the car’s broken door handles, John was known to quip, ‘If you don’t buy the property, I won’t let you out’. A five-house-run with the buyer was the norm, hopefully ending with the home they would buy. Buyers were in short supply. MARNA: There were up to 100 potential buyers at every open home. The open home was almost solely our first contact with an agent. Agents rarely chased us. Other than inviting you along to an open home, they would leave you alone. Agents were very busy. Some never got back to us at all. John says he misses the tactile side of flicking through the 3x5 inch cards in an old-fashioned card box, which he used to keep track of his contacts. “I found sellers by flicking through the cards. I’d letterbox drop with mail bearing the owners’ actual names. There’s not a lot of that happening today. Cold calling has become all but extinct. And I rarely put a buyer in the car these days, though I do put my signs on the roof racks of the Merc and put them out myself. A vehicle is far more about brand profile today.”

MARNA: We put in three or four offers last year but people were always prepared to pay more, and there really was a sense of FOMO about what might occur when the borders opened. When we found a home we wanted in December, we knew not to hesitate. We contacted the agent and put in our top offer. The day we signed the contract, someone offered $30k more unconditional. Fortunately, they were too late.