#11: Decoding Agent Talk - What Selling Agents Say vs What They Really Mean

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[00:00:35] Hello Melbourne, I'm Lisa Parker and together with Cate we are bringing you a dose of our property market in detail. I'm Cate Bakos, Lisa and I are both buyer's agents who work on opposite sides of the Melbourne market and we've clocked up over 40 years between us in the property industry. Join us each fortnight to hear some exciting stories from our coalface, market trends and some juicy auction updates. This collaboration has been a long time coming, we hope you enjoy.

[00:01:07] Hello Melbourne, welcome to today's episode. Now we all know that real estate agents are masters when it comes to language and today we've got a really exciting episode because what we're going to do is break down agents talk. What they say, but what they really mean. This one's going to be pretty fun, Cate, because I think we've all been on the other end of conversations with agents where we think they're saying one thing but they really mean something.

[00:01:36] Something different and as buyer agents it's our job to decode that and we've got many different ways that we are able to really get to the bottom of what an agent should be telling us outright but isn't. And today we're going to let our listeners in on a little bit of our knowledge around that. Yeah, we're going to have some fun with this. I call myself often an agent interpreter. Oh yes, yes. And that's what we are, we're interpreters for real estate talk.

[00:02:06] Yeah. Now, I have a lot of respect for selling agents. Most of them are very, very, very hard working and skilled at what they do and their job is to represent the vendor that is who they are legally bound to represent. And what that means is they have to put their best foot forward for their vendor. And so when they're asked the tricky questions or any question in fact, they're going to paint it in the very best light.

[00:02:33] Now, many of them won't lie but they will say something that will make you think or they'll allude to something and they'll make you think a certain way because they don't want to lie but they also have to represent their vendor. Sure. Now, I think we'll start off perhaps talking about just the basics when it comes to ad copy and just interpreting some of those little things that we pick up in ad copy and how we interpret them. Do you want to kick us off, Kate? Yeah.

[00:03:03] Let's talk about cosy. Oh, cute little thing. um Little being the operative word. Sometimes they'll use the word quaint and quaint can be interchangeable for other, you know, potential roadblocks or problems. But cosy, that's a great one. It usually means that either there's disproportionate spaces or it's just a really small little property. Yeah, it's tiny. Cosy is tiny. Cosy.

[00:03:33] So, cosy living space, you know, sometimes that can let a house down when it's disproportionate because you've got two good bedrooms, got a good kitchen, good bathroom and cosy living space. It might mean that it's actually the dining space. I've seen those little houses that you sometimes get in Carlton or Fitzroy. They call them a two-bedder with a cosy living area. It's actually a one-bedroom property with a lounge at the front. They've converted it to a bedroom and they're trying to double up the, you know, the dining space as a living space.

[00:04:03] The only place I want cosy is on a weekend getaway somewhere in the forest in a little cabin. Yeah. That's where I want my cosy. Blank canvas. Blank canvas. Now, blank canvas as a renovator excites me. I love a good renovation project and a blank canvas can often mean that. But sometimes it also just means that the house is really boring. It's got no character. Yes. And when you walk into the home, you're not going to feel any emotion.

[00:04:32] And so it's something that you're going to want to have good imagination for and to see how you can transform that into a home. That's going to make you feel the emotions that you want to feel when living in it. Yeah.

[00:04:48] This one always gets me thinking when an agent gives advice to a vendor, when it comes to staging and presenting their property, to leave it as a blank canvas so that the buyers can imagine what they'll do to it. And they'll put their own personal touches on it.

[00:05:05] And I think it's a mistaken piece of advice because while you don't want to have something that's too obscure or too loud or too polarizing when you're decorating a property for sale, you do want to bring mainstream buyers with you. And by doing nothing or painting everything white and not having style or a splash of color or any kind of demonstration of how the room could be put together, you're actually leaving people who aren't imaginative in the dark.

[00:05:33] And they're just looking at it and scratching their head saying, well, it just feels like a hospital. You know what isn't a blank canvas? Kate, do you remember that little one, St. George's Road in Fitzroy North? Yes. I think it was number. The pink house. Yes. That gorgeous pink house that was full of character. That's anything but a blank canvas. Yes, but it's a lolly factory.

[00:05:58] And for someone who doesn't want to step inside a bag of Alan's lollies, that could be a perfect example of something that's polarizing. Oh, 100%. It's something that I'd want to visit if it happened to be open for inspection at a time that was convenient for me, but it's not something I personally would want to live in.

[00:06:16] But for the viewers or the listeners, jump on to realestate.com and have a look up at 23 St. George's Road South, Fitzroy North, and check out this little pink house, which is anything but a blank canvas. I remember seeing a house in Altona North years ago. And it was themed on the Mad Hatter's Tea Party. And it had like the bright pink kitchen with the hearts on all of the cupboards. And like it was next level and it made the papers.

[00:06:45] It was a lot of fun. But that's, yeah, another example of not a blank canvas. Well, that little one at St. George's Road, I think ties in nicely with our next one, which is low maintenance. Can you decode that one for us, Kate? Yeah, it's something without much yard or any yard. And it's often houses that have been subdivided. They've chopped off the backyard, created a battle axe block, built something at the rear.

[00:07:13] Yeah, and then there's a fence like right up against the rear bathroom window. They'll often call something like that low maintenance when it's missing a yard. Yeah, it's a polite way to say yardless, really. Yeah, that's right. I guess it is low maintenance, eh? Yeah, but doesn't mean it's necessarily low maintenance because the house itself could actually have a lot of maintenance. So it's an important one for people to make sure they don't misinterpret.

[00:07:38] Oh, this is one of my favourites because this is one that I used to chuckle about early in my career, Kate. And this was, it was prolific. The agents used to say this all the time. A great little investment property. Now, you and I both know that when an agent is saying it's a great little investment property, the few things that come to my mind is that no one wants it. It's tiny. It will never sell to a homebuyer because a homebuyer will never accept it.

[00:08:08] And the banks are likely to have an issue with it as well. Yes. It's code for- All of those, tick, tick, tick. The other thing about them is the capital growth that they deliver is so minimal. All of the returns are usually in the rent. And the property might be a really hard one to finance. And so it's heaps cheaper. But the rental return compared to the price tag of the property is really attractive. And so those who aren't really in the know will assume that it's returning, you know,

[00:08:37] six, seven, eight percent gross rental yield. And hence, it's a good investment property without understanding that it's a dog of a property and it won't be delivering any capital growth. Yeah. Entry level opportunity. I mean, every first homebuyer would be quite excited to see those words. But what do you think it means? Oh, it's usually for its genre and its location. It's the first step on the property ladder. I remember buying one of these actually when I first purchased in Seaford.

[00:09:06] The house was so disgusting. So if you wanted anything on a full block, it was the only property I could find in the whole area that had a price tag under $100,000. And I remember saying entry level opportunity and the house is for free. Yes, yes, yes. Entry level opportunity. Worst house. Worst street. The cheapest you can find. Something's wrong with it.

[00:09:34] Let's chat about renovators delight. When an agent says, oh, it needs a little bit of work, that probably means that it will benefit from a renovation, but when it's called a renovators delight, it often means that it's not even livable and it needs immediate and significant work. Yeah. As a renovator myself, I love the words renovators delight. And in fact, I use it as a search term to scope and look for renovation projects.

[00:10:02] But often when I actually inspect the properties, it's too much work. And it's not too much work from the perspective that I can't handle it because I've taken on some pretty big renovations in my time. But it's more so the amount of money that's required to get it up to speed. And often if you can't get it for a cheap enough price, then all of that structural rectification and the things that don't really add value to the property eat into the profit.

[00:10:30] And so quite often those renovators delight once you've actually done realistic figures on the property, they don't actually stack up, but they're perfect for a trades person who can work on it themselves. There's a couple actually who, I don't know if you've seen them going around socials. There's a couple up in New South Wales purchased out in the western suburbs of New South Wales, of Sydney, and they've called the house, they keep referring to the house as a crack den.

[00:11:00] So they had squatters in it and they've transformed this property into a beautiful family home. And, you know, this had mould, it had water damage, it was diabolical. And I think they're living with their parents potentially while they're working full time and then going straight to the property after they finished work and they're working on it all night and they're just doing amazing. And they're really great with their social media.

[00:11:28] They've been able to get some sponsors and it's really fun watching their journey turning this crack den into a beautiful family home. Sounds incredible, very inspirational. I think what buyers need to be aware of is often when the words renovators delight are used. It's a property that you can't really live in and zhush up. You've actually got to get building and planning permits, move out. You're probably removing walls or maybe removing half of the house or taking it back to stud.

[00:11:57] There's a lot of work in a renovator's delight, there's no doubt about it. You are 100% right and they are the perfect example of that because they did take everything back to stud. So, yeah, very good point. This is a fun one. Yeah, STCA. That's the agent's way of creating, you know, a vision of what you could potentially do to the property but no guarantees.

[00:12:24] What they're saying is no responsibility, no guarantees. You might be able to subdivide or you might be able to put on a second level but it's subject to council approval. It's like the perfect disclaimer. It's a caveat. Yeah. What I'm seeing a lot at the moment, and this stems, I think, from the investor activity in Melbourne, is a lot of agents advertising homes on, you know,

[00:12:48] 650 square metres of land plus and they're squaring off the backyard and saying, you know, room for a second dwelling STCA, so subject to council approval. But all you need to do is look at the photos and the map and do an aerial view and you'll see that you can't actually fit a house in the backyard. It's just crazy. So, yeah, it's proceed with caution.

[00:13:16] Just because it has an STCA, it doesn't mean that the project is even viable. Agents can put this on a listing without having to check to see whether or not a project is actually feasible and possible and that's why they put the subject to council approval because, as Kate said, it is their little disclaimer. So, watch out for that one. Yeah. It saves them from having claims or being in trouble.

[00:13:43] And, look, some agents know their planning regs better than others but there are so many elements to this. I often have interstate buyers saying, oh, if it's 600 square metres, I can subdivide it. Or, you know, if I get a corner block, I can create something that doesn't need any owner's corporation. And there's just a lot of loose understanding out there that often is really not accurate. We've got so many different requirements from open green space

[00:14:10] to side access for a fire truck to what the impact of overlays and easements can do for an area to any setbacks, covenants. The list goes on. There are just so many and I haven't even talked about overlays. Yeah, you're quite right because I've had a lot of people request, say, a minimum of 650 square block. And so when I'm asking them what they want the 650 square metre block for, it's, oh, because I can put a second dwelling at the back. But sometimes it's not about the size of the block. It's actually about the orientation and where the original house sits on the block.

[00:14:40] So we do get some interesting requests that we need to drill down into and really understand the motivation so that we can steer people in the right direction. Now, I think this house that we referenced earlier, this one in Fitzroy North is the epitome of this one, which is full of character because that house is certainly full of character. But full of character can also sometimes mean that it is full of period character.

[00:15:07] And that's a really valuable and highly desired thing by a big proportion of property buyers. So when we're talking about full of character in the sense of the pink Barbie doll houses, that's going to have a very unique and precise buyer pool. Whereas period homes that have been neutrally and tastefully renovated will often have a much bigger buyer pool, particularly in areas where people purposely want to live

[00:15:37] because they love that character period style home. Yeah, I completely agree with you. We've got to work out where the full of character is stemming from. Is it Victorian character? Is it ornate period fixtures and fittings? Or is it something that's had some, you know, really out there design choices applied to it? Or is it misguided with a mismatch of a million different eras? I've seen it all, you know, when they've attached their own Edwardian fretwork

[00:16:05] and then they've put in Victorian architraving and a house can get really messy if the character isn't gelling. But also it can sometimes mean that the house is quite polarising and there's only, you know, a few people that are takers for something like that. Let's get into some meaty stuff. I think this is really where our skill as buyer agents can be very helpful for buyers because there's a lot of words and a lot of things that agents say.

[00:16:33] And as you mentioned earlier, we need to decode those things. And this is the chunky stuff. So we're talking about the pointy end where buyers are thinking about putting in an offer for a property or they're in the middle of negotiations or they're preparing for an auction. And we need to listen to what the agents are saying carefully. But more importantly, we need to understand what they really mean by what they're saying. Now, Kate, when you hear the words,

[00:17:02] the vendors are realistic and the reserve will be in the range. What do you think? What comes to mind? Well, I've heard agents say vendors are realistic so many times and then the resultant auction scenario is that you haven't got a realistic vendor. What it generally means is they are motivated sellers and we will sell this property. Can't guarantee we'll sell under the hammer. But when they say the vendors are realistic and the reserve will be in the range,

[00:17:29] that means that they have a very strong sense of confidence about it selling under the hammer. They have really good, strong buyers who are all doing all the right things that buyers do to give an agent the impression that the buyers are locked in and ready to bid. And the agents are also quite confident that the property will exceed the reserve with competition. So when I hear those two phrases, vendors are realistic, reserve will be in the range, I know that they've got it covered and the chances of it flying are quite high. 100%.

[00:17:57] When agents say to me that the reserve will be in the range, they always position it as if it's a really positive, comforting thing that they're trying to comfort the buyer and give them comfort and confidence that they can bid confidently because the property is going to sell within the range. That's the impression that they're giving. But I know exactly what you've just said. It means that that property is going to fly. And the thing that I always say to the agent

[00:18:25] when they say that to me is that I'm not really worried about where the vendor's at. I'm actually more concerned about where the other buyers are at. And then they backtrack so fast it's not funny because they know they've been, you know, caught out, if you will. Yeah, I often have the exact same conversation. I don't care about the vendors. I only care about the buyers. Where are they at? And sometimes agents will say, I've got a really low reserve, Kate, I've got a super low reserve. And you'll often see that with government sales or when you've got, you know,

[00:18:55] a third party stepping in and selling liquidation or bank repossession or whatever, they might set the reserve low. And I say to the agent, I don't care. You could put a $10 reserve on this house. It's still going to go well. So why don't you tell me a bit about the buyers? Yeah. Now, this one here is one that worries me a little bit as a buyer's agent. If I hear an agent say the vendors aren't in a hurry, they haven't bought anything yet.

[00:19:23] I know that the seller's motivation isn't particularly high, which means getting them to agree to a price that's going to be a price that I'm happy with is going to be a lot tougher. And it means that I could be putting an offer in on a property and not get anywhere because the motivation isn't high enough. So I don't love these ones. It makes me a little bit nervous. What I really want to hear is that the vendor's very motivated.

[00:19:53] Exactly. Because a vendor who's not in a hurry might have thought they'd just float the house on the market. I know it's an expensive thing to do, but we get it every now and then. And a vendor who wants to try their luck. And, you know, they've got an idea of upgrading into something that might be really aspirational. And when they realize that the gap between what they've got and what they want is too great, they'll just take the listing down and keep the sale photos and, you know, consider selling in a few years time.

[00:20:21] So yes, the flip side to that is a motivated vendor. And when an agent uses that language, it often means that they've bought or they've committed financially to something. It might be a move, a new business, whatever. It could be kids starting school at a different pocket of town, but they need to sell and move on. Now, motivated vendor gets me very excited, but this one makes me even more excited. And that's must be sold.

[00:20:50] Must be sold means that there's something pretty big going down behind the scenes. So it might mean that a bank is closing in and it's not quite hit a mortgagee in possession type situation, but it is heading in that direction if something's not done quickly. And it might mean that the vendor has a situation going on behind the scenes, maybe a divorce or maybe a swift move interstate due to family reasons or something like that.

[00:21:19] But there is something that means that the property needs to be sold ASAP. And what that means is that I have more negotiating power than in a situation where we don't have a motivated vendor. We'd love to hear how some of our tips are helping you on your property journey. If you'd like to get in touch with us, jump onto our website, themelbournepropertyhour.com.au. You can either leave us a written message or you can record it as a message.

[00:21:48] Let us know what you'd like to hear more of and tell us a little bit about some of your successes. If you're enjoying the show, please tell your friends and click the follow button on your preferred podcast platform. Now, the next one, I love this one, up and coming area. When an agent says that, what does it really mean? Well, when they start saying it, it usually means that's the least desirable suburb

[00:22:17] or the least desirable pocket within a suburb out of all the nearby areas. Because if an area is really up and coming, buyers already know it. We don't need the agent to say it. The agent doesn't need to tell us that the area is up and coming. We know it's up and coming and that's why we want to be there. But if he's using that as a selling statement, then we know that they're trying to dress up a pig, basically. Yeah, so true.

[00:22:45] When the agent says there's a lot of interest in the property, what are they really telling us? Well, they're either telling us the truth and they could well be a lot of interest in the property, but they also just could be giving the illusion that there's a lot of interest in the property and they want to create some competition. They want to motivate you to put a stronger offer in than you would otherwise if you thought that the property wasn't well sought after.

[00:23:16] Yeah, I usually look at this and separate the different types of campaigns. When it's a private sale and the agent says that, I know full well that if that's true, within a day we'll be dealing with offers and I'll get that phone call saying, right, we've got the first offer, I'm giving everyone else until five o'clock, blah, blah, blah. When it's been sitting on the market for a while or when they tell you that there's a lot of interest and then a week goes by,

[00:23:45] you know that it really is a bit of a ploy to give you the impression that you need to move fast. When it's an auction, however, it's most unusual for an agent to say that unless it really is true because they'll have that day of reckoning when they've got the auction bell and there's no bids. You'll be saying, well, you told me that you had lots of buyers, what's going on? So it is an interesting one. Agents are more inclined to play down the amount of interest unless you're asking them like a skilled buyer's agent

[00:24:14] to give you an idea of who's really on the property. So I say to them, well, how many building inspections have you had? How many contract requests have you had? How many people have talked to you about terms? That gives us a far better idea of how many potential bidders there are. But when the agent says, oh yeah, I've got a few on this one, they might be playing it down. I like to know specifics. Yeah, I think it's a really good distinction, the difference between the private sale and the auction because the agent can say the same thing

[00:24:42] but mean two different things in both those scenarios. That's a really, really good nuanced point there. I think the listeners should put that one in their pocket and keep that one up their sleeve. Now there's another extension to that. When an agent says, we've had some buyer interest, that's usually an agent that hasn't got it covered and we're probably talking about, well, it could either be an auction campaign or a private sale.

[00:25:10] When they're saying there's been some buyer interest, they've had a lot of nibbles, they've had a few people wander through, they haven't got anyone firm on it. Yeah. I mean, the agents can say they've got buyer interest just because people have rocked up and gone through an open for inspection and perhaps the agent spoke to them at the open for inspection and maybe he offered a contract of sale and maybe they said yes to the contract of sale but that doesn't mean that they have interest.

[00:25:40] So an agent can say that he's got interest just because people rocked up and had conversations with him. But there's a difference between a home, like you can always tell when you're at an open for inspection in particular, you can tell the difference between when an agent is asking everybody, would you like a copy of the contract of sale? And so when an agent says, oh yeah, we've had 12 contracts go out, it's like, yeah, it's because you offered them to the 20 people that came through the door.

[00:26:06] Compared to listening to 10 people approach the agent and ask them questions for a good two to three minutes and then say, can I have a copy of the contract? That motivation is being led by the buyers and you can ascertain from that that there is really solid interest. But if it's the agent offering, then it's a very, very different situation. So true. And to add to that, when we segment the market,

[00:26:36] if it's a property that's most likely attracting first-time buyers, the number of contracts that go out is not really an indication of the popularity or the likely level of competition for the property either. Because a lot of first-time buyers, for whatever reason, collect Section 32s. Yeah, it's really bizarre, isn't it? It's like this new thing. It's like, I don't know if they've overheard people like ask, maybe ask for it. And so they think, oh, that's a done thing. Or if maybe agents have asked people, do you want a copy?

[00:27:06] And so they think it's the done thing to just go, oh yeah, I'll have a copy of the Section 32. So it's kind of strange. It's only really just started happening, I think, in the last probably three years, I think, ish. Yeah, pretty much. Yeah. I get a lot of agents calling me on Monday saying, oh, I had your buyer through on the weekend and they requested a contract, do you want to come through? And I think to myself, no, they told me they didn't like it. So then I follow up with them. When you tell the agent that you want a copy of the contract, you're indicating that you have interest. Yeah.

[00:27:34] Now I'm happy to go through any contract on any property that you have interest on, but not if you don't like it. If it's already a definitive no way, then don't even worry. When a buyer hears the words best and final in a private offer situation, Kate, what should they be thinking? Should they be thinking they have to put their best and final in? Oh, they should be thinking if they really know what goes on, I need to ask the agent a lot of qualifying questions

[00:28:04] before I understand the rules of this game because there are lots of different best and final games. There's heaps of them. There's a rule book that doesn't exist really. Agents have their own rule book and they're all different. So best and final, it sometimes means you've got one opportunity to make one offer. That's it. We're not coming back to you. You'll just get a call to say yay or nay. And then there's others that are massaged for days. And then I had one a while ago

[00:28:33] and it actually annoyed everyone. My clients were annoyed. I was annoyed. The agent was very, very clear that it was best and final. Don't come back to me. Give us your best. Then I got the phone call. Is that your best? I'm like, yeah, do. You told me to give you your best. Oh, well, you know, it's just that you're really close to another offer and I wouldn't want to let you down. And so I had a conversation with my buyers, which I was really loath to do because I got their best offer out of them. But the impression I got from this agent was that it was so very close between us and another buyer

[00:29:02] and the terms were the same. So I got a little bit more and she said, yep, that should do the trick. You know, places you're in front. And of course she did the same thing to the other party. And by the time she came back to me, I said, no, this is not best and highest anymore. This is called back and forth. I'm not playing this game. You need to get us on his own and we'll just do a boardroom auction. How does that sound? And some agents will play those games. Others will say, I'll come back to the first person who made the offering, give them last right of refusal. Others will say, if there's, you know,

[00:29:31] less than $10,000 in the top offers, I'll then disclose and let them fight it out. There are that many different rules to best and highest. The worst thing a buyer can do is walk blindly into it without saying to the agent specifically, you know, when will it come to a close? Will you call anyone back? What if it's really close? Will you give me a buzz? Do you give any hints? Will a vendor be making decisions straight away? What time are you presenting in the offers? Who else? How many other buyers are in it? Are the terms all the same? They're the questions that need to be asked

[00:30:01] before you even think about putting in your best and final offer. I was really hoping you weren't going to give them all of our juice, Kate. We can chop it out. I thought, well done. I thought this, you've done really well setting this up without actually giving them the how. I get real, I remember when I was a brand new buyer's agent, I'd been doing it for a couple of months and I thought I'd done everything right with the best and highest. The agent was being nice to me.

[00:30:31] I'd done all of my comparable sales. I'd talk through terms, made sure all of the other parties, you know, didn't have any terms that would disadvantage my offer. Got it all in and I remember it. This shows how long I've been doing this. It was a beautiful art deco and I submitted 410,000 for a two bedroom art deco in Elwood or St Kilda. Anyway, she sold it to another buyer's agent for 411.

[00:31:01] And I was gutted because I know that she obviously had a better relationship with someone who'd been in the game for longer and she disclosed my offer and they beat it by $1,000. Yeah. And it happens. All right. So the vendors are open to offers before auction. This one catches out buyers all the time. I hear buyers that open for inspections ask the agent is the vendor open to offers prior and I can hear

[00:31:30] by the agent's answer that they're not really open to it but the agent's definitely open to it because they want to kind of gauge where everybody's at and what they're thinking price wise and so I think you've got to be very careful in this situation. I've had actually a lot of buyers come to me after they've done this and made an offer that didn't go anywhere before an auction and then they've come to me and said can you salvage this like can you try to get this property for me before it hits you know before it goes to auction.

[00:31:59] So when the agent says yes they're open to offers I think most of the time buyers should proceed with caution. Yeah I agree. There's so much more to understand you know are they open to offers or is there a particular number that would get it on the market and this is when I get really tough and really black and white because once you've shown your cards you can't retract them it can get really messy. It's very rare

[00:32:28] that somebody will offer a pre-auction offer and then go on to win the auction because sometimes that offer that you've made on the property prior to auction will just set the bottom benchmark for where every other buyer needs to be just depending on how the agent wants to handle the campaign and exactly what everybody's numbers are where the vendor is sitting he could make or break it by disclosing it and he has to call that the way

[00:32:57] that he sees fit and what's going to get him the best result but quite often if you weren't close enough to where you needed to be they will use it they will disclose that there was an offer around that price so that everybody else knows they need to be higher than that offer. Yeah sad but true. This one is one of my faves and it often happens just before auction so you've had you know three weeks of dialogue with the agent everything's going well vendors will stick they'll sell on the day and then in the last

[00:33:27] day or so or on auction day they are high in the saddle what does that mean? It means that the vendors want more than the agent ideally wants them to be thinking and it means that it's quite possible that the auction will pass in and that if you want a shot at purchasing the property then you'll need to be prepared to wait for that pass in to happen so that you can begin negotiations.

[00:33:57] Yes and if they say it to you once the property's passed in and you're sitting in the living room and the vendor's locked away in the bedroom and the agent's shuttling backwards and forwards if they say that to you and you're miles apart often it signals that the vendor might not sell that day or certainly not at that time it might be a phone call that you get at you know seven o'clock at night on a Saturday night or it might be a Sunday conversation that vendor needs to sleep on it they need to take stock of what's happened that day

[00:34:27] and you can't really change their mind or twist their arm and get a price tag that you think is fair and reasonable when they're high in the saddle and not budging yeah I think you've got to handle a passed in auction really well and you need to know how to read the room and understand so that you can position yourself well because you can end up spending a lot more money unnecessarily if you read the state of play incorrectly so that one's another interesting one I think for buyers to navigate and

[00:34:57] to be listening to the agent's words and understanding what they really mean so anyway we also hear a lot a favourite one for agents is the vendors want their day in the sun I hate that I do too and it's it originates from one of two different scenarios it might be that the vendor has had previous experiences or they've had friends or family with previous auction experience that's gone really well and they are just committed to

[00:35:26] having the same thing happen to them but more often than not they know that their campaign is going well they've got a certain number of clicks on their ad they've had lots of people through they've had all of the right buyer signals they've got an agent that's telling them you know we've got really healthy interest and we're likely to reach the prices that we were chatting about before the property was listed that's a vendor who will not want to break that momentum they want their day in the sun yeah and sometimes

[00:35:56] the agent will be pretty happy for somebody to have their day in the sun too if they are high in the saddle and the vendors actually need to see an auction play out and that's something that you'll often hear as well as you know the vendor really needs to see this play out what it means is that the agent knows that they're too high he agrees with you as the purchaser on the price but he knows that the vendor is not going to accept it and so he needs to let the property run through to auction

[00:36:24] before the vendors are going to see for themselves that they're too high and they need to come down in their price yeah that's a tough one and it's a lesson for a vendor when an agent hasn't got a grip on what's going on and that's not necessarily because they're not competent sometimes you can have a vendor that is irrational or gets a bit ahead of themselves or is a bit out of control and auction day can be a very painful lesson and it demonstrates to the vendor once they've paid for all

[00:36:54] of that marketing and they've got all of the buyers that have shown interest and you know expressed that they might participate they get to see it all unfold and the bidding might not reach the level that they're hoping or they might get no bids that's a tough day for a vendor and it sorts them out Kate sometimes buyers put an offer in on a property that's a reasonable offer and the agent will say to them look the owners will accept that offer on the day of the auction but they really need to see the auction play out

[00:37:24] what do you think when you hear that the agent knows that you're not the buyer but you might be the buyer that pushes up the other buyer so they want to keep you there they don't want to lose you but they know that the level that you're talking will not buy the property the more bidders they can have the more momentum they have the more social proof they've got the chances of other bidders going hard will deliver them the result that they're hoping for but it essentially says that at that level we're not selling to you.

[00:37:53] What about vendors who apparently won't open inspections outside of open times? Now sometimes this can be legitimate but it's not occasionally yes but it is occasionally but it's also code for what Kate? I can't be bothered getting in my car and opening this house for you just come to the open. Yeah and it either means that it's a really lazy agent or it means they're so covered they don't need to try hard to get

[00:38:22] more buyers on the property. Yeah or they've taken a listing when they're based in Craigieburn and their friend wants to sell in Malvern they've said yes I'll do it. Yeah it's an hour and a half drive because there's so much roadworks in Melbourne. They're not going to take you through like go through the open thanks. Yeah agents have been really funny with that at different times too in regards to getting people through and they use all sorts of excuses and reasons and I actually challenged an agent who was

[00:38:52] doing this all the time I was working a lot in a particular area and this one particular agency was doing it all the time and I turned flipped the script and said you know do you guys not prepare your vendors properly before you go to market? They're like what do you mean? And I said well your vendor wants to sell right? Yes. Okay and so they understand that to sell a property they need to let buyers through. Yes. Did you not prepare them for the fact that you'll need to accommodate times to take buyer

[00:39:22] agents through because they're not available on Saturday because they're off you know at auctions or whatever the case is and they can't always drive across town at 5.30 on a Thursday because they've got other opens at the other side of town at the same time and you're only offering them one opportunity to get through and I really challenged it it was a good robust 10 minute conversation and I said well you know it comes down to working with your vendor and preparing them and if you've done your job properly and prepared your

[00:39:52] vendor properly they should be prepared to take buyer advocates through the property in the middle of the day now these vendors aren't even home it's just pure laziness that the agent didn't want to get in their car and open for the property they just wanted to run their weekly schedule the way they run their schedule and they didn't want to deviate from what was convenient for them yeah you're absolutely right you know it's either they've got a crazy number of listings and they're absolutely flat chat or they're

[00:40:22] short-staffed or they're lazy or it's a long way from the office or maybe maybe they're not convinced that you're the right buyer and you'll certainly fall prey to this if you muck an agent around if you request lots of private inspections and then you don't get back to them or you never purchase from them or you don't give them feedback when they're asking for it they will definitely remember you and not go out of their way for you and as buyers agents we have to be careful of that because sometimes we get clients who you know

[00:40:51] we've chatted about this in previous eps where they ghost you or they are wishy washy about something or they sabotage and you only have so many favors that you can ask of an agent with privates if you start to get you know a form for not leading to to being active at auction but it's that's few and far between because we know how to handle those relationships but for buyers who ask you know the same agent for multiple properties to take them through and then don't come forward with the goods well yeah the

[00:41:21] agent will get sick of that. So we've got one more and this is the vendor's done a really good job but I'm not sure about the paperwork now this is in relation to a property that's been renovated. What do you make of this Lisa? The husband and all of his mates have renovated the property themselves. They haven't necessarily used licensed trades. They don't have all of their paperwork to confirm that licensed trades were in fact used and

[00:41:50] the waterproofing has a certificate the electricals have a certificate and it means quite possibly that there has been some illegal works done some illegal extensions or you know things that have been moved that shouldn't have been moved from the property and it means that all of this becomes the purchaser's liability if they don't have the paperwork to back up the work they've done. It's problematic especially if the renovation looks

[00:42:20] good. If the renovation looks good and then they don't have the paperwork it's upsetting. True and if a vendor does do works and they're over $16,000 worth of works they need to have owner builder insurance and then they need a defect report but the problem with the defect report is you can't see what's behind the walls and under the floors we just don't know. Yeah. So without the certificates we don't know if the plumbing and the electricals and the water membranes were done properly and

[00:42:50] often it's a walk away scenario. Yeah it's always fascinating to these home buyers that put their property on the market to sell have amazing access to trades or goods because it's amazing that all of them can seem to be doing kitchens, bathrooms, laundries, the works for all under $16,000 when I know that when I do a fee so it's definitely not $16,000 or all the work is always magically done seven years

[00:43:20] ago. Yes. Yeah. That old chestnut. Yeah. Ah well that was a big Sesh decoding agents talk and I'm sure that there's probably many more that we could do. I'd love to hear from our listeners if they could leave us some comments on our socials from this episode and share your what agents say versus what they mean because I think you guys would probably have some good ones that we've missed we haven't thought of here

[00:43:50] so we'd love to hear from you. Thanks so much Kate. I look forward to catching up with you on our next episode. Thank you for joining us on today's episode of the Melbourne Property Hour. We hope you've enjoyed the show and we look forward to you joining us next time. Do you know what you call a line of rabbits that are hopping backwards?

[00:44:19] No. A receding hairline. That's good. Particularly good because you've got rabbits. I loved your post. You lost them. You lost them. Alright. We'll be right