John Carew on Buying Around Sydney Harbour's Inner Arc

A good buyer's agent should keep you out of trouble.

So the cost of getting it wrong in what we do, especially in Sydney, like there's many zeros on the end of the transactions and you see this in your lending business.

So keeping a client out of trouble and actually sort of keeping them calm in a moment of craziness can actually be a huge benefit. Our motto is buy without regrets. If you can buy a property that will serve you for 10 years as opposed to three years, that will serve you well.

Buying a great property today, that's not just what it's about. It's also getting something that could be ripe for improvement when the time is right for that investor or for the next buyer. You think about, right, lifestyle, what's important to you? How do you get to work?

What do you need for your family? What amenities like parks and shops? Then you look at the budget.

Welcome to Street Secrets. I'm Chris Bates and my mortgage broadcast is 2013.

And in this podcast, we're going to be interviewing Australia's leading buyer's agents, ones with decades of experience, have the local insider knowledge on the street, and can really help you with your buying process, no matter whether you're a first home buyer, upgrade or investor.

In this podcast, you'll get access to Australia's leading buyer's agents' minds every week on a Thursday. What's the word on the street?

Welcome to Street Secrets. I'm Chris Bates. Super excited to do this episode with John Carew from Mayfield Property Buyers. How are you doing, John?

Really well, thanks, Chris. Thanks for having me.

You know, big respect for what you guys do and we've worked with you a number of times in the past, but today we're going to explore a bit of an interesting pocket.

We haven't sort of gone there yet and you know, I love sort of learning about every different part of every city, but what we're going to talk about today is what we've sort of think is kind of the inner Northwest. So

Maybe you can sort of, instead of me, sort of explain the areas that you sort of specialise in. Obviously, your office is in Hunters Hill in Sydney. But before we go there, I have a question. John, how did you get into buyer's agency? How long have you been doing it?

Let's talk a bit about the story before you came into it.

Mayfield opened sort of 10 years ago now, back in 2015. My first career was actually in the banking sector. I did agricultural economics at university straight into one of the major banks and had almost a decade there, really enjoyed it.

And I still remember the moment I think I was in the lunchroom at CBA back in the day and read an article on the benefits of buyers agents. This must have been maybe 2012. I at the time had just started, I'd bought a couple of investment properties myself.

And a few family and friends had started just saying, John, could you help me with this? Could you maybe help me with an auction? Or I had a couple of my parents' friends say, could you buy us a property similar to what you've just bought a couple of?

So I was sort of dabbling in it on the side, read this article. That was probably a light bulb moment for me to think, geez, I didn't actually realize you could do this as a career. It was obviously a lot more infant back in those days, 13 or so years ago.

And that was sort of the catalyst for me to then undertake my license and really sort of lean into that and obviously got to the stage where I was confident enough to leave the bank. And yeah, in the decade or so since, haven't looked back and really enjoy it.

I find it really rewarding and a really great sort of vocation to devote

Is it what you thought it was going to be? Like what were some of the challenges you didn't expect, right? Going banking to obviously go with numbers, obviously you studied all that sort of stuff. So it's a completely different role though, right?

Like what were some of the challenges you didn't expect and how hard is it to sort of learn a new job, I guess?

Yeah, I think changing careers at any stage comes with its challenges. I think with the real estate and buyers agency from the outside, a lot of people probably don't realise the level of sort of psychology that we have to apply on a day to day basis.

It's not all glitz and glam and open homes and shiny. you know, photography and videos, I think almost a lot of those TV shows do our industry a disservice. Equally, there's some fantastic ones as well.

But, you know, it's really about sort of from a psychology point of view, trying to get inside the head of your buyer, try and understand what they're really sort of saying, but what are they actually meaning and what's the sort of immediate sort of problem, you know, that they're trying to solve, but what is likely their longer term, you know, situation going to be and try and work with them.

So I think the psychology side of it,

obviously you know any business you've got to attract clients look after them do a great job and that you know is harder at the start in terms of the client attraction but i think anyone starting out if you've got some key people that back you that's always a good a good start but i think for me probably that psychology side i didn't realize how full-on that would be and really if you can't practice that well your success as a buyer's agent is going to be very limited

Yeah, I mean, I guess it's getting the right brief together with the clients and you constantly search the initiative, done the work up front. I think that's obviously something you would have got better over the years, right? Really getting to the grass of what clients want.

But I mean, the agent side is also massively psychology based, right? Like it's understanding their individual personalities, how they like to deal with it,

That being a learning curve as well? Yeah, I think so. I think on the first question there around the buyers, definitely. I think as you become more experienced and have done it for many years, you do quickly learn to ascertain better what is realistic and what's not.

That's the first thing you think when someone calls you on the phone and New League sort of comes through is you're mentally thinking, can we actually help this person? I think, though, a lot of buyers find it quite refreshing when you are honest and direct and upfront.

Now, sometimes that may cost you business. We had an example recently in the NOS where that buyer had interviewed three agents. Now, we were the only buyer's agent that said, based on your current parameters, we actually won't be able to work with you. It's not realistic.

They ended up coming back to us because even though we said their original brief wasn't realistic, we offered them a couple of alternatives that we thought would be good plan Bs, if you like. So I think just sort of

Learning how to read the play on that, because the last thing you want to do is have a chock-a-block list of buyers you're working with that are completely unrealistic briefs. It's not the right thing by the client.

You're obviously asking for an engagement fee, and then you're actually not going to be able to convert them and have them a happy advocate and enjoying their new home and new life. So that's the last thing you want to do. And then in terms of the agents, they're all different.

I think agents, they do cop a bit of a bad rap. And no doubt there's a very small chunk of that industry that probably tires the rest of them, unfortunately.

But there's some fantastic agents out there we get to work with every day that are just awesome human beings and equally very, very good practitioners. And they're the ones you gravitate towards.

And that history and tenure is something that personally you get a benefit out of, but then professionally your clients can leverage a benefit out of that because you are moving the needle ever so slightly in your client's favor because part of what a buyer's agent's fee represents is the quality of their relationships with the agents in your area.

Yeah, absolutely. I think you're now in the head. As a buyer, you don't want lots of briefs that are unattainable. Basically, you're just burning your time.

But most importantly, the client's time, the opportunity cost of taking your needle in the haystack and rather than trying to disappoint them with an alternative option, the reality of what they thought they signed up for and a bit like an agent sort of over promising sometimes on a listing and then battering the vendor down.

It's not good, right?

No, it's not. And I think equally too, especially in a rising market, that problem gets worse over time. And with a lot of buyer's agents talking to colleagues across the industry every week, most clients are coming to us after some form of a journey.

A lot of clients think we can do it ourselves. It's not until they hit the three month, six month, Mark, you're on to the second or third pre-approval for them and saying, hey, guys, there might be a better way here.

Are you open to having a discussion with a good, reputable local buyer's agent? So most buyers need a certain level of pain first. Other buyers, though, if you've worked with a number of their friends or family or colleagues, they'll come to you earlier on the journey.

And that's always a nice thing as well. But yeah, you've just got to be real with people. I think if you go and see a doctor or a legal practitioner, you don't just want to hear what you want to hear.

You need them to be honest with you, give you the facts and sort of help guide and steer you in the right direction.

Yeah, sometimes good advice is hard to hear, but it's still the good advice, right? And I think you're right. People go to buyer's agency way too late. I think it's usually when they've got all the scars and they're missed out and they're unfortunately the one that actually got away is usually the one.

They're a wounded bull and they're trying to replicate that one that's actually gone. And potentially if they had the buyer's agency, they would have actually made it happen. Let's talk about your pocket, though, because the Sydney market is broken down into a number of pockets. Can we just ask where your team is?

Yeah. So as you said earlier, we're based in Hunters Hill. And the reason for that is, well, obviously it's a great area, but the way I describe it to people, Chris, we kind of arc around the harbour.

So we sort of buy all the way through the inner west around that Hunters Hill Gladesville ride back across the lower North Shore. So virtually everywhere we buy, we can be there within 20 minutes. Way back when you're starting out, obviously you have a larger area.

We used to joke, I'd say if you've got a pre-approval and a pulse, you'd be super excited, but you just don't do that. It's not the right thing of service. So we refer a lot of business to other buyers, agents in other pockets of Sydney. But yeah, we're based in Hunters Hill.

It's a nice natural centre of our business. You know, you've got a lot of families in the inner west looking for more space. Equally, you've got a lot of people looking between the inner west and lower north shore.

Sometimes they need to look either side of the water to really figure out where they want to be and why. And then there's a huge cohort of baby boomers as well up and down the north shore looking at getting into the lower north shore and or inner west.

So we really like those areas or areas, you know, we know well, we know the back streets, the school zones, the, you know, all the sort of local IP and yeah, it's a great part of town in our opinion.

And compared to some other pockets of Sydney, whether it's the Eastern suburbs or Mossman and the like, you know, the value for money in these areas is still quite good and they offer a fantastic lifestyle.

Yeah, that's interesting, because I always like to know what's driving the market. So it's a bit of the people move, the kids are getting out of the school sort of years, and then the parents are like, Ash, it's a bit far up here, we don't need to be close to the schools.

And then they're gravitating down much more down the train line to the low and offshore looking for and then maybe into the sort of the Glazeville sort of pocket as well. Obviously, access to ferries and things like that. Is that sort of a strong sort of migration down as the kids finish school?

Yeah, it is. Yeah. And even right through into the inner west side as well, you know, Balmain, Roselle, Annandale are really big downsizer markets.

You know, they'll be selling out of, you know, sort of eight, $10 million homes on the north side somewhere, even in Hudders Hill where we are, and literally just moving across the river, you know, relatively downsized, still expensive and perhaps have some money left over for children and the like.

But yeah, they're very interchangeable. And again, areas that sort of all of our team has a very high level of sort of IP in. and really good agent relationships.

It's quite a tight area. I mean, it sounds like it's bigger than it is, really. It's not that big. Obviously, the lower North Shore and then that sort of Gladesville, sort of Huntersville pocket, Longerville, and then you've got down to sort of the inner West.

I mean, do you find that you're sort of moving clients what they originally sign up for while you might know that that could potentially happen, hence why you wouldn't take it on. They're buying something a bit different once they start looking at the market and what's value for money in different pockets.

just because you've got more understanding, you can sort of give them some alternative options and it's different to what they originally thought.

Yeah, quite often where a client ends up is not necessarily where they think they will when they meet us for the first time. And I think part of that's obviously going through the discovery process.

We have what we call a discovery meeting with our buyers for that very reason, just to really sort of understand them, their needs, their family, where their friends are, where are the kids going to school or planning to go to school? All of those sort of reasons.

And I think most buyers, it's juggling between size, how far from the CBD it is and the quality of the property. And there's no right or wrong answer with that. What might be my personal preference could be different to yours and someone else. And that's fine.

I think as a buyer's agent, we're just trying to really get inside their minds and also look forward a little bit. I think some buyers get very caught up in the here and now, but with the benefit of a little bit more

life experience and having had children yourself and other people in our team have got much older children than mine. So you try and use that life experience and then intellectual property around the market just to guide clients in the right direction. As an example, the Inner West is bloody fantastic.

But what you get for your money now is a lot less than it was ten years ago, obviously, when I started out doing it. So we call it the inner west migration out to here, Hunters Hill, Gladesville, Lane Cove.

What you get for $4 million in Balmain looks very different in a nice quiet street of Lane Cove or Gladesville.

You're on a 700 square meter block, you'll have a pool, like maybe a sort of mid-century sort of bungalow that might've been opened up, et cetera, and local public school around the corner and some good shops. And that's quite appealing to some families.

Equally, a lot of families just don't wanna leave where they are now. The kids are in the local school, they're really entrenched in that community. Maybe they're just shifting one suburb out. It's really about just trying to find the right mix for that family and what's gonna work for them over time.

But yeah, it's just there to be a sounding board and sort of present alternative options. And we call it a bit of the search filter. You might start a little bit broader, And over time, you sort of narrow that down.

And the way you do that is by presenting different properties that on paper hit their brief, but from a different perspective. And if that just firms up their original idea and original plan, fantastic. At least we've stress tested that.

But sometimes those, not left field, but options perhaps they haven't considered are actually the ones they really warm to and think, shit, I could really see myself living in this area. I love it.

Yeah, so it's quite a tight area, obviously, when you've got waterways in there and freeways and trains and ferry school zones. What's some of the common mistakes you see in the market?

Maybe not so much with your clients, but just some of the danger things that you're always like, oh, we don't want to buy in this pocket. That's a real issue in that suburb. Or what are some of the things that buyers just don't know what they don't know?

And you see those sales go through and you think, oh, good, we're going to let that one run through the keeper.

Yeah, that's right. Look, I think all suburbs in Sydney or no doubt across the country have good pockets and not so good pockets. Obviously, there's things around school zones, proximity to shops, accessibility. Can you get in and out of an area?

Or is it just an absolute car park and you go a kilometre in half an hour and you're just cursing yourself every morning and every afternoon? So I think Just sort of having that local level of IP, even, you know, housing commission type stuff.

I mean, there's housing commission in Hunters Hill, you know, it's all through the inner west and Sydney. And so it should be quite frankly, but some of the housing commission, you know, not as bad. Other parts you think, oh, you know, maybe let's sort of steer away from this one.

So I think having that just local knowledge in terms of just the vibe of the area, the transport, the sort of types of neighbors you're likely to have is really important.

And yeah, obviously, if it's in a great pocket of the suburb, you know, walking distance to a lot of things, transport around the corner, they're the ones that invariably attract more competition and people will push a bit harder on.

Yeah, I do like that you say around the accessibility at different times of the day, right? And often people just look at the map and go, yeah, that's fine, but it may not be fine if you have to do it twice a day or three times a day and certain points.

The neighbours is a good one as well. I think often people sort of forget about that. It's great if it's improper, you might like it, but what are your neighbours going to do? Who are they? What sort of life do they live? While you can definitely never guarantee that things can change, right?

A lot of people sometimes just forget about that. And so how do you sort of think about that when you're assessing a property?

Yeah, well, I guess especially if a client's new to an area, we encourage them, get a coffee, walk around, we'll give them a few recent sales just to sort of familiarize themselves with the area. I think as buyer's agents, obviously, yes, we help people buy.

But equally, I think important is us helping people stay out of trouble. There's some technical things obviously we do and like this year alone in Sydney and New South Wales and a number of other buyers agents, including us, have had to deal with all of these zoning changes.

Todd and LMR, we had one not all that long ago where we're just looking at the neighbours surrounding and who owned the property and we could see that

And this was actually sort of last year before LMR came in and Todd, but we could see that one owner owned three of these properties and it was a company.

So we knew the writing was on the wall and that was a property we therefore steered our client away from, even though on paper it looked perfect, lovely street, little old red brickers across the road, we knew what was going to happen. And Todd's obviously just can confirm that now.

So I think, yeah, just doing your due diligence. And, you know, it's hard. You can't go and physically interview every neighbor and, you know, ask them about their life history.

But if you know the areas you're buying in and you've sort of maybe bought a few properties in that street before and know that those families really love living there, that's a good sign.

But again, if something sort of smells not quite right, you just want to investigate it and give the client as much confidence as possible. You can't, as you said, perfectly risk mitigate something 10 to 20 years in the future. None of us can.

But if you're sort of going in there with as many facts on the table as possible, the client can make the most informed decision for them.

I mean, Todd's a huge conversation of 2025, but also more important probably next year, to be honest. And how are you thinking about it? Where's that changing in your briefs and, you know, places you're going to look to avoid?

Well, I guess, yeah, there's larger parts of both. you know, the inner west and the low and offshore that clients are steering away from, you know, because of that risk. And, you know, there's still some level of uncertainty around the tide and the process people have got to go through.

You know, even in Leichhardt, there's a new proposal now from the inner west government, you know, around that Parramatta Road precinct. But, you know, that's still out for consultation. There's a rough map in place. You know, but again, there's still the devil's in the detail, which is not finalised yet.

So I think, again, just knowing those maps where that development's likely to be.

Obviously, if you're within 500 metres to a kilometre of a train station, they're the areas, you know, that the government is tending to really sort of focus on and highly likely to look different, you know, in the future, same as Metro.

So again, whether it's, you know, the St. Leonard side and parts of, you know, Wollstonecraft, et cetera, on the lower North Shore or back through the inner West Sea, you've just got to get all that on the fat, on the table for the client.

And if it doesn't feel right or you're concerned about it, you let it go and move on.

Yeah. So you've got obviously a number of sort of buyers agents now. Why does that give you a bit of an advantage, do you feel, than just say yourself running the business?

Yeah, that's a good question. I think obviously when I first started a decade or so ago and doing it as a solo operator, I thought I was doing a pretty good job and I'd hope I still was. But I think the bar has increased for buyer's agents as the industry has evolved.

And I think that's a good thing. If I hear someone Having used a buyer's agent, I love nothing more than a great experience. They saw value and they do it again in a heartbeat. That's what I want to hear regardless of who someone has used.

There is plenty of buyers to go around, so I've got an abundance mentality. But I think the advantage of our team is we do work collectively as a business. We don't take on two briefs that are in competition with each other.

And when you're sort of appointing a team, you are getting multiple sets of eyes, ears, people on the ground, people on the phone to sort of keep a brief running. I think as a one man operator, it's really, really difficult.

For instance, if you're out showing a client a few different properties, who's actually trying to source more properties for that client or other clients? Who's doing the due diligence? Who's liaising with the solicitors? Who's following up that building and pest? who's tracking what sold yesterday in Hunters Hill, whatever it might be.

So I think the days of sort of trying to buy across these huge areas and be everything to everyone are probably gone. And I think you really do need a good team around you, even from a negotiation point of view. It's very common in our team, whoever's sort of leading that client

journey, the lead BA on that journey, that will socialize that across the team. This is the situation. This is the agent. Last time we bought off them, this sort of happened.

Based on the competition, based on all these other factors, this is what I'm feeling is the right decision and right time and place to make a move. And you just round table that as a team. It might only be a little

small adjustment in strategy, but that can sometimes be the thing that gets that property across the line for the client. It might make no difference at all, but it's just those little things.

And I think investing in a team and having sort of, as I said, more sets of eyes and ears and just different perspectives with different backgrounds is really valuable. And I think our clients value that because they see that cohesiveness of the team and actually do have everyone looking after their best interests.

Obviously, yeah, I totally agree. I mean, obviously sharing briefs, talking about strategy, you can't talk to yourself in the mirror around what's the best option. But I definitely think and I do think that you can cover more ground, right?

I do think the best buyers agents have got a bit of a team around them. Whether they're the sole operator and they've got four or five support or a few support or they're a group of buyers agents, there's a power in numbers.

And I think we're also getting reach to look at more opens and build better relationships with agents. How do you sort of really focus on sort of making sure that's a key part of your value proposition and positioning Mayfield as a real trusted partner?

Really good question actually. I mean, I think, yeah, certainly across our team, there's people have got a natural leaning and particular local expertise around different pockets, whether or not it's on the inner west side or the lower North shore side.

So that's obviously something we want to see, you know, continue and develop, but I think Yeah, in terms of the agent's history and tenure is a big part. Obviously, there's a huge amount of new entrants to the buyer's agent industry, and that's been very well known.

There's some good things around that from an awareness, but equally, there's some probably challenges around that in terms of quality and genuine client care. But I think if you keep your client's best interests at heart, and I think with the agents, perhaps in the past, some buyer's agents were overly combative with agents.

I don't think that necessarily does their buyers any favor. You know, obviously our job is to represent our clients sort of with, you know, zero sort of things holding us back, if you like.

But getting into sort of fights with agents is not really going to do your cause or your future clients cause any harm. But I think history, tenure, doing what you'll say you'll do.

And if you say something to an agent, mate, we'll be able to exchange this with 66W by 5pm this afternoon and it's 4 o'clock now. You know, that goes a long way. But, you know, obviously just with experience that helps as well.

When you get clients, what do you think they most misunderstand about buyer's agency? When they sort of walk in the door and they're selling you service, what do you think they get wrong the most?

Yeah, I think there's a couple of things. I think one of the big ones is they think the only value proposition a buyer's agent can offer is access to off market properties. And we do buy a lot of real estate off market or pre-market. There's lots of definitions there.

I won't go there now, but I think that's the conception. But I sort of flip that to clients and say, look, if you've been looking for six months and you genuinely think that's the only reason why you haven't been successful, You know, we've got a problem.

You know, if someone's been looking for six months, their brief is not realistic. They're not on the same page as their partner. And there's some sort of, you know, breakdown in the process for them. So I think a big benefit of what we do is actually sort of breaking that down for people.

being a bit of an independent partner in crime, we like to call it in our office and just sort of taking the pressure down and just stepping back, understanding that the brief, I think there's huge benefit in that.

So I think, yeah, that access to off market, yes, you're going to get through some more doors that you will not know about. I think any decent buyer's agent that, you know, any decent buyer's agent can offer that, but it's not the be all end all. So I think that's one misconception.

I think, you know, the other one is to how you look at it. You know, we're not in the business of buying bargains. We're in the business of buying awesome A-grade family homes at a fair price.

So I think the other misconception that some buyers have is that I want to come to you for a bargain. I want to come for you to save me all this money.

Well, in my humble opinion, any buyer's agent that says, oh, I save clients 8% to 10% on average, I think that's absolute BS. And so to anyone that talks to me, I say run from a buyer's agent that says that. because how can you quantify that? It's hypothetical.

Once you bought the property, you won't know because it hasn't been resold. And I just think it's sort of false advertising in a way. It probably gets some clicks and some attention.

But I think if you've done the analysis, verified what it's worth, and you love the home and you're getting it within the fair value range, you're doing bloody well because most of those A-grade properties go for some margin over fair grade because of the scarcity factor and people will push harder on them.

So I think there's that. And I think probably the other, you know, misconception people overlook is just that a good buyer's agent should keep you out of trouble.

You know, so the cost of getting it wrong in what we do, especially in Sydney, like there's many zeros on the end of the transactions and you see this in your lending business.

So keeping a client out of trouble and actually sort of keeping them calm in a moment of sort of craziness can actually be a huge benefit.

Now, how you measure that over time is somewhat subjective, but to undo an incorrect purchase, if you like, it's sort of around 7%, 8%, 9% of the property price. By the time you've got stamps, buyer's agents fees, sales agents fees, legals, yada, yada, yada. plus the emotional stress.

So I think that's also completely overlooked by a lot of buyers that a good buyer's agent should keep them safe all the way through their journey.

Yeah, absolutely. I mean, all three cracking points totally agree on the third one, right? When things are quite stressful and you're burnt out and you're looking, appetite, your ability to make good decisions starts to really reduce every time. And you're starting to act more with heart than the head.

And before you know it, you go from one frying pan to another. And it's not just the transaction costs. Often it's the loss of opportunity in the growth. It's that being in the property with a big mortgage that you don't even love. It's the impact on everything else.

And I think it's almost like the insurance policy to stop you making that mistake. Is that some of the, what's some of the other intangible things where clients get to the end of the journey, they're super happy, they're writing their Google review or they're talking to the other phone.

What are the things that they say that, oh, I wasn't expecting that, but that was the game changer for us. That really made a difference.

Yeah.

think a big part of it is like a lot of potential clients you know with us or again any buyer's agency they don't know what they don't know and sometimes you've got to go through that journey to really appreciate what a buyer's agent does and that's sort of the intangible nature of what we do in a service-based industry but what's interesting Chris when I sort of make anniversary calls to our clients and just check in with them they're never usually

talking about what their house is worth or that we bought it exceptionally well. It's more about the lifestyle they're enjoying, that the kids love the school. The club around the corner is such a good spot for Friday night drinks for the local families. The work commutes actually worked out really well.

They've made some awesome local friends. It's more those sort of things that I look for. And that's what clients tend to say. They sort of talk less about the technical elements of things and more about the lifestyle elements. And I think

With a buyer's agent, yes, you pay a fee, you know, post exchange in most situations, but the benefit of that fee can actually compound over time. And that's, I think, you know, a really big responsibility that we take as buyer's agents because it's people's single largest purchase.

And, you know, they really are trusting us with their livelihoods, if you like, and their families to help them make the best possible sort of call in their situation.

Yeah, I mean, it sounds like you're going deep on really making sure you get the right property to suit the life they want, right? And challenging them on that. And then a year later, they're like, actually, this is exactly what we wanted.

And I was surprised that we didn't value that at the start. But that's a really big benefit living in this part of the suburb that I now really value. And I think that you're right, the capital value of the property, it's a nice number, right? They obviously like to see that up.

not selling it, right? Lots of people that visit their forever homes that they want an ultra good investment, but they're not focused on that number. It's more of a, is this giving us the life we want?

Yeah, exactly.

In terms of the, you find the property, get access to it early, you may wish the client really likes it. I mean, You sort of put a bit of a buffer here in not just assessing its value and coming up with the sort of negotiation strategy.

What's the Bayfield sort of philosophy around this?

Yeah, well, I guess we do sort of pride ourselves on our due diligence that we do and really try and unpack a property from every different possible angle, even prior to getting talking offers, et cetera, et cetera.

Obviously, it helps in the areas we operate that, you know, you know the areas and know the agents. So when you go into it, you're going to have a rough idea of value. But, you know, the devil is always in the detail, as they say.

And there's a huge amount of other checks that we do and reports we provide to a client prior to, you know, even thinking about making offers. There's a technical things around legals, building and pest and or strata as well.

i think though you know if everything checks out the big part that a lot of consumers are relying on their buyers agent for is the pricing analysis like what is this property worth and why and i think any good independent buyers agent should be providing their client with a with a written report that says this is what we believe this property is worth and this is this is why here's the evidence

and here's our target range for the property. You know, it might be three to three one fifty or, you know, four to four point two or one to, you know, a million and sixty, whatever that range is.

And I describe it to our clients as we prepare that document, Chris, if we had to go to court and represent you, we would win that case. And fortunately, in touchwood, we haven't had a valuation come in short to to this point.

But, you know, if all of that checks out, there's no red flags, you've got your pricing analysis, then it comes into, well, what's the best way of us, you know, giving Chris and his family the chance of owning this property, you know? Now, every property is different.

There is no one size fits all. Some people, oh, you should go to auction, you should buy off market, you should strike at day eight, because that is all BS. I think, again, a good buyer's agent, an experienced practitioner, our job is to read the play.

know pick up the clues you know verbal or otherwise from the agent and obviously having history with that agent helps but you've also got to understand the vendor situation where they're at some vendors are just so over the mark especially off market that you don't have a choice but to let it come to market even if your client loves it you know so i think really understanding the psychology of the vendor

the agent. And again, as buyer's agents, we're there to not buy bargains, but give our client the best chance of owning it. We tend to do a lot of transactions by negotiation, whether it's on that off pre-market or pre-auction.

But again, sometimes you've got to go all the way through and there's reasons you should go to auction. You know, they might be a little bit light on. You know, it might be a really tricky divorce and husband and wife are never going to agree

and something pre-auction is just going to inflate their expectations. But I think if you give the client the rationale, some clients want to be really involved in that. Others just want to say, John, look, I appreciate your analysis. I'm prepared to go to here. Just do your best and let me know.

You know, and that's okay too. Different clients have a different style and you've got to adjust your, you know, the way you service them, I guess, accordingly. But we look at all those facts and, you know, just do everything we can to let the client hopefully own it.

But, you know, again, you don't get everything you go for. And that's the other thing I think, you know, you've just got to do the best you can. And I always say to anyone, if we did get every property we went for, you'd be sus.

because it means we're probably paying over odds more often than not to have such a high success rate. So again, our success rate in terms of properties we're pulling the trigger on varies depending on the state of the market. Obviously, the hotter it is, our success rate might drop a little bit.

But if it's sort of a softer market or a little bit wobbly, our success rate comes up. But equally, you've got to be able to say to a client, look, I know you love it. We pushed it a bit, probably beyond where we want it to be.

There's a point where you say, hey, for this amount of money, we think we can get you a better option elsewhere. And again, that's sort of part of our duty of care to clients and having them really go in with all the facts possible.

So I think you're right, in really tight, strong competition sort of owner occupied markets, I think that that pricing research just really matters so much because once you start a negotiation, right, it's hard to sort of stop and you've got to be really clear on your numbers and your strategy and how much does this property really suit your client's needs.

And so it sounds like you go through a real thorough process there and really testing that number with the client and making sure that you've thought it through before you start that negotiation.

Yeah, definitely. And that's exactly right. You almost want to start with the end in mind. And I think that's a good benefit of an independent buyer's agent is they've already thought a few steps ahead for all the different possible scenarios.

And it's hard for a client, but you've almost got to think as if you're preparing for an auction and what that limit is going to be. Obviously over the phone or if you've got a few hours here or there, you can have some considered conversations.

But the more clarity you've got going into that, it's just going to sort of reduce stress for the buyer and hopefully give them a better chance of something. The last thing you want is a buyer to change the goalposts on you sort of midway or after the fact.

know which is why when a point of signing a client we will stress test them very hard around their budget not because we're trying to spend more money on their behalf but because the last thing we want to do is not flag an awesome off-market or pre-market property for them that they said was 200k above their budget and we haven't shared it it comes to market four weeks later and they're like why didn't you share this we'll say well you know so that's where just having a you know full trust and transparency with your buyers and

You know, they have to know that we've got their back and vice versa. They're the best client relationships and I'm sure it's the same in your business, Chris. So yeah, obviously it's something that you don't take lightly and something we enjoy doing.

John, it's been good to work with you over the years and anyone looking to buy in sort of that inner Northwest pocket that we've sort of coined, I think you're in safe hands with the team at Mayfield and appreciate you coming on today. Thanks for having me, Chris.

Thanks so much for listening today. We hope you got lots of value out of it. If you'd like to speak to our guest today, there's links in the show notes on how you can get in contact.

And if you're buying your first home, upgrading, renovating, or need any finance-related queries, obviously we'd love to help. There's links in the show notes to us as a mortgage broker, and we look forward to next week's episode.