Mark Errichiello on Buying in Melbourne's North West

It's not always just we want a straight property to occupy for now or to invest. You've got to dig a bit deeper. What's their goals over the next five, 10 years? You know, the longer plan. 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 in the studio today with Mark Erichello from Mass Advocates in Melbourne. How are you doing?

Hi, great. I'm well, thanks, Chris. Thanks for having me, mate. Always good to see you and have a chat.

Yeah, absolutely. I mean, you had a familiar face to me before I met you, and I'm sure to Some of the 25 million people in Australia, some would have seen your face around the block and other things.

But for those who don't know you, I mean, can you use a bit of an understanding of your journey, you know, when you sort of got into Buyer's Agency, what you were doing sort of before that and yeah, how long has it been going?

My journey or my experience I'd say is started from birth pretty much. So I'm a second generation real estate agent, followed my dad in the shadows, 1980s, 1990s in real estate in the Northern suburbs.

So he's 81 and he still works with my brother and brother's business partner in real estate with clients, but we always were Northside. So we grew up in Brunswick, operated business between Ascot Vale to the Northern suburbs and Essendon Northwest. and pretty much was raised in that environment.

My brother went into the business, then I followed as a young pup, 18 years old, went straight into the rental department. By the time I was 23, I was involved as a partner in the business and started getting into the sales, auctioneering, and met my wife in that business too.

So that was Rain and Horn in Ascot Vale. And the buyer's advocacy, I'd say I started getting a flavor for it around 2005 to 2007. Started seeing a few buyer's agents emerge, dealing with them when I was in sales.

And then clients were asking for my assistance in purchasing investments, buying homes to occupy. And it was a few vendors that I was actually selling for that asked me to essentially be their pair of attorney and help them find property to buy. And then that's where it sparked.

a bit of a life-changing moment I won't go into too much detail about. But in that same year, 2007, my wife, Michelle, stepped outside of our office and a car hit her and she was traumatically amputated her right leg.

So that sort of flipped everything on the head, our perspective, our future, and really started questioning things at a young age. what we wanted to do. And she rehabilitated, you know, became a Paralympian. And by 2014, we just decided we've got to do this full time.

You know, buyer's advocacy was a passion, part of the industry, we loved helping clients. So yeah, I'm happy to answer any more questions on it without speaking too much.

thanks for sharing it because I do think those moments where they're, you know, if something's good and obviously horrible like that one, sort of do reset your values, right? So it sounds like you've just gone and really followed your passion.

And I know you've done a lot of stuff with TV around the sort of property space. You've also got a lot of experience on the sale side and the buy side. Do you think that gives you a bit of an edge? Obviously you said from birth.

It's crazy what my four and five-year-old come out with. I'm like, how the hell did you hit know that. But did you feel like that style sort of upbringing just is giving you just so much desensitized to the market cycles a little bit because you've just sort of always been exposed to it?

Yeah, certainly. I think that helped desensitise, a good word, also not be triggered by rhetoric. Like, look at what's happening now. You've got so many regulation tax changes over a few years that influence sentiment and market. You've got rate rises, decreases.

It just taught me not to react in the moment and just keep steady on the plan, analysis, act with a bit of strategy for the long term. So that helped. But I think

Yeah, it was always funny you talk, you know, when I left and became, you know, I never thought I'd leave the family business. I thought I'd be there, you know, until I'm 80 like my dad.

But that moment, you know, being with my wife while she was rehabilitating and we're setting new goals, it was, you know, they made fun that I was stepping into the light and, you know, away from the dark side of real estate. And that was, you know, it just resonated.

And I felt like, you know, when we started Master Advocates together, my wife, Michelle and I in 2014, and really never looked back after that point.

You sort of raise a good point. Why I'm so passionate about the buyer's advocate slash agent, whatever you want to call it, industry is that you are engaged by a client, you are paid a fee, you are acting 100% for them.

And it's not some sort of opaque system where I'm getting a kick back here and there. And who am I really acting for here? I do feel on the other side of the fence, it's hard for agents. They've got a property to sell. They've got to really play a lot of games to

sometimes get the buyers across the line and sometimes their seller who emotionally might not be behaving the right way, I guess. So it's a really clean job.

I feel as a buyer's agent, if you set the brief right, you agree a fee and you can sort of get to work and just be thinking 100% for your client while still maintaining those agent relationships. Obviously been around for a long time.

You mentioned you grew up in Brunswick, your family business, Ray and Horne, sort of that Ascot Vale pocket in Melbourne. That's where you've done a lot of sort of buying over the years as well. I mean, there's nothing like knowing your own literal backyard when you grew up.

But can you tell us a bit more around that pocket, like just the diversity within it, the great pockets that it has and sort of how it's structured?

Yeah, so well-established suburbs, Ascot Vale and most of the suburbs in Moonee Valley that you lead from Ascot Vale, Flemington, Moonee Ponds, Essendon, North Village, another area where we work very closely in that village and surrounding suburbs like Strathmore. And we've helped clients

Certainly it helps having a 25 year career in that Northwest. That's definitely our specialty area, but we've helped clients around Victoria, spreading out Northern Western suburbs predominantly for investment in residential, commercial and owner occupiers. Yeah, look around the key activity centres and the lifestyle.

You've got Ascot Vale and Maribyrnong has the Maribyrnong River right on the border of both suburbs. You've got great infrastructure, you've got trams, you've got train, great shops, schools as well. So both private and public schools are quite predominant between Ascot Vale and Essendon Pockets. even Aberfeldy.

So these are things that draw people into the suburb and for generations. But post lockdown and changes with working from home, you're getting people come over from the southeast and relocate there like where they can affordability and growth potential and work from home options as well.

There's been a shift and dynamic in demand as well over the last few years.

I think about clients journeys over the years and I've lived in Melbourne for three years. A detail is one of those pockets. It was like a sleeping giant, right? Like a lot of people sort of gravitated to the east. They grew up there.

It's just history is a family wealth, similar to sort of the Bayside. And then the west, the inner west, the Seddon's and the Yarraville's became really hot. And then the Brunswick slash to the Preston sort of you know, Northcote sort of train line.

That was like, you know, a really cool place to live. But his pocket was maybe forgotten about. And now, you know, it's sort of people are, hang on a sec. It's great schools, great nature, great access to the airport and the city.

And you've got great, is it, do you feel like it's now having its sort of day in the sun?

Certainly over the last decade, it's been growing year on year, that demand. And it started with affordability, right? And so probably mid-century, like I'm first generation here, family migrated from Italy as, you know, my parents were both young kids when their parents came post-war.

And those areas were, you know, working class factories, especially Brunswick. And it had some rough pockets and rough sort of reputation over the decades. But access to cities is phenomenal. It's close to the hospital precinct, university precincts in Carlton as well.

It doesn't take too long to travel even to the inner east, go to Ivanhoe and surrounding suburbs or get to the CBD in Bayside. So all of that's made it popular. And the affordability aspect

now people are, you know, pushing out further to the borders of inside the M80, the Western Ring Road, if you're familiar with that in the Northwest. So yes, like the Yarraville is a sweet spot and great, you know, community and culture, that little activity center.

That's what makes the demand, you know, popular as well. But you go across even like Bandura, lots of infrastructure between Bulleen and the Northern Tunnel that's under construction. And you're right inside a sweet little pocket of university precincts.

And for affordability, I'd say investors are even looking over that infrastructure to laylaw, Epping, areas that have some potential, some growth, good yield, create wealth over the long term.

You go back in the day, everyone to be hugging the city. I need to reduce my commute time as close as possible. COVID sort of, hey, no, we want space.

I do feel like there's that even with the hybrid work, those sort of 45, whatever it is, commute to the city, which is totally doable a few days a week. Right. And I think they're well priced when you compare it to other pockets, similar distances.

you know, from the city, you know, when you do a loop around, do you take clients on that sort of journey there? Like, obviously they can get a little bit pigeonholed into, you know, where their friends live, where they grew up, you know, and they sometimes are a bit blinkered.

Do you take them on a bit of a, you know, journey to say, hey, well, you know, what really matters to you is X, Y, Z.

Maybe you should go explore this part of Glenroy or, you know, come down and have a look at this, you know, part of Footscray or Ascot Vale, which is these like little secret pockets that they may not know exist.

Yeah, certainly. I think as a buyer's agent, you've got to one, be willing to look with a broader lens and be willing to travel. And if that means comparing options, you know, great associations like REBA, the Real Estate Buyer's Agents Association, PIPA, other groups where we've met great networks of buyers agents.

If what we are presenting in this moment of time doesn't meet the client's needs and wants, it's not always just we want a straight property to occupy for now or to invest. You've got to dig a bit deeper. What's their goals over the next five, 10 years? the longer plan.

And if it might be, hey, you find out it's an investment now, but we want to occupy it later, our kids move in, or we want to leverage that to upgrade our principal home in the next 10 years or relocate, then we've got to look with a broader lens.

It's not just a little nugget in the portfolio. And if we need to work with our affiliate partners interstate, we've got affiliate agencies in New South Wales and Queensland up the East Coast that we've worked closely with over the last 10 years, advise agents. I think that's important.

If we work with the initial consultation, we'll have some meetings there. Once we've got a high level criteria, we'll start adding some flavour to it. Start with a broader lens of, okay, this meets the criteria in brief right now, but here's some other suburbs that we think we should consider.

We back it with some data, you know, cotality, core logic reports, if you like, with our opinion and our rental estimates, how we think these properties can add value if it's an investment or, you know, what ticks the boxes on the location and infrastructure and everything else, even for the owner occupiers.

Yeah, you mentioned a good point there around referring out to affiliate. You mentioned your words around to the buyer's agents. I've seen that quite a few times over the years where a buyer's agent has had a brief and a client signed up, they're paying a fee.

and they just realize that there's a better option for them, whether it's the investment. But these are actually often even being owner-occupier markets. Buyer's agent said, look, I'm just not going to get what you want here. I know that we thought we could. Market's moved or your preferences have shifted.

I'm not going to do this, but I'm going to refer it to a trusted mate. And I guess clients wouldn't even know about that.

There's this whole sort of network, obviously a lot through REBA, but even outside that where buyer's agents, the good ones that have been doing it for some time become really close

mates and they you know share the wins they share the learnings and they also sometimes you know pass clients around that feel like they can be better and it sounds like you take that same sort of philosophy if we think about that northwest sort of pocket you mentioned um that infrastructure going in that sort of east west link i think it's called i mean that's like you're on mars when you go down and look at that like there's cranes everywhere it's just

chaos, but I've been down in Melbourne for about 12 months in that pocket anyway. But if you think about that pocket, where's the danger zones? Where do you really say, hey, look, I know it's affordable.

I know you can buy there, but you just don't really know that this is something that the locals know. And you kind of want to be really careful in that pocket for X, Y, Z reason.

Yeah, so I think right on the infrastructure is great.

And there's been a lot of failed projects, when we say the different eastward slicks and money spent, you know, taxpayers money spent poorly, but there's some, you know, good ones that have helped contribute and that are, you know, almost completed like that, that northeast tunnel that's about to connect to Bandura.

I think anywhere in the Bandura, the Banyul side of Bandura, you pay a bit more.

But over time, as long as they realise that, okay, this area might be a bit cheaper now because it hasn't re-gentrified yet, or it's a little bit still under heavy construction and congestion, you know that there's a few years of pain before you get the growth and it's improved.

As long as they know that sort of outlook, then they make a decision. They've got an informed decision to make. It's our job to know what's

being commissioned by government, state and local, and what's coming in the pipeline, what is under planning, residential or commercial in the vicinity, using resources like land check and looking what's approved for planning, what's in an application stage. We've got to provide that detail to them

Make sure that we deal with teams like building inspectors and good solicitors, their mortgage brokers or bank, giving the advice on how it's going to affect what they need to contribute on top of the estimated yields that we provide and outgoings. Sometimes they'll still take risk. People have different risk appetites.

think, well, hey, the suburb two k's closer in had a boom in the last decade and it was sort of postured similar a few years ago. I'll take a bet. I'll take a gamble. But at least we've put it out there of what the risks are.

So always explore risk and then tell them here's the safer option. You pay a bit more. This part's already hot, but the horse may have bolted already for growth for a few years. But at least you've got strong demand, strong yield, you'll have a good quality, desirable applicant for the rental side.

Or if they're living there, sometimes safety and all those things are more important as well.

You're right. Correct me there. I was putting down the east-west link, but I was getting confused. That's the one where the east link, it's just coming into Collingwood area, it was going to hook up to...

It's been a busy human ball of waste.

Yeah, but there's that North East Link, which is like creating that sort of real ring. And you had the tunnel coming off the West Gate into Yarraville. I mean, a lot of people talk down the Victorian economy. I don't like to make this podcast timely.

I just don't think that it's going to age that well. But if we think about 2026, I mean, the Victorian government, why they're in a bit of debt is they're spending a hell of a lot on infrastructure. And the airport link is another one of those.

which is kind of right in your hood, right? Like that is a big project that's happening, right?

Yeah, you're right. We don't want to sort of pigeonhole and we want this information to be a bit more timeless. But with infrastructure, a point is it's great. We need it. They've spent a lot of money. The issue is how they've spent it or how they've budgeted and blown out.

And that's where it becomes a pain point for the public. When it blows out with a bit of mismanaged funds or overextended projects that are blown out on feasibility, then it becomes an issue. The infrastructure is great. Even that tunnel going in the West, that helps, it all helps.

The airport, I've heard about that my whole career, right? It's come and gone, the discussion, and they say there's funding backing it, but there's always then disagreements between the airport and the government, if you're aware, if it's going overground, underground, and they get into a gridlock in negotiations.

And then there's probably other sectors that are going to suffer financially when that comes in. And so if it comes, it's great, but I don't hold my breath until they start breaking ground. That's when I'll get excited and they start digging and making headway.

Yeah, I think it's just important to be across these things, right? Like how bottlenecks within Melbourne, you know, that got rid of a lot of level crossings, you know, bless those trains, you're getting stuck behind those, can really basically ruin your morning because you're like, I'm going to say I'm late now.

And it clogged up the city pre-COVID a lot. So I think that, you know, they are trying to make the city much more livable, right? And I do think it's going to get its mojo back. What sort of is the optimism?

Why do people just really want to make it sort of their forever home? And what do they really want in that pocket? What's the stuff that just really excites buyers and goes really strongly? And what are some of the things that really struggle?

Obviously, we talked about the infrastructure risk there, but what are some of the properties, the quintessential assets that go really well?

Yeah. So I think those are the sort of staples of good investment. If it's a well located, established, good structure, good quality, robust structure, house or townhouse or unit, they always have demand in any market.

Regardless of what's happening in the economy, there'll be demand in the established pockets when they're close to transport, close to activity centres, the walk score to shops, school, access to employment through highways or public transport.

all of that in that sort of, if you take even Strathmore, Essendon, Essendon North, go through to Aberfeldy, Moonee Ponds, Ascot Vale as example, and then Brunswick and Coburg, Sydney Roads, one of the largest retail strips in Australia, the length of it.

So people look at that for investment and to occupy.

The biggest concerns at the moment, and it depends on your stage in life, if you're the first aspiring home buyer or renter, or you were established and you're downsizing, there's that battle between what infrastructure the community want to accept or what they're concerned about.

So like the housing statement and activity centers all around

victoria and it'll flow through to other major capital cities around australia as well and governments but where they're getting you know high-rise 10 levels and above is it over congested can the infrastructure cope what's going to happen to the traffic flow all of that they're the type of discussions going about but you know more supply means more affordable housing

and more affordable rental and home ownership, providing things are corrected, not wanting to get too political, but things are corrected with incentives for investors, construction costs and taxes and regulations on construction. How can a developer provide affordable property on the resale?

Or even if they retain it for investment, if 50% of the construction costs goes into taxes and rates and other regulations.

Yeah, I mean, you've highlighted some of the challenges that are absolutely happening in Sydney around sort of rezoning. It's been a NIMBY power struggle for a long time in Sydney. Melbourne's been actually much more pro development and pro investor.

It has flipped a lot in the last five years and probably been a bit anti investor, I would say. So how do they get the investors back? to really feel safe to invest in Melbourne.

I don't know whether Melbournians believe it, but I do think people around the country have a lot of belief in Melbourne and we see clients. Absolutely. They have a lot of confidence and I do think a lot of interstate money is wanting to invest in Melbourne because they do believe in the city.

And that's good because you need that sentiment, right? You need that belief that it's going to recover. And I do think Melbournians will get that back at some point, but it's sometimes hard seeing over the hill.

I mean, when you talk about that in a north pocket, I mean, a lot of people don't know, like just how much money is sort of invested in that pocket, you know, around the Brunswick, Parkville, sort of the hospitals and the tech the health and the metro line going in there as well.

Like it's obviously with a lot of the unloved part of Melbourne, a lot of money would go to the Bridens or the Camberwells and that's where the rates were.

But do you find that in a Northwest pocket, it's just gentrifying so much because the next generation is moving in and it's a different sort of buy pool?

Yeah, and you're right, between education and hospital precincts, great for employment, great for people to move here, opportunities in business. There is a great population growth coming to Victoria and Melbourne especially.

And plus, yes, even though we're far behind on supply for construction and housing, we're still one of the fastest paced with new construction numbers. you know, areas like Brunswick and Parkville and coming further out or Flemington, Asquithale and those areas.

Very, very popular for, you know, new residents to rent as well as, you know, long-term established affordability still there. And that's why we're getting demand now where Melbourne was a bit sleepy and slow with growth for about 24 months or the last 24 months.

But the demand for investment, seeing that pressure building and know getting a bit of an upswing with growth in the next few years with yield and capital growth that interstate demand's definitely coming back and very very consistently since the september quarter

My dad lives there, so I get it. And best city in the world. And I love Melbourne. That obviously changed, obviously, the last five years with COVID. And you had a lot of exodus, which wasn't stereotypical Victorian. We're not going anywhere. We're in the best spot.

But the affordability benefit of going up north was there, right? Not so much in Sydney. There was always a price premium in Sydney that

know, it was quite steady, you know, those markets would move in a similar cycle, but the Brisbane sort of the new star, the gold coast, you know, the north of Sydney, like central coast, that price benefit has sort of evaporated, right? Because those markets have moved and Melbourne's not.

So you're probably finding that the Melbournians are back sort of, you know, they're not leaving, you know, and they're staying because they're not leaving for more affordability reasons. And do you find that as well? Like there's that desire to sort of

leave has sort of evaporated and we're back to the old way of we're staying here because there's great work prospects and we just think we can have a great life with our family.

I think confidence has started to return in that aspect. And also from the investor point of view, yes, everyone jumped on it going, you know, and there was a huge exodus. That exercise of when you said that anti-investor sentiment in Victoria, that exercise failed. It didn't help supply of rental. It diminished it.

You know, they realized that the private sector is so important to hold and keep affordability for more supply, more rentals. And then also you know, the affordability for rentals is returning to buy an investment here, an opportunity for some growth. So the owner occupiers are staying.

We've got many clients still that are looking at opportunities in the future, going up the east coast and heading north still. And that's where we've, you know, we've partnered with some great buyers agents in Northern New South Wales and Byron Bay, like Byron Property Search.

Michael Murray there, we've travelled up there as well. And some good affiliates in Queensland too, where we still have some clients looking at, I guess, if it's not their first investment and they're a bit more well-heeled, they've looked at expanding portfolios. So that still will happen.

But I think our owner-occupier demand affordability in the Northern Western suburbs, in Victoria especially, there's still opportunity. There's still a good opportunity to stay and make a good future.

Correct me if I'm wrong, that sort of Northwest pocket, just because naturally it was a well-designed city. Great show on Netflix actually around Melbourne when they knocked down all the beautiful buildings. That was a very amazing show to watch actually.

But what you find when you are close to the city, you find there's a lot of beautiful housing. Like when you sort of are doing okay financially and you're sort of growing your career in Melbourne, there's an attachment.

you know, desire for that beautiful street frontage, that quintessential heritage features, the double frontage or even the cottage. And there's still a bit of that in that sort of inner Northwest, just because it's so close to the city.

And while that has been obviously a lot renovated in the Albert parks and the middle parks and the other parts of Melbourne where they are as well, that is a super desirable, you know, aspiring type of type of property that a lot of the wealth or younger couples really want.

Yeah, and they're ones that have still got some value added where they haven't been renovated. They're held well structurally, not all, some have had structural issues. So that part of the due diligence and the broader theme that helps us.

But yeah, you've got your, you know, from your Victorian period through to Art Deco. There's some of my favorite styles and they, you know, if they've got good airflow, good natural light, all of that, they can be improved and modified to meet sort of modern advanced technology in the home and updated.

And then you still got your post-war homes right through to the 1980s, 1990s that were still well constructed. Great to refurbish, you know, solid, robust places and a little bit of land

where you can look at, regardless if your owner occupies or investors, there's small dwelling planning laws now that are very flexible in Victoria, where you can add extra small dwellings straight with a building permit, you know, fast track, you know, within six months, you could have it all building permits approved and constructed, you know, added some value, expand multi-generational families living together, people sharing, lots of ways to add value and extend buildings cheaply once you've got the capital.

Yeah, I think you're right there. Melburnie has just naturally got a bit of style. I think they get it. And, you know, they don't just sort of tear down buildings. They sort of try to work with what they've got, I would guess. I mean, there's definitely danger pockets.

You've probably seen a little bit gung-ho. We've sort of slip-slopped, you know, townhouses up and there's pockets where, you know, maybe the cookie cutter stuff has been built. But, you know, it hasn't really gone a lot probably in that northwest pocket, you know, from what I've seen. It's such a desirable part.

I mean, obviously you've been around for a long time. The agents who don't turn over that often, right? The top dogs of running agencies like your dad, for example. They don't give up. They've worked so hard to get there. They don't want to lose.

Just I mean, growing up and probably being a boy going to these agencies, does it give you a real strong advantage when you're trying to cut to the chase with these agents? How important are their relationships with you?

Yeah. And I'd say that's been a benefit. Being raised in the industry, I grew up with a lot of the agents when I was in sales that they've been sales agents for 20 or 30 years.

And so that relationships help where they know they've got a very clear line where they're representing their client and I'm representing the buyer. So we just get to the nuts and bolts of the value and the negotiation. So there's an advantage there where we've got long-term relationships, especially Northern and Western suburbs with

understanding their perspective and their vendor's perspective, that helps as well. So that's from some past career. And I find that the great ones in sales, they make that very clear to buyers as well.

They'll help serve, give customer service to buyers, but they make it very clear who they're representing and it's their job to get the best price for the seller.

obviously the relationship with the agent, but there's the other side of the coin, right? It's your relationship with the client. And I do feel like it's something that can be quite a challenge because I find with clients is that in any industry, when you're engaging a professional, there's always a leap of faith.

You're trusting someone. And often when it's a large fee, it's a bit different in broking because they're like, we're not paying a fee, we get paid by the banks. And so that takes that you know, conflict off the table.

But do you find that as you've got more and more experience and as you've got older and sort of managing sort of that client relationship, just the way that you go about things and even you can present to yourself like you get a much better result with your clients just because you can be that real good sounding board for them?

Yeah, it does. It comes with experience and setting expectations and explaining our role and our value points as well. So it's not just finding the great homes and negotiation.

It's about the value add and the due diligence that we provide and helping them reshape their mindset for their future planning and value add for the property itself. So There's that education and experience that comes with 20 plus years or 25 years in the industry.

And I probably take the information that I share for granted or what I understand as second nature. The clients really appreciate when we're helping them navigate through all the noise in the market and then the faults in what they're not seeing as well with property or location or land value opportunity as well.

Sometimes you get clients who are falling in love with properties, right? And I've got a lot of empathy for clients going through the buying process. I have gone through it multiple times and I go in there with all the right intentions, even engaging buyer's agents every time.

And yeah, the emotions just kick off and it's highly, you know, you think you're acting rationally, but you're not.

Now, how do you sort of try to stop clients, the mistakes you see where you can just see the heart of the head is disconnected, not through their fault, and you go, hang on a sec, we're not going to buy on this because it's a main road or it's got really bad aspect or the privacy problems.

What are the things that you think are really important that often sometimes the clients don't put enough value on?

Yeah. So I think you're right. It's heightened intensity of emotions and that's where you can get into over analysis on the, you know, getting in the weeds of things. You miss out on opportunity and we don't want people to act on the fear of missing out. That's, that's, that's where we're there.

We can call the jets sometimes buying the wrong asset or they can over compromise thinking that they're going to miss out. And sometimes overanalyze and miss out on a good opportunity.

So we're there, I guess, if we use an analogy of chasing the right rabbit, we know which one to target when we come into the right location and property.

Over the last 25 years, seeing a certain opportunity only come up a handful of times, then we know we can put a bit of emphasis on how fast we need to act.

That's our benefit is that we can create the due diligence faster based on experience and explain things thoroughly to them of what they're missing. and not getting into issues over small technical aspects of maybe special conditions that a probability is not a high risk.

You don't want to miss the right asset for those type of issues. Or if the great assets come up very quickly, you know, in week one or two, rather than after one or three months of searching, it's a very normal process for a buyer.

If you're only looking at a property every seven to 10 years, sometimes the first two or three properties might be the great ones that come up, but they want to see more because it's only two or three that they've been presented. It's our job to explain, okay, well, this is the process.

We went through the data over the last few decades, our experience over the last few decades of when we've seen this opportunity work and it will work for you in the future and why. And then also the three or 400 properties we may have eliminated

to get to these top three or four recommendations. So it's about building their confidence and education quickly based on our experience. We understand totally the perspective and fear that people go through when it's just starting to search to buy or even sell.

Sellers find the same thorns and risks that sales agents need to work through.

I should go to my sister through selling a property at the moment and, you know, I'll be using a buyer's agent for a vendor. I have a kissy because it's just as emotional selling and challenging. I mean, I do like that line, chasing the right rabbit.

Hells for my bread. Yeah, that one.

For the vegetarians in the room, it's not to eat them, it's just to play with them.

We're vegan, our family.

Yeah, you're just catching, you got to let it go. So it's a really important point, I feel, because it's kind of like that needle in the haystack. Are you really looking for something that's not really achievable? And I find that's a real hard one.

I love it because you're actually looking for the right thing. You're super hyper focused on the right thing and chasing that route because you can burn time, I find, with briefs because you've pursued something that was never really likely achievable.

And then there's opportunities up over here that the one that you should have put your energy into. And you're right, if the right rabbit is in front of you and it's two days into your search, how do you sort of get through that decision making process quite quickly?

Because it can run off really fast and you don't want to let it go if it's the right property and the one that got away. And I've seen that. And then they're trying to recreate this opportunity that's just gone. It's just not happened again.

Yeah. And it's usually realized a few months later.

Yeah. And that's where I think that putting the client fingers to the fire a little bit and saying, right, you've got to buckle up here and actually just go for this. I know it feels scary. I know it feels quick, but this is the one you don't want to go.

And that's where I think the great buyers agents because you know when that one it's flashing red to you, but not so much to them. And so that's one of the things I think about great buyers agents do is they could

really get that deal to happen rather than sit back, let them go through this pain. It's super painful. And I find that resentment can sit with clients because they've got a mortgage, they've got a place. Yeah, it's good.

But they always like envisaging this life at this property that they may have to walk past it. They may see it. They may be like, would have been so much nicer to live there and not being sort of grateful for where they are because they've missed out. Mark, it's a great chat.

You know, I guess anyone listening to this would feel confident working with you and your team and I've really enjoyed today and thanks so much for coming on.

Thanks, Chris. It's been a pleasure and yeah, look forward to it. And yeah, if you need, people need advice, always happy to chat.

Thanks so much for listening today. We hope you got lots of value out of it. If you'd like to speak to our guests 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.