Property in the coastal town of Austinmer is SO hot that buying another house before you sell is considered the norm. Judy and Graham Mahoney never dreamed they would have trouble selling their three bedroom weather board cottage, so they went ahead and purchased a new home, BEFORE they sold. After ten months on the market, a failed auction and 80 inspections they have a BIG problem and an even bigger bridging loan. Buyers are turned off by the bad presentation, poor level of maintenance and the lack of a communal bathroom. Despite the feedback, Judy and Graham refuse to budge from their $700,000 asking price. They need the money to renovate their new home, but as each month passes the couple slip further into debt. They have loans on both properties and need to find almost $6,000 each month just to stay afloat!
FORE MORE INFORMATION ON THE CONTRIBUTORS TO AUSTINMER
-
RATE THIS PROJECT
It should have sold for:
MORE | LESS | ABOUT RIGHT
LIST PRICE: $700,000+
MAKE OVER: $14,000
SALE PRICE: $695,000
All prices quoted are correct at time of production.
The Lifestyle Channel's hit show 'Selling Houses Australia' is now looking for vendors to take part in the upcoming 4th series!
WHAT DID YOU THINK OF THE RENOVATION?
RECENT COMMENTS
Teena
Dear Andrew, I don't understand how did you benefitted Judy & Graham....you and the real estate agent actually befooled them by just letting them save $1k. When the house was already selling for $680K then why did they have to spend another 15k for renovation only to sell it for $695K????? They ultimately gained only $1k...despite of all that stress, mental strain & physical torture they underwent for renovation. I would have appreciated your show if you would have made this house sell even higher than $740K (which was the price quoted originally). The realestate agent was really strange,,,after inspecting the renovated home, she said she could only sell it for $685K ???? Inspite of appreciating all the efforts made for renovation, she could just increase the price by 5K !!! One more thing, when the people who came for "house viewing" said that they assume the price to be $695K, she didn't even try to ngotiate with them for another 5K. It's quite obvious that the buyers will tell amount less than what they actually think the cost of house would be, in order to leave some scope for negotiation. I would never ever hire such a non-professional agent & persons like Andrew who would only help me save $1k in lieu fo all the agony & stress taken for renovation...which was far more worth than $1k. I need a reply to this post justyfying what you did was correct.
Craig Rupert
Just watched this one today (16 Jun 2010) and I somehow agree with anonymous. The agent was a bit strange. Another thing I couldn't get my head around is the what everybody was thinking when they had an offer for 680 and chose to renevate for 14k and then expecting the seller to settle for 685 (!). The math doesn't add up. Indeed they did sell it for 695 in the end, bringing the difference to 1k up (680 14 = 694). All that work and missed other income opportunities for a tiny 1k different. On top of that - I can't understand what these people are thinking, when they have a massive bridging loan costing almost 6k a month the math is easy. You know that every month you don't sell you're loosing 6k for nothing. So after half a year that equals 36k. Sell it fast - put the price down from the beginning. They would have been better off selling at 680 much earlier. Love the show, love lifestyle property boom, probably the best on TV right now.
lifestyle change
Fantastic job and is now worth the selling price. Some sellers just have no idea of the value of their home and the visit to the other house should have made any realistic person realise their house was overpriced.They should have taken the offer they got 10 months ago. Long gone are the days when buyers walked in with an open cheque book and paid over the market value. Greed is NOT good
