Oceanfront in Newport plus other mutterings

OK first of all, if one more of you sends me or links me to 'Avalon Now', things are going to get ugly. Yes fine, I'm not afraid of a striped shirt, I'll admit that but I do not drive a Range Rover and I bloody hate kale.

In other news, I finally decided to do something about moving. Not super keen to move but while the market's like it is (gross house down the road from me fetched mega $$ a few weeks ago) plus gross ex again failing to respect even basic boundaries, it seemed like a good time. Found a great place, agent advised that while it was hard to put a value on it, he felt it was worth [a price within my range] so I decided to use it as a benchmark. I didn't have enough time to sell my own house therefore couldn't really get serious about this place but I decided that, if it sold for a price within my range, I would bite the bullet and sell. But the Sydney market is bonkers so of course this place ended up going for a full 250K more than the absolute top end of my budget. So the Sydney market is still completely stupid.

I would also like to give the agent, James Bennett of Belle Property Lane Cove (details at this link), a big high five for being such a class act. My regular readers know how I feel about agents and that I don't cut them much slack (having been one myself) but James is well worthy of the praise. I also know the transaction proved challenging for him but he managed to get it over the line and in such a way that everyone was happy, even the neighbours. When it came time for me to sell my last place, I chose an agent I'd actually never met before. I chose her (Gayle Walker, Gayle Walker Real Estate, Mosman) because she was so bloody decent compared to all the other agents I had to deal with when first buying in Mosman. Agents seem to forget that, whenever they're interacting with buyers and sellers, they're advertising themselves. If you act like a knob people are going to remember that and there's no way they're going to want to list with you or have anything to do with you and they're going to tell their friends. This is something Mr Bennett does seem to understand so more power to him. The rest of you should read this entry about how to be a decent agent and not a complete douche. 

I am prompted to remind my readers how real estate sales in NSW work. The agent is contracted to the vendor. While the agent must act within the confines of state legislation, that doesn't mean it's their job to get the vendor to do what the potential buyer wants them to do. You have ZERO claim over anything until the contracts are exchanged unconditionally. If the agent has an offer and another person makes an increased buyer, the agent is well within their rights to go back and forth between buyers until such a time as someone's offer is accepted and contracts are exchanged. Offer and acceptance alone do not equate to a sale. My advice to any buyer is that, if you have offer and acceptance, you hurry your arse up to your solicitor's office and exchange those contracts. Obviously the agent can't be showing the place or fielding offers during the cooling off period before the contract goes unconditional but until those contracts are exchanged, all bets are off. Time and time again I have seen buyers get all butthurt that the agent dared talk to another buyer prior to contracts being exchanged. Of course the same people would expect exactly that from their agent if they were the vendor. Don't be wasting your time and tax payer money by running to Fair Trade for a whinge if you miss out on a property because someone else has exchanged first. I fully understand how difficult buying a property is but these are the boundaries within which everyone is operating. If you don't want to deal with that, stay out of the market, no one needs your crap.

89 Myola Road, Newport NSW 

This property, like most on this blog, is a big bloody deal. It's like something out of Architectural Digest and it's right on the oceanfront and it's just fabulous. I love the breezeways and use of shutters and big windows. More info here.