HOME SELLS IN 4 HOURS
A LOT of things can happen in four hours — you can get your car serviced, put together a flatpack. But what about sell a house?
A Geelong West property sold in that time frame last week, when Newfangle agent Colin Smith listed 117 Hope St at 2pm and had it sold by 6pm.
“I had a very persistent caller who insisted they look at it that afternoon,” he said. “I wasn’t sure if I could accommodate them with that. I was fortunate to get them through at 6pm and they bought it on the spot.”
The renovated three-bedroom weatherboard house sold for the top end of its advertised price bracket at $565,000, $40,000 above the suburb’s median price, according to CoreLogic data.
The buyers were a young couple that already live in Gee- long West but were looking to get out of the rental market and into their first home.
“They realised if they wanted to buy it and beat everyone else to the punch they would have to pay full price and not have any conditions associated with their offer. It was signed up for the next day,” Mr Smith said.
The property will settle before the end of March, which is fast in terms of settlement times.
The vendor requested a private sale campaign rather than an auction.
“Every property has to be assessed on its merits. There’s no doubts in some cases if you have a nice property in Geelong West, where demand exceeds supply, I would recommend an auction,” Mr Smith said.
“You’d do the same in Newtown, various parts of Highton and Belmont, but at the same time the vendor has to be com- fortable with the method sale.
“The price was at the top end of being realistic but we didn’t overcook it — we came to the decision that was what the property was worth.”
The Geelong West market continues to go from strength to strength, with a 9.9 per cent increase in median sales price up to $527,500 in the past year, 135 properties sold, spending on average of 47 days on market, which is on par for the region.