We bought her home, sold her investment, then found her next one — Hawthorn East
We met Sarah across the negotiating table. She then asked us to sell her investment and find her next home, secured in Hawthorn East before it was listed.
The brief
We did not meet Sarah as a client. We met her across the table.
We were acting for a buyer who wanted to stay in Malvern East. Sarah's home suited them. It had been on the market for some time without selling, and the price was the reason.
That put us in an unusual position. We could have said nothing and waited for the price to come down on its own.
Our approach
Instead we sat down with Sarah and gave her a straight second opinion. Her home was not priced a little high. It was positioned in the wrong part of the market, and every week it sat there made it harder to sell. We walked her through the comparable sales and showed her what buyers were actually seeing.
That conversation helped her agent as much as it helped our client. Sarah listened and adjusted her price, and our client bought the home.
Afterwards, Sarah called us. She had an investment property to sell and wanted us to handle it, so we did.
Then she asked us to find her next home, in Hawthorn East.
We searched both on-market and off-market. The right property reached us before it was listed. It was original — largely untouched and in need of work. Most buyers treat that as a problem. We saw it as the whole point. An original home meant Sarah could buy at a fair price and still have money left to renovate.
The outcome
Sarah secured the Hawthorn East home before it reached the market. We stayed on through the renovation, advising as the work progressed.
The finished home is worth roughly $300,000 more than the purchase price and the building costs combined. The renovation did not just pay for itself. It added real value on top.
The part we are proudest of is how it started. Sarah first knew us as the advocate on the other side of her own sale. She went on to hire us twice.
Selling one home and buying the next?
Most people treat those as two separate jobs. Handled together, the sale price, the purchase price, and the money left over for renovation all pull on each other. A free conversation with Toby is where it starts.
