Login
iscover
A Sydney agent has turned a chance encounter three years ago into a double listing that involved selling neighbouring properties on the same day.
Alex Pitsis from Greg Gilbert Real Estate said the vendors were three siblings he met three years ago, who initially asked him to rent out their properties after they discovered he was a real estate agent.
The siblings then called him in when they decided to sell the two adjacent houses in Caringbah South – and finished with $310,000 more than estimated before the campaigns started.
Mr Pitsis told REB that the dearer home sold for $1.61 million compared to an estimate of $1.5 million, while the other home sold for $1.3 million compared to $1.1 million.
Mr Pitsis said that even though he met the siblings in a social context, he made a point of acting in his normal professional manner, which they found impressive.
“I ended up leasing the properties for them for a couple of years and then time came to sell,” he added.
Mr Pitsis said the key to getting such a good result with the two listings was “knowing every blade of grass” when it came time for auction day.
“It’s so crucial and I think that was a really big part of how I got those results,” he said.
“It was almost like I was selling my own property because I knew it like the back of my hand.”
Mr Pitsis said the best way to sell two neighbouring properties is to research the value of each, both as a separate listing and as a combined lot.
“Technically it was quite tricky to sell because right now it’s one block,” he said.
“The owners had an old DA approval back in 1991 that was to split them into two lots … Financially, I researched enough and had a good understanding that they would make quite a huge difference if they continued on that DA.”
Mr Pitsis said one advantage of selling two adjacent properties is that it leads to double the exposure and more word-of-mouth talk among neighbours.
“Then obviously there’s the opportunity to look at completely different buyer groups as well – the lower-priced to the mid-priced to someone who might want to buy both,” he said.
[Related: Agent dominates street with sale after sale]
