One of the most successful agents in the Ray White Group, Ashley Weston who owns Ray White Frankston in Melbourne, just sold his family home after 72 hours online to a buyer sight unseen.
The business owner loaded his home at 247 Heatherhill Rd, Frankston online at 8am on Thursday September 13 – just three hours later he received an offer at 11am from the eventual buyer.
He said that in his 15 years in real estate, he’s never seen so much buyer demand.
“There’s never been a better time to sell your house. I am proof of that. By Saturday 15th – just two days after listing – I had nine buyers lined up to do a walk around virtual inspection via Zoom and after that we got two more written offers,” Mr Weston said.
“None of the offers we received had physical inspections as a conditional clause either.”
By Sunday the 16th he followed up with three more people who wanted to have a virtual walk through.
“Later that day we had agreed to sell for $780,000 with a 40 day settlement – which is the new street record – and we went unconditional last Thursday. A successful sale within three days and unconditional contract within seven days – all sight unseen.”
Mr Weston said it was a very easy and logical decision to sell now in the middle of the lockdown as buyer demand far outstrips supply.
“There’s an extreme lack of property on the market. There’s 170 property listings in Frankston today – the lowest number I have ever seen in my 15 years of real estate. In fact that’s half the listings on the market than normal. Just knowing how many houses my team has ready to go and by looking at our competitors I think there’s more than 200 new listings ready to come to the market as restrictions continue to ease,” he said.
“My wife Bec and I could have waited until November or December but I know buyers will have a lot more choice then.
“We simply had nothing to lose by selling now. It makes sense to go now when supply is low.”
The Westons committed to buying their next home in Frankston South just on the eve of the second lockdown. “As a business owner I know that our business received 2,153 email inquiries in the month of July and August – just from realestate.com.au alone – and that is double what we normally receive,” Mr Weston said.
The auction agent actually opted for a private sale with a buyer’s guide of $720,000 to $790,000 and sold for $780,000 to a family from Patterson Lakes who had sold and needed to buy.
“They fell in love with the house immediately and made an offer just three hours after the listing went live. To make it easy for any buyers I had already organised a building and pest inspection and did the 360 virtual tour. It’s a great family home and the new buyer even told me that she said that when Stage 4 was announced that there was no way she was going to buy sight unseen. But she said they felt compelled to make an offer.”
Mr Weston, along with wife Bec and toddler son Parker, age 2, are all looking forward to their move to Frankston South. The Westons had just moved in with mum Vivienne Weston and step dad John Condon in readiness of selling their home.
“No-one planned the lockdown but in many ways it had been a blessing as we got to spend some quality time with our family – so it’s been great in many ways.”
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