PHOTO: Ms Higgins knew she wanted to stay in the Richmond area when buying her home. (Supplied: Katie Higgins)
Sick of being outbid at auctions and competing with crowds of other people for a home in her dream suburb, Katie Higgins turned to Facebook.
Key points:
- Ms Higgins says she was contacted by tens of people after asking whether anyone in the area was selling
- It’s hard to track the number of sales without agents, but one housing expert says it’s not surprising people would turn to social media out of “desperation”
- The real estate peak body warns there could be risks for buyers and sellers who bypass real estate agents
“Thought I would put this message out in the internet world for anyone looking to sell fairly soon and would be keen on private negotiations (avoiding sale preparations costs and hefty agent fees),” she wrote in a local community group.
The startup lawyer has lived in the Richmond area for years and works in the neighbouring suburb of Cremorne in Melbourne’s inner east.
She and her partner Vin, who works in property himself, wanted to buy in the area. But despite being told they might have more luck after Melbourne’s lockdowns, the opposite was true.
“And we were going to inspections where there were hundreds of people queued down the street, and it was really overwhelming.
“And it was also really disheartening to go through that process.”
So she turned to her local community Facebook group, where she knew “it was a really good way to target a large group of people really simply and easily”.
“Also looking to keep things completely above board so happy to work with your agents / lawyers,” she wrote in the post.
She said she had more than 40 people contact her directly, including “a lot of people saying how great the idea was”.
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