Mornington Peninsula houses sold without being seen by agents or buyers
Eager buyers are snapping up houses across the region without ever setting foot inside. And in some cases, even the agents selling the property have not seen it “in the flesh”.
South East
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Demand for a Mornington Peninsula postcode is so high among locked down Melburnians that agents are now listing and selling properties they have never inspected.
In the past month Nicholas Lynch Real Estate has sold 11 houses to buyers that had only viewed them online.
Among them were three properties now under contract that the agents had also never set foot inside.
Warlimont and Nutt Real Estate has sold three properties to buyers who had only seen them online.
Nicholas Lynch Real Estate managing director Nicholas Lynch said technology was allowing agents to list, market and sell properties without viewing them or meeting vendors and buyers “in the flesh”.
Mr Lynch said the company had moved to Zoom property inspections where sellers take prospective buyers on a virtual tour of their homes via the conferencing app while agents narrate.
During stage three lockdown the walk troughs were filmed by agents.
But in stage four, vendors had taken over, joining an agent, buyer and Nicholas Lynch’s marketing manager on a four-way Zoom call.
The initiative had helped secure 11 sales including one to a San Francisco-based Aussie expat, who worked for Netflix.
Mr Lynch said the man bought a Mount Eliza property for $200,000 more than the asking prices after watching the video tour more than “50 times”.
Video walk-throughs also helped sell 10 Franklin Place, Mornington, for $1.625m to interstate buyers and 49A Colstan Court, Mount Eliza, for about $1m to “retirees who were nervous about going out” amid the pandemic.
Nicholas Lynch agent Anna Bassett sold a Mount Martha property to a Caulfield buyer in just three days using only an online walk through video.
The Zoom inspection could not be done as the Bentons Rd property was occupied by a tenant.
Ms Bassett said the campaign for the house was launched online as the second lockdown began.
“We had anticipated the inability to do onsite inspections and therefore had organised all of our properties to have walk through videos filmed as though the buyer was attending an open for inspection and walking through the property themselves,” she said.
The buyer was impressed by the video because it was produced ‘in house’ and showed the property in a natural light rather than a professional video that presented glamorised version, Ms Bassett said.
The day after watching the video the buyer made an offer and the contract was signed the following day.
Warlimont and Nutt director Trent Cameron said the business was using similar technology to list and sell properties.
Mr Cameron said demand was high for Mornington Peninsula properties and searches for houses in the region had soared by 56 per cent compared to the same time last year.
The Mount Martha based company had sold three properties to buyers who had not been able to physically inspect them.
He said people were re-evaluating their lifestyles during the coronavirus pandemic and the ability to work from home had made a move to the region more viable.
“The daily commute to the city is no longer necessary for a lot of people which makes the Mornington Peninsula even more attractive,” Mr Cameron said.
Both Mr Cameron and Mr Lynch thought property prices would “do well” in the region after the second lockdown ended.
“The prices aren’t going down. If anything the fact that people are buying properties sight unseen suggests that they want to make the most of existing prices – before they start climbing when we leave lockdown,” Mr Lynch said.
Real Estate Buyers Agents Association president Cate Bakos warned against purchasing a property sight-unseen, saying a home “might look good in the video and photographs, but properties can feel very different in the flesh”.
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