🤝 One serious buyer is still a deal

GOOD MORNING FROM ELITE AGENT 👋

TODAY'S FEATURE

When one buyer replaces a room full of them

For years, an auction room full of competing buyers did the negotiating for you. Now, with often just one or two serious buyers on a property, that heavy lifting has stopped. Belle Academy's Scott Dolce says the fundamentals never disappeared – they just weren't being tested. What separates agents now comes down to a handful of specific habits most campaigns have let slip.

What you'll learn in the full article:

• The buyer life cycle: Scott's three-stage progression from bargain hunter to "premium buyer" – and why writing off a low first offer too early costs you the deal later.
• The levers list: the five things beyond price you can actually negotiate when the number won't move, and how to surface them before the deal stalls.
• The over-communication myth: the one line Scott says he's never heard a client say, and what it means for how often you should be calling with nothing to report.

Read the full article →

TOGETHER WITH REELVIEW

Your vendor wants video. Now you can say yes.

Every agent knows the moment: the vendor has seen a neighbour's walkthrough video and asks, "Can we have one of those?"

On a $3,000 to $8,000 campaign, a studio video can eat up to a fifth of the budget, so it's usually the first thing cut.

ReelView takes the photos you've already shot and paid for, works out which room is which, and builds a walkthrough in the order a buyer would move through the house.

Planning one is free, it only costs $249 if you render it, and Elite Agent readers get their first walkthrough for $99 with code ELITEAGENT99 until Saturday 10 October. Plan a walkthrough on your next listing and see what comes back.

Learn more →

DEPT OF ECONOMICS

Brisbane now falling faster than Sydney

Six months of falls, and Brisbane just took the wooden spoon – down 1.5% in September, edging past Sydney's 1.4% drop. National values are 5.2% below March's peak, with 97% of capital city suburbs down over the quarter. Cotality Research Director, Tim Lawless, flags rate rises and tighter borrowing capacity as the next headwind.

DEPT OF DATA

Domain maps six buyer personalities by capital city

Sydney buyers want a pool first, then a study or granny flat for rental income – Domain's new search data shows every capital has its own buyer type. Perth was the only capital where every region saw more listings, while Kogarah-Rockdale listings fell 23.9% as some Sydney and Melbourne sellers hold back.

Domain National Property Editor, Alice Stolz, says the common thread is flexibility – buyers everywhere want homes that adapt to their lifestyle.

DEPT OF MARKETING

The seller in the middle of the swarm

If you feel like you've been chased around by multiple ads for the same thing on Facebook, you are not dreaming it. The moment a seller shows interest in real estate, their feed fills with agents. So how do you stand out in a sea of ads? Samantha McLean has a few ideas.

PS. Transform starts today at 11am Brisbane time, so if you're coming, you'd better get your skates on. Thirty days of putting AI to work in your own business, with four live sessions with Sam. Book your place →

HOW IT SOLD

From 45 silent days to eight offers

A Landsborough home sat unsold for 45 days before Steve Goodson took over with a fresh plan – fence repairs, staging, and multiple weekly opens. The second weekend alone brought ten inspections and eight offers, with a young local couple securing the three-bedroom property as their first home to live in.

Find out the story behind how it sold →

Is your name invisible to AI? Start getting published. getailsa.com →

MOVERS & SHAKERS

Harcourts Local golf day raises $20,000 for Queensland charities

Mental health and youth housing just picked up a $20,000 boost, thanks to Harcourts Local's second annual golf day. Business owner Jacqui Bartholomeusz saw 132 players and 148 attendees turn out for the Harcourts Local Cup, with proceeds split evenly between the Mental Awareness Foundation and The Lady Musgrave Trust – and one golfer from last year's event so moved by the cause they've since pledged a further $100,000 over two years.

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AGENTS ON SOCIAL

Seen an Agent On Social we should include? Let us know here

TRUE OR FALSE:

In the 1820s a Scottish soldier sold hundreds of British buyers land in a Central American country he had entirely invented – right down to printing its banknotes.

And the answer is …

Yes, true – and it's wonderfully audacious. Gregor MacGregor styled himself Cazique of Poyais, pitched it to buyers in London, Edinburgh and Glasgow, and issued handsome land certificates for a place that was jungle. Buyers swapped real pounds for Poyais dollars, MacGregor had printed himself. He was still selling plots fifteen years later. Off-the-plan, taken to its logical extreme. via Undiscovered Scotland.