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GOOD MORNING FROM ELITE AGENT 👋 TRUE OR FALSE? In Victoria, it is technically illegal for anyone other than a licensed electrician to change a light bulb. (Scroll to the bottom for the answer!) |
In today's edition of The Brief - A piano, a pool table and a six-month leaseback have all closed deals lately – Matt Lahood on why price is the laziest lever you've got.
- Eight buyers, 37 offers, 12 days: how Jason Barnett turned a move-in-ready Whittington brick veneer into a first-home buyer bidding frenzy.
- Over in San Francisco, 140-plus homes just sold US$1 million over asking – blame the AI money, and yes, one economist calls it 'bananas'.
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TODAY'S FEATURE  Price isn't the only lever left in negotiationA piano, a pool table and a six-month leaseback have all closed deals recently – and none of them involved lowering the price. Matt Lahood says the agents still winning listings in this market have stopped treating price as the only tool, using time, inclusions and settlement structure to close a gap that discounts alone can't fix. He's blunt about what happens to agents who haven't worked out the difference. |
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What you'll learn in the full article: - The piano play: why throwing in a piano, a pool table or an old fridge can shift a deal quicker than a price cut.
- The leaseback pitch: the six-month stay-and-settle structure Matt has used to close deals worth $100,000 or more.
- The unborn buyer line: the blunt reality check Matt gives vendors convinced their property is worth more than any offer on the table.
Read the full article → |
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TOGETHER WITH ELITE AGENT A signboard works because it stands where everyone passes. These days, that's search. Your next vendor is googling you the night before the appraisal. ChatGPT can only recommend agents it can read about. Ailsa turns your latest sale into a published story on Elite Agent. You talk for five minutes. Journalists polish it. Live in seven days or it's free. $97. Google gets exactly what it wants – and you didn't write a thing. And unlike the board out the front, this one never comes down. Start building authority → |
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DEPT OF FINANCE  Offshore landlords claim $473m in write-offsNon-resident landlords have claimed $175 billion in Australian tax write-offs over the past decade, untouched by the budget's negative gearing crackdown. In one year alone, 34,000 offshore owners banked $473 million in rental losses – nearly four times the number of Australian rentvestors doing the same. The Tax Institute's John Storey says the pain lands hardest on young professionals, not the wealthy. |
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DEPT OF DATA  Employer groups warn Victoria's WFH bill risks jobsAlmost half of Victorian businesses say they're now more likely to invest or hire interstate if the government's work-from-home bill passes unchanged. Employer groups are pushing a two-day cap on the right and a delayed 2027 start, warning it could also make agencies less likely to take on juniors needing hands-on training. Sally Curtain says the detail is where the bill falls apart. |
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DEPT OF TECHNOLOGY  San Francisco homes sell $1M over asking on AI wealthMore than 140 San Francisco homes sold at least US$1 million over asking in the first half of 2026, up from just eight a year earlier. Compass's chief economist Mike Simonsen calls it "absolutely BANANAS", pointing straight at AI hiring and looming mega IPOs from OpenAI and Anthropic. Homes now sell in 18 days, the fastest pace in five years. |
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HOW IT SOLD  37 offers on a Whittington home in 12 daysEight buyers, one deadline, 37 offers. Jason Barnett used a transparent ranking platform to show competition without revealing exact figures, drawing on a nearby sale to earn vendor trust. First-home buyers won out, drawn by a move-in-ready brick veneer needing no renovation. Find out the story behind how it sold → Agents across Australia and New Zealand are turning sales into stories. getailsa.com → |
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MOVERS & SHAKERS  Tony Sesto appointed CEO of Buxton Real EstateBuxton Real Estate has a new chief executive with a background spanning BMW, Honda and Marshall White – Tony Sesto takes the top job after more than 20 years shaping customer experience across those brands. He says conversations with Mark Earle, Holly Longmuir and Buxton's Board convinced him the group's 165 years of community trust were worth building on.  From marine biology to real estate success through community serviceRachel Lawrie moved from marine biology to real estate, and her auction clearance rate now sits at 87 per cent this year, almost double Adelaide's state average, built on referral business rather than cold calls. In November 2024 she launched Stadium Real Estate, taking a client base that reached 100 per cent referral by year three into her own agency, now run alongside her daughters. |
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AGENTS ON SOCIAL "And the craziest part? They actually pay me thousands of dollars to do it." 🤫💼 Seen an Agent On Social we should include? Let us know here |
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TRUE OR FALSE: In Victoria, it is technically illegal for anyone other than a licensed electrician to change a light bulb. And the answer is … It’s False! This is one of Australia’s most persistent pub-trivia myths. Victoria does crack down hard on DIY electrical work (step away from that power point, Sparky), but swapping a blown globe for a new one has always been fine. So how many property managers does it take to change a light bulb? None – your tenants are legally allowed to screw that one up all by themselves. via energymakeovers.com.au. |
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