Owner occupiers – $1.2m+ terrace in Glebe – ‘bought in four working days with an indicative 18% capital gain three weeks later’

This retainer began with a call from our male PhD client requiring our urgent assistance to buy a renovated terrace in Glebe which, after months of searching, he and his wife had found for sale by private treaty. The property was advertised with a price guide over $1.2 million and the urgency existed because our clients were soon returning to the City from a posting in western New South Wales.

Once retained as our clients’ Sydney buyers’ agent, our Principal inspected the property privately and ascertained that it would be a worthy acquisition at the right price.

Immediately afterwards, the team at Curtis Associates began fast track due diligence with particular focus on the vendor’s motivation for selling during a relatively quiet time of the year in the Sydney property market.

The other immediate priority was to contain our clients’ enthusiasm for the property in order to restrain them from paying too much for it.

In addition to a thorough analysis of several comparable sales undermining the vendor’s initially bullish price expectations, our due diligence and in field researcher uncovered a variety of adverse affectations and risks of which our clients were unaware including the assault of a neighbour in her garage.

Undeterred but now aware of those and other risks, our clients instructed us to continue with the purchase. An offer on contract with time limited for acceptance eventually saw the property secured for $1.14 million and all in four days (including a Public Holiday) after Curtis Associates was retained.

Applying the hindsight test™*

17 Hereford Street, Glebe with an almost identical floor plan to the property we purchased and on slightly larger land, sold less than a month later for $1.35 million which was 18% higher than the purchase price we agreed.