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Yes We Are Heartbroken, This Is Garbage

A report from the Sunday Telegraph in Australia. “Chris and Brad Kerr say they’re ‘heartbroken’ after the Californian bungalow in their family for 93 years passed in for what seemed a ridiculously low price. Just two bidders competed for the three-bedroom home and agents couldn’t get them to offer even $1000 more than the vendor bid of $1.7 million. After the gavel fell, Karen Davis, of Standen Estate Agents, said: ‘Last year our vendors might have got $2.4 million for this but now we’re having to ask them to consider $800,000 less than that.'”

“Banks’ tighter lending rules mean buyers have less money to play with. At today’s auction, before the vendor bid, the highest real bid had been $1.65 million. And extracting bids throughout really was like pulling hen’s teeth. It didn’t seem to make a scrap of difference when auctioneer Ben Mitchell reminded buyers that the last sale in the street had been $2,228,000 — that was then, and this was now.”

“‘Yes we are heartbroken,’ Mr Kerr said. ‘We expected to get something more reasonable than this. This is garbage.'”

From News.com.au. “When the Gatwick Hotel went under the hammer last weekend, plenty of eyebrows were raised over the properties’ underwhelming results. In fact, both of The Block 2018’s penthouses ended up selling for significantly less than predicted, with both falling short of the $3 million mark.”

“Property expert Wendy Chamberlain from Melbourne’s Chamberlain Property Advocates said the banks had tightened up lending as a result of the royal commission, which had resulted in fewer buyers — and lower prices.”

“‘It’s absolutely had a flow on effect on prices because if people can’t get enough money for a house there will be more houses available for sale with not as many people around to actually buy them,’ she said. ‘If you haven’t got as many buyers you have to bring your price back to a level to meet the buyers who are around.'”

The Newcastle Herald. “Latest property figures show house and unit prices fell more sharply across Newcastle than in Sydney and Melbourne last month. Newcastle real estate agent Scott Walkom said buyer confidence had started to weaken and buyers were finding it harder to gain finance approval.”

“‘It’s definitely not as heated. A lot less inquiry. I don’t think there’s any fear of missing out at the moment,’ he said. ‘Prices are falling because buyers are uncertain and there’s a lot of media about prices coming down. The vendors that aren’t adjusting [prices], it’s harder to get the buyers at that level that they were even three months ago.'”

“‘At the bottom end, first home buyer level, prices are still holding up,’ he said. ‘The middle is sort of OK, but the top end is a lot weaker because, I suppose, 10 per cent off is a couple of hundred grand, which is a fair bit.'”

The Australian Financial Review. “Australia has a problem with income growth. There is none. Real wage growth was at zero in the June quarter. UBS economist Carlos Cacho says there is a simple rule of thumb when it comes to falling house prices and stagnant wages, and it does not bode well for the economy.”

“Michelle Joynton-Smith, who sold her four bedroom house in Castle Hill last week – where home values have fallen 10.8 per cent in the last year, much more than the Sydney average of 7.4 per cent – says she is now reducing her spend. ‘You have to revert to thinking twice before buying something you don’t need,’ she says.”

“And even with the run-up in prices over the last decade she says that after the sale of the house, ‘I won’t have a lot of surplus money so I won’t be able to help my kids out and I will have to work another three or four years before I can retire.'”

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This Post Has 37 Comments

    1. ‘Yes we are heartbroken,’ Mr Kerr said. ‘We expected to get something more reasonable than this. This is garbage.’

      It’s too bad that, after this pathetic utterance, the transaction wasn’t canceled and the house put back on the market with no more offers. Greedheads like this pig deserve nothing.

      1. I highly doubt his family took a financial hit after having it for 93 years. So much greed and entitlement in Kerr’s statement. Makes one only hope the worst for him and I’m really not like that but this is just another example of a greedhead. Hope he invests his profit in a market where he loses even more!

    4. From the article: “It’s not just the money, it’s the emotional attachment.
      “My grandparents bought the house, dad was born here, my great grandfather even lived here … four generations of the Foster family!”
      They estimated her grandparents had bought it for about 5000 pounds.

      Someone remind me why this greedhead’s emotional attachment to his familial shack should add a single penny to the price tag.

      No surprise that the “winning” bidder was Chinese. I can foresee some stamping of little feet in her not-so-distant future.

      1. “The couple are hoping further offers are forthcoming in coming days.”

        I don’t think she’s “won” it yet.

        The other part I didn’t understand was, “After the gavel fell, the agents managed to get the bidder up to $1.67 million, but it was still a way off the $1.75 million reserve.”

        Wasn’t she the only bidder? Why on earth would you allow them to bid you up against yourself?

        1. Thats what a reserve auction is, like on ebay, you can bid $199 but if the reserve is $200 its not sold. Now the owner may offer it to you at $199 after the auction closes, but you are under no obligation to buy it.

  3. Hard to post with my eyes so misty with vicarious grief, but it seems to me that what’s really garbage is that a 93-year-old bungalow could ever fetch $1.65 million.

  4. “‘It’s absolutely had a flow on effect on prices because if people can’t get enough money for a house there will be more houses available for sale with not as many people around to actually buy them,’ she said. ‘If you haven’t got as many buyers you have to bring your price back to a level to meet the buyers who are around.’”

    Gosh, Wendy, your ability to break down such complex economic fundamentals for us hayseeds surely warrants the big bucks you are paid.

  5. I don’t think there’s any fear of missing out at the moment,’ he said.

    Understatement of the year, delivered without a trace of irony.

  6. ‘I won’t have a lot of surplus money so I won’t be able to help my kids out and I will have to work another three or four years before I can retire.’”

    Funny, as a renter I have a surplus of money, and I’m able to help my kids out for college, and I’m looking at retiring on time, maybe even a bit earlier. It’s like a FB version of that movie Sliding Doors. What would happen if you never signed all those papers?

  7. Then what are Transgenders made of?

    From Wikipedia,

    What are little boys made of?
    Snips and snails
    And puppy-dogs’ tails
    That’s what little boys are made of

    What are little girls made of?
    Sugar and spice
    And everything nice [or “all things nice”]
    That’s what little girls are made of

    The rhyme appears in many variant forms. For example, other versions may describe boys as being made of “snaps”, “frogs”,[2][3] “snakes”,[4] or “slugs”,[5] rather than “snips” as above.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/What_Are_Little_Boys_Made_Of%3F

  8. Post of the month already and it’s only Nov 4th. Awesome. This one has it all!

    -“ridiculously low price… $1.7 million”
    Should these ever belong in the same sentence?

    -“Banks’ tighter lending rules mean buyers have less money to ‘play with”
    Sounds like it was all just Monopoly money after all.

    -“banks had tightened up lending… which had resulted in fewer buyers — and lower prices”
    Wait, more loans and looser standards were supposed to make housing more affordable. Guess it didn’t work out like that.

    -“even with the run-up in prices… ‘I won’t have a lot of surplus money”
    So…. bubbles make you poor then they pop?

    1. Now if it had 10 bedrooms an Olympic size heated pool, was in westchester or fairfield county and walking distance to the Metro North train to NYC, then 1.7 mill would be ridiculously low

    1. Holy crap. Those comments were priceless. No love on Reddit for greedhead Boomers and their galactic sense of entitlement.

  11. So I often click on the ads on this website thinking maybe it benefits the blog by adding funds through advertising traffic (not sure if it does) anyway this one popped up and I find it interesting as it validates the topic of this blog

    https://www.prusa.com/auctions/the-blackstone-ranch/?gclid=EAIaIQobChMI–mi4di73gIVQedkCh3F8wQYEAEYASAAEgIb9fD_BwE

    Previously $55 Million
    Minimum Bid $19 Million
    December 06
    Cost to Build
    $45 million
    Land
    190 acres
    Year Built
    2004

  13. I don’t have the best command of Australian English, but isn’t “passing in” the same as not selling? It sounds like no one met the vendor bid, or minimum. I’d appreciate an explanation if I’m wrong.

    1. What does it mean when a property is passed in at auction?
      A property is passed in when the bidding at an auction does not reach the vendor’s reserve (the minimum price for which they’re prepared to sell). In most states, if this happens then the first right to negotiate further with the vendor goes to the person who placed the highest bid during the auction.

      What does “passed in” mean? Investment terms explained
      https://www.propertyobserver.com.au/…/advice…/34584-what-does-passed-in-mean-i…

      Aug 18, 2014 – Prospective buyers visiting auctions or looking at the market may have heard the term … to have a property passed in at auction and it can be emotionally charged. … Australia’s population growth 30+ years ahead of schedule.

    2. You are absolutely right. I incorrectly assumed that it sold. It DID NOT SELL!! This warms my heart. The last quote of the article was:

      “…The couple are hoping further offers are forthcoming in coming days. “What’s being offered now is just a bit too cheap,” Mr Kerr said.””

      1. If they wait another month they won’t even be able to get $1.5m… Sell! Sell! Sell!. Sell now or be a bag holder forever!

  14. “Australia has a problem with income growth. There is none. Real wage growth was at zero in the June quarter.”

    They should complain. How about virtually none to negative since 1973?

  16. Retail sales are tumbling in Australia as those clever shack speculators who bought into a “superheated” housing market now discover the joys of the reverse wealth effect.

    What’s left of the Bernanke-Yellen Ponzi markets are going to crater even further when the same “reverse wealth effect” starts taking its toll in San Francisco, Palo Alto, Seattle, Boston, Denver, etc.

    https://www.scmp.com/property/international/article/2171738/australias-property-slump-casts-doubt-household-spending

    1. implode under the weight of their own

      Unsustainable means there will never be a leveling off of a mania. Once it stops growing to the moon it will drop like a rock.

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