Subscribe
Share
Share
Embed
The Local Ormeau Property Chat with Brett Reddell
Your home is your biggest asset—make sure you’ve got the right advice.
Join Brett Reddell, Ormeau’s trusted real estate expert, as he shares short, sharp episodes packed with insights to help you make smarter property decisions. Whether you’re thinking of selling, planning ahead, or just want to stay informed—Brett breaks down what’s really happening in the local market and why it matters to you.
Real tips. Local knowledge. Straight from the guy who knows Ormeau best.
Hi, and welcome to the Local Ormeau Property Chat Podcast. I'm Brett Reddell, your trusted local real estate expert for Ormeau and Ormeau Hills. Whether you're buying, selling, or just curious about the market, this podcast is here to give you the insights and advice you need, plus a little community connection along the way.
With a passion for selling family homes to families, I'm here to share practical tips and expert knowledge to help you make confident real estate decisions. Let's get started.
Hello everyone, and welcome back to the Local Ormeau Property Chat Podcast. I'm Adam, and today we're flipping things around a little. Normally, Brett spends his time answering questions from homeowners, but today I thought we'd talk about questions sellers should actually be asking before they decide to go to market.
Because the reality is, selling a home is one of the biggest financial decisions most people will ever make, and asking the right questions early can make the process smoother, less stressful, and often more successful. So today, Brett and Ethan are gonna share the questions they think every seller should be asking before they put that for sale sign up, because there's a lot of things they should be asking, isn't there, guys?
100%.
Excellent. All right. So when you first sit down with someone who's, you know, at the very, at the very start of, of thinking about, you know, putting their home on the market, what's the first question you wish homeowners would ask you?
Uh, what's the market like? Which is the most important thing. Um, it gives them a gauge of what they're going to do.
But on the other side of it, I'd love them to tell me what their journey is and why they're selling, because that's probably more important. Yeah. Because then that ventures down into where the market's at. They go, "Oh, we need to sell because we've got a financial issue. We need to sell because we're gonna travel."
Like, okay, timelines, all that sort of stuff. So it just helps us a bit more.
So it's mapping their, their, their why to the market conditions- Mm ... because that, that changes everything, doesn't it?
Look, if it's a fini- a financial reason and it's a slow market, then they've got to be effective in price. So like I always say to people, if it is a financial reason, tell me.
I'm happy to deal with the people who are harassing you, the banks, the lawyers, all those sort of people. And believe me, the banks and lawyers are okay with it when they're dealing with an agent, and they leave the client alone. Um, because they know that now they've got somebody structured who's there gonna sell the property, and we take on that stress for them, and we deal with them.
We email or talk to them, keep them updated. They're now not getting phone calls going, "Pay me, pay me, pay me." But it also works out at we want to sell it. We want to make sure you cover their debt- And they get something out of it, so it gives us a better price effective.
How important is it to ask about timing?
I mean, is there really a, a perfect time to sell ever?
Oh, I don't know. I wouldn't really say so.
No, any time's the best time to sell ...
it's just whenever you want to, like.
Because it's, in your situation, we talked about in another podcast, didn't we? Like, we talked about when's the best time to sell, when it suits you.
Mm.
When your needs say, "I wanna sell," that's the best time to sell.
Yep. And again, it comes back to why. I mean, most people are gonna be selling to buy again, and we've talked about this a number of times. No matter what market you're in, you're buying and selling in the same market.
You are. Real estate where we always talk about spring, get out there and list, list, list, 'cause that's when it's gonna happen.
Everyone wants to sell their property in spring. What does, what does that mean? You've got more competition.
Mm.
So with more competition, you've got less chance to get the best price. So if you're selling in what you call a cooler market like we are at the moment, being mid-year, um, you've got less competition, but obviously it's a bit reversed at the moment because it's slow, but-
Mm.
Mm. What, what are the questions that, um, sellers should be asking about pricing their home?
Most sellers are pretty well-educated, uh, but they should actually get an idea of what the agent thinks, because we do have access to data, but data doesn't necessarily say you've renovated your house, you've done all this extra stuff.
It's talking about the pricing, the strategy behind the price, and how do you like to do it? Do you like to go contact agent, like one local agent does with everything she does? 'Cause- So now to price it. Lets the buyers tell her the price. Do you wanna go with the price? Offer's over, offer's starting, price by set date.
Um, there's also the auction process, which is very s- very low. Um, but again, auctions are really around a, a business wanting to sell properties quickly and get money every month. They have checks coming in. Ultimately, what, what we used to say, um, it's not about you, it's about their process, not your process.
But there's still a way that you wanna guide and work out what's the best way the agent's gonna do it, and they should be asking, "So what's your plan behind that?" If you're gonna price it, what's your strategy? Mm. Is it we price it here and then we drop it in two weeks as a strategy to get interest? Well,
yeah, what, which pricing model are we going with, first of all, and why?
Yeah. Mm. Well, there's always a, there's always a reason why each one has its own reason to work.
Mm.
But every agent has their own way they like to do it.
What, uh, what questions should people be asking about preparing their home before it goes to, to market?
What do I need to do to make my house stand out and shine?
Mm.
Um- '
Cause it's different for everyone, isn't it? I mean, we can give- Yeah ... the gloss over and give the, the general stuff. Do your garden, d- do your grout, do your... But there'll be specific stuff to each house, won't there? Yeah.
Oh, there, there is. Like, we, we had a lovely couple, just absolutely... Again, aging population in the area, beautiful couple.
They refused to move stuff. Not moving anything, Brett. Remember that?
Mm.
No? And in front of all the windows and doors in the master bedroom were all cabinets. I'm not moving them, I refuse to. It's fine. We- look, the house sold, 'cause it's a beautiful home, but- But explaining to them the reason why we want them to move, negative, positive, wasn't enough for them to want to move it.
So it was this small home, beautiful plantation home, they built an amazing home, um, but cluttered, but very neat and tidy. Perfect, like pin-drop, clean as, could eat off the floor every day. Just incredible. Um, but it was just cluttered, and it was hard. We sold it off market anyway, but if we did go to market, we would've been over there shuffling some furniture into the garage, I'm sure.
What's a question that, um, every seller should really be asking before that goes to market that you very often don't hear asked?
I think it's more around the strategy to do with how the home's gonna be marketed, what's your plans moving forward.
Mm.
Um, look, we do Saturday, Sunday opens. We don't always do Sundays.
We gauge it. Some sellers should ask, and it's difficult 'cause this is a really important question, "Is there a right time to open a home?" And the answer's no. Any time's a good time to open a house 'cause it's based on people coming. But like our area, 'cause we do have a lot of families, um, you've got when soccer's on, there's a, you know, 2,000 people at a soccer field.
Mm.
And it just happens that, you know, the footy's on at the same time and the AFL's on at the same time, so suddenly all the families are out. They don't get time to look at open homes. Doesn't mean it's a bad time, because we could do, like, let's do an open home through the week, but there's training. So it's- No time's the wrong time, no time's the right time.
It's just put it out there, they'll come, they'll come. If they can't make it, they'll call you.
Yep, absolutely. What questions, um, you know, should sellers ask an agent before they decide to work with them?
Should ask the agent why them? What, what do you know? Like you should actually, huh, should actually ask the agent, "What do you know about the area?"
Because that's really important.
Mm.
Um, I'm happy to say this, but we don't sell houses, we sell solutions. So if I took you into a house as an agent, and you want, you want an agent that sells solutions.
Mm.
Because if I took you in a house and I explained this to my client, and I stand here in the kitchen with you and I go, "Oh, wow, look at the kitchen, it's amazing."
And if someone did that to me, I'd go, "I know, I can see it." I'd rather them go, "How many kids do you have? What age group are they? High school, primary school, public, private?" Now we're talking about the stuff I need to fix. 'Cause we see it all the time, hey. Mm. And husbands and wives come in and, and the hubby's, he's out the back, and he's looking at the shed, and he's checking how much lawn he's gotta mow, and what's the pool, what do I need to do with it.
And the wife's inside, and she's looking at the internals. I know that's a bit typecast, but that's what happens. Um, but then suddenly she's panicking, and it's like, so when you ask how many kids you got, start solving the problems. We've sold houses and solving the problems.
You know, most people will be-
What do you do when you're selling a house, Mr.
Agent, Mrs. Agent? What, what, what's your process? Do you, do you just turn up and sit at the bench here like some do and just go, "G'day. Yep, bye." Or other agents stand out the front going, "Do you like it? You gonna make an offer?" Go, go away. No, you want somebody who's in there talking, interactive. I actually explain that process to people and how we sell.
I'm not gonna be that jean salesperson that follows you around the store going, "Oh my God, that's the best pair of jeans you ever got," 'cause you touched them, and then you pick up another pair, "Oh my God, that's amazing. They'll look good on you." We're in there, we introduce the house, then we let them go, we come back and have a chat.
Then we ask our questions, get a process going. Then we talk about solution selling. So that's our process and what we do. It works.
Mm.
And that's what you want your agent to do. You wanna ask them, "What do you know about the local area?" I bet you there's a whole bunch of agents up there now who couldn't even tell you what our area was known for.
Mm. What was it known for?
French origin farming, cattle farming, you know? And then you go down, you got the cane fields, and then you got logging in Beenleigh. Like, there's a lot of things that we're known for. We had gold in the hills, mate. Gold. There's gold there. Bet you people don't even know where they used to pan for gold.
Yep.
But a real agent would, 'cause I actually say that to people, "Oh, did you know when you go here and under this bridge, you go there, it's the old, um, panning area for the gold."
Well, see, this is another thing we talk about in every one of these episodes. You live and breathe this area. You live there. Yep.
You're there 24/7, um, week in, week out, and you have, um, been for, for decades. Yeah. So- Yep ... I mean, you can't-
Things, things care for me in that area. Like, I did a couple of press conferences with the local member, not aligned with the local member, more about traffic and policing issues, things that count to our community.
Mm. I live in the community. I want our community to enjoy our community.
Mm.
So they're really important things. So I was there, and I was a part of that, and I was a part of it for a reason.
Are there any questions that you get regularly that are just, um, that people think they should ask but really have no value whatsoever, where they think it's important, but really it makes no difference?
No, not really.
Um,
people are pretty educated these days. I, I,
it's kind of like what they say in school, like, there isn't really a dumb question.
Yep.
Like, as long as you ... 'Cause you don't know. Like, any question for all, like, for all- Like,
it's dumb if you ask it three times.
Yeah, sure. But like, you know, if, if I was in the position of someone who was selling their home, in all honesty, if it's your first home, you don't know what to do.
Look- You know nothing. So any question's a good question. Yep. You just-
You're learning.
Yeah.
So, so what do we do, I suppose, Ethan, I'm gonna ask you, what do we do different to what other agents do? What, what is something I sit down and say every single time I sit down, do a, do an appraisal?
Geez. Um, well, I mean, you go step by step with absolutely everything.
Like, you don't just-
So I educate.
Yeah.
And I tell people, I'm an educator I, I don't, I would never be a teacher. Sorry, too many children in one room at once. But I educate people because- Mm ... things you don't do, like with photo shoot today, they haven't bought and sold for a long time, and she's like, "Oh my God, I don't know what I'm doing."
It's like, it's okay. But we sat down and we educated her through the whole process. She's got a grasp of it now. Mm. She knows, and if she doesn't know, she picks up the phone and rings me.
Yep. And that's per- that's
exactly what I want. Yep. And I said, "If I can't answer the question, I'll get the answer." But that's my job, is to educate them on the process of how to sell the property, what you're gonna go through, be mindful of emotions, go through the whole thing, the whole lot.
That's, that's our job- Mm ... is to give them the tools they need to get through this.
Well, yeah, it's like what we said in one of the earlier podcasts, like, it's not, our job isn't just walking into a house. Like, there's a lot more to it than what other agents probably don't realize. Like, it's not an industry where, you know, you're some spruced up, you know, guy who, or girl who- In a flash
suit, in a flash car
yeah, who just wants to- Yeah ... you know, just make a buckload of money by walking into a house and saying, "This is for you," trying to convince them to buy it- Yep ... because that's what they want. Like, there's so many other things. Like, our job is to provide a service to people who don't understand something as complex as real estate.
Yep.
Yep.
And a- as I've said a, a, quite a few times on this podcast, most buyers and sellers only, um, fall into that realm of being that, that person- Mm ... for a very short space of time in their life, only for a couple of times in their life. It's- Yep. Yep ... and y- most people don't know anything else about it, apart from that little time- Yep
in their, in that little window.
Yep.
So you've got to be educators, you've got to, because every new person who flows into that little window of their life, um, needs to be educated, and they won't care once they leave it either.
No. Well, what's the most important transaction when selling a property?
What's the most important transaction?
What do you think it might be?
See?
I'm asking you. What do you think it might be? No, it's, but it's people.
Mm.
That's the most important transaction. It's not money, and this is the difference between real estate agents- Transactional to dollar or transactional to people
Mm.
Because like I've said to Ethan, you deserve nothing until you work for it and it settles, and then you get paid for doing the job.
But until then, don't expect a thing because that's what it's about, it's people. So we aren't just selling a house and getting money, we're selling somebody's previous dream to somebody's new dream, and we're telling these new dreams about the area, where to go get a cup of coffee, where to go get some food, where the doctors are, the chemist, everything, the airports, you're close to Movie World, Dreamworld, all that sort of stuff.
So it's, it's transacting within the world of people. That's what makes real estate different.
Mm. Yeah, well, you don't want to buy a home that you don't like.
But it's not even that. If you're focusing on money, you're gonna come across as a money hungry real estate agent, which people think we are. And they're out there.
And
they are out there. And we're not.
Mm.
We are all about people And that's so important to us.
Yeah. And we've talked about, you know, you being educators, and again, that's, uh, what this, um, podcast has really been all about. Mm. If you look back through this library, it's about educating buyers and sellers and anyone interested in, in the property market, especially around Ormeau and Ormeau Hills- Yeah
about every little piece of the puzzle. Yeah. Because there's a lot of them, and that's why there's a lot of episodes, because each one of these has been about educating you on, on things that you probably don't know, but need to for a very short space of time in, in your life. So- Yeah ... look through the library.
There's, uh, just about anything you need to know. Mm. Um, pest and building, um, presenting your home for open homes, um, you know, how to pick the right agent, all of these things. You know, they're, they're not things you're taught, they're not things you research until you're in the- Yeah ... in the window of doing it, and that's what this series is, is all about.
So, um- Yep ... look, thanks again, boys, for, for joining us on the Ormeau Property Chat podcast. Now, whether you're planning to sell next month or next year, taking the time to ask the right questions and to educate yourself can make a huge difference to the, you know, both your experience and the result. So, if you'd like a no-pressure conversation with, uh, with Brett and Ethan, please just reach out, give them a call, send them an email.
All the details are in the, uh, in the show notes there. Do share this podcast with anyone you know in the local area. Ormeau and Ormeau Hills, this is the podcast for you. It's made for you specifically. All the information is specific to not, not just real estate, but the area, and, uh, and how that relates.
So, guys, thanks very much. Thank you. Look forward to catching on the next episode. Absolutely. Cheers, mate.
Thanks for listening to the Local Ormeau Property Chat podcast. I hope you found today's episode helpful and feel more empowered on your real estate journey. My goal is to provide you with valuable advice while staying connected to our amazing community here in Ormeau and Ormeau Hills.
Remember, selling family homes to families is what I do best, and I'm here to support you every step of the way. Stay tuned for more tips, insights, and local area knowledge in the next episode. I'll see you then.