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Welcome to the Gold Coast Smart Real Estate Podcast—the ultimate guide to navigating one of Australia’s most dynamic and competitive property markets. Hosted by Brad Scott, Principal of Smart Real Estate with nearly two decades of experience, this podcast is your trusted resource for making smarter property decisions.
Whether you're buying, selling, investing, or simply wanting to stay informed, each episode delivers practical advice, innovative strategies, and expert insights tailored to the unique Gold Coast property scene. From market trends and maximising investment returns to insider tips for selling your home quickly and for top dollar, Brad covers it all.
Hit subscribe and join the community of "Smart" Gold Coast buyers and sellers transforming their real estate journeys. For more resources, visit www.smartrealestate.com.au or connect with Brad on Facebook, YouTube, and Instagram. Your next smart move starts here!
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Welcome to the Gold Coast Smart Real Estate Podcast. I'm Brad Scott, here to help you make smart moves in the Gold Coast property market. Whether you're thinking of buying, selling, or just staying updated, we deep dive into everything you need to know, from our market insights to our unique open offers method of sale.
A blend of auction and private treaty to give you the best of both worlds. Let's jump in.
Hello and welcome to another episode of the Gold Coast Smart Real Estate Podcast. I'm your host, Adam Bell, and today I'm joined by Brad Scott, Principal of Smart Real Estate and a trusted expert in the Gold Coast property market. Brad, thanks for joining us once again.
Thanks, Adam. Great to be here.
Awesome. All right. Now today's episode is all about helping buyers navigate the What can often be an overwhelming process of, well, they've got to go to inspections, then, you know, how to make an offer, negotiations, a lot to it. So look, whether you're a first time, buyer or even a season's investor, this episode is going to give you some tips, tools, insights, tricks, and everything else you need to know to approach this process with, with confidence.
So look, let's start with. Talking about first home buyers, they probably haven't done this before. You know, they've spoken to their mortgage broker, probably know roughly what they've got to work with. They start looking at listings on the internet and they turn up for their first open home. So what advice are you going to give them?
Because it would be daunting.
For a first homebuyer, obviously, first thing is, yeah, speak to their broker, make sure they get their finances in order first. That's really crucial so they know how much they've got to play with or go shopping with, as we used to say in banking. That's really crucial.
Get your, pre approval in place. That's crucial. Make sure when you're as a buyer, when you're submitting an offer, make sure you definitely have, ideally a pest and building inspection clause in there to protect you as a, a buyer, and also the finance clause, obviously, if you've got, your finance there.
so.
So you turn up to an inspection, you, you like the place, you're first time buyer, how do you make an offer? Let's break it right back down. I mean, you're there, you're showing them through. They have the quiet little discussion in the corner, or even think I'll come back and I'll How do they make an offer?
How do they physically do it?
So, there's a few different, it's going to come down to that agent that you're going to inspect with, and what method of sale they're using. So, different processes have different, ways of submitting offers. With the auction process, probably not ideal for a first home buyer.
When you're bidding under auction terms, you have to be cash unconditional. So, that means no person building, no finance, you need a full 10 percent deposit generally, and you need to settle in 30 days. So, that may not work for, the first time buyers, who sometimes are a little bit more cautious as you go into your first, purchase.
Then, you've got So generally with private treaty, you'll have a price on it. And, you just essentially, if you want, if you'd like the property and you want to place an offer, make yourself known to the agent. And he'll usually give you some sort of expression of interest form or an initial offer document, something like to that effect.
Yep. And that will, they'll then, sometimes they'll do a bit of negotiation, between the parties, sometimes it's a little bit less. Sometimes they'll do a full contract offer. Which has a little bit more weight when you're going to see a seller. And sometimes the, with private treaty there's sometimes a bit of back and forth.
Yep. It can be a bit of, bit of unknown, a bit more stressful. Yep. from a buyer's perspective. And, sometimes under private treaty you have multiple offers. So, that's where there's two or more offers. And the agent has a legal responsibility to notify and tell each of the parties that there is multiple offers.
And under that process, as a buyer, unfortunately you only get one opportunity to put in your best and final offer blind.
That makes it hard, doesn't it?
It does, and there's a lot of unknown. And I guess as, as agents too, like, for me personally. And we've done lots of multiple offers. It's great for the sellers because they'll generally get a little bit higher price.
The downside I find with that process is it's flexible because it gives the, the buyer the opportunity to have person building finance terms, which they can't with auction. The downside is sometimes, you know, I used to say to buyers, you know, we're under multiple offer. You get one opportunity putting your best and final.
So And at the end of it you'll either get a yes, you've been accepted, or a no, sorry you missed out. Inevitably what generally will happen is You know, buyers don't necessarily always tell me their true maximum. And as a, they, they want to buy the house, but they don't want to overpay at the same time.
They don't want to go crazy. This is the bit that makes it so hard. Yeah. And look, I've, I've been through it as a buyer, with auction and with, private treaty. So with the auction process, personally, I found it easier as a buyer. Cause I had less competition. There was only me and one other guy, who were cash unconditional.
Under private treaty, I was competing, I bought another property and we were competing with five different buyers. And I made an offer. I really wanted the house and being in real estate, I put my best foot forward. I put an offer in that I thought was probably, well, at the start, the first offer was like a hundred thousand more than what I thought it was worth.
Cause I wanted to secure it. And then I talked to the wife. And, I said, look, do we really want it? And we're like, you know, sort of like we liked it, but we weren't, it wasn't our dream, dream home. And it was a competitive market. So I said, look, let's go 150 extra. And then I said to the agent who I knew, got along well with, and I said, you know, I said, Steve, you know, we'll go 150.
Let's just get this done. And, unfortunately I had buyer's remorse that night. And I felt sick in the stomach. And I was like, oh I done? I got emotional and I wanted to withdraw the offer. But the offer was in and I thought, bugger it, let's just, you know, let's see what happens. And so Steve called me up the next day and he, I saw his number and I said, oh, I said, hey Steve, I got the property, didn't I?
and I said, you actually missed out. I was like, wow, really? Wow. Which in that scenario was actually a relief. Cause I, I thought I'd paid way overs for the property. And I still didn't secure it. Wow. So in my mind, you know, I was like, yeah, it was, yeah. It was, it was different from a buying perspective when you're, you know, cause obviously as an agent, we deal with buyers and sellers all the time, but going through it was, definitely a different experience.
So, and then lastly, the third option, the one I sort of prefer. offers, which is kind of like an online, private treaty process where buyers have the flexibility of having, finance clauses and pest and buildings. They can be cash unconditional and lock and auction if they want to, and you don't have to put in your best and final blind.
So, if we disclose what another person's best and final offer is, well, that's called It's illegal, and we obviously don't want to It would be unfair to another party if we disclosed what their best and final was. So, with open offers, people can start low, you know, you might start at X, the offers start rolling in, as the offers come in, it's all open, transparent, you can see what those offers are.
And the beauty is, we'll update the price, so the market has an indication of where the offers are at. Not necessarily saying we're going to sell it for that, but at the same time we don't want buyers who, got a budget less than that current offer amount to come and inspect it and waste their time.
So
I look, you introduced me to this, when we first started talking, you know, as we're planning to put this podcast together and, I told you then and I'll tell you again now. I can't understand why all properties aren't sold this way. It is by far and away just, you know, from a lay person, the best, fairest and just most common sense way to sell a property.
The buyer knows what's going on. The seller knows what's going on. Yep. You're getting, I don't know, all of the, the potential buyers, you know, getting a fair crack at it. If you go with auction, you're probably only getting 5 or 10 percent of the market aren't you? The buyers that are there because, you know, it's not easy to have a cash unconditional.
I mean, it just keeps coming up in episode after episode and such a fantastic thing that you, you are able to offer. But mate, I'm blown away that this just isn't,
Yeah, well, I mean, look, there are about 4, 000 agents across Australia, that have sort of, uh, done the training that involves doing that process.
So, there's, you need different licences, and, to be an auctioneer, auctioneer's licence, and you need a real estate licence to be a real estate agent. And to do open, you have to do some more training and qualifications. So, there are a lot of agents that do use it. On the Gold Coast, it's not as, common, which is great for us because it gives us a unique, you know, selling advantage, for when people are wanting to sell, but also, when I, I, I'm actually kind of, Proud of it.
You know, I can understand why. Yeah. There's so much like BS and
yeah, this takes crap in real estate. Yeah. It's smoke and mirrors. I call it smoke and mirrors. There's a lot of, like, I've got a question here that I, that says, and you know, we're talking about helping buyers, you know, that come along to it and you know, what the process is.
And I've got a question here that says, how do you know what to, what to offer? And we're talking private treaty here and you're, and your edge is going to be, well, You don't.
Yeah. Isn't it? That's it. So, I mean, you know, You have your best
guess.
Yeah. And it's, and like for us as agents, like, and I've, I've been doing this for almost two decades now and, we used to love doing multiple offers and we'd get great results.
Big kick in the guts for me was the person I called second, the person who won obviously is very happy. Thanks, Brad. Open the champagne. They've got the house. Yep. The seller's happy, they got a great result. The downside was always calling the number two. The number two buyer say, Hi Mr and Mrs Smith, you know, Adam, how you going?
And they're like, how'd we go Brad? And I say, unfortunately you just missed out.
They're like, We had another 10K in the back pocket, we just didn't want to actually pay that unless we have to. But they didn't know they had to. Sometimes we
would be sort of like, I'd say, well, you know, I'd always say, well, you know, what'd it go for?
And I'm like, well, 10 grand more. But I did ask you the question, was this your absolute best and final, and you said yes it was. And then, you know, people would be like swearing and say, oh, you bloody real estate agents. And it's like, well, we asked you the question. And
you're only following the process as you have to.
Yeah. Legally. That's the way it has to be done. For those who haven't listened to your full episode on OpenOffice, just, I mean, picture this, you go, you find the house you want, you then just look at your computer and you see what's going on, someone bids, the price goes in, you can just keep going and yet there is a cut off time.
Yep,
so it tells you exactly when we finish, similar to like an auction, they have a deadline or a date that's going to finish. So, everyone sort of knows exactly. Yeah, people sometimes go, Oh, Brad, we'll sell tomorrow. I was like, no, it tells you when we're finishing. So you've got time. Come along and have a look at it.
We want the buyers to be happy and comfortable. Also too, we're not going to do any side private deals between friends or family or anything like that. Yep. So I have friends and family who want to buy off me. I say, look, you have to place your offer on the open platform. Same as everybody else.
Everyone has the same equal, fair, transparent opportunity to secure the property. I
absolutely love it because I, you know, I do have more questions here that, you know, most commonly relate to private treaty, but it's just riddled with, With what I keep calling smoke and mirrors. I mean, I've got a question here, uh, buyers allowed to, you know, uh, let's talk private treaty for a minute.
It's, you know, are they allowed to ask you what should I offer? Are they, you know, there are people who don't know this and this is the smoke and mirrors. And what do you do when they say, what should I offer Brad? Yeah. Can I say what's going to get it? And what are you allowed to say?
Yeah. So, and that's a, And again, for agents, that's a really hard conversation to have because, you know, sometimes like The owner might want 900, 000, right?
Sometimes sellers expectations are a little bit too high, which is quite common. Sometimes they're realistic. But you know, again, depending on the property and how many other buys are there, it might sell for 50, 000 below. It might sell for 50, 000 more. Yeah. And as an agent, it's like, well, everybody says to me, Brad, like, What's, what's the, what's the price?
Yeah, this
is
what I mean. You know, and how much is it? I don't know. You know, and that's the biggest thing. With open offers, you do. With open offers, it's very clear. And there's no BS. And, It won't be at the, the maximum price, but it's also good, I guess, I say every property will find its level. Yep.
And, and I say to buyers, I say, look, you know, at the end of the day, the current offer is X. If you see value above that, here, you might have a budget of here, you may, you know, it might go for 50, 000 less than that, you know, and you save that 50, 000. If it goes for more than your budget or what you think it's worth, well, you let it go and you move on to the next opportunity.
But you're in control as a buyer to increase your offer and where you've got multiple offers, You know, I have boys every Saturday. They're like, oh, you know, like, especially the husbands. The husbands are getting dragged around by the, by the wives generally. And they're not interested. They're just like, I'm just so over this.
And when you get to a point where the wife's over it, you know they're really over it. They're sort of like, you know, I'm sort of like, oh, how long have you guys been looking for? How long have we been looking? Six months, Brad. Yeah. I'm like, six months? And like, office? Oh, we missed out on three properties.
I'm like, Oh wow, like why do you think that is? And they say, Oh, like sometimes it's, you know, they're too, too hard on the negotiation process. And they miss out on great properties. So that's a bit of a, a key taking away as a, from a buyer's perspective, but also too, too add. Sometimes they, they start to, they start hard at the start and then they're like, okay, we're not going to miss the next one.
So they, they will offer a little bit higher and try and secure and they still miss out. And then sometimes on the third one, they're offering like a really high price. They're like, nah, let's just get it. And they're still missing out. And I say to them, I say, well, you know, just out of curiosity, like where did you come?
And they're like, we were second and I'm like, quick question. If you'd known what the other buyer had paid, would you have paid more? Quite often. And they, it's always, yes, always, always. Yes. So, and I said, well, why didn't you? And they say, well, you know, we weren't sure we didn't want to overpay Brad. We thought that was like, we thought that was 50 grand over what it was worth.
And we still missed out. So that's the great thing with open offers is that. I say, well, look, you know, with our system, you can put that offer in, you can see what the other person's at. And then if you want to go another five, you can, and they say, we love it. Just makes sense. I
just keep coming back. I don't know why this isn't done for it.
It should. I think it would work for buyer, seller, everyone. Can you name a scenario where it wouldn't beat the other two hands down every time?
Well, I say to, to, to, To buyers and sellers. I say, look, you know, if we were back in 1980. And I said to you, hey, look, you know, a few, 20, 30 years away, we won't have cash in our pockets.
We won't even have credit cards. So, you know, now I'm making purchases with my watch. Yeah. You know, I just tap and go. I actually, I've got a car, I don't even have a key for now. It's all done with the watch and the phone. So I jump in, away I go. And, you know, if you said to me 20 years ago, how this process works and how you'd be making these offers online, it would be all open, transparent.
People wouldn't believe ya. But, because we've just stuck to the two same old methods that's been around for a hundred years, which both have flaws. There's no perfect system. And I think the guys that created Open, they tried to sort of bridge that gap, and make it fairer, make it more transparent, cut out all the BS with agents.
And yeah, I, you know, we love it. Like it's, and we can just be more, I guess, You know, honest with people and, and I say, look, you know, I don't know what it's going to sell for. But, you're in control, Mr. Buyer. Like, you can, if you want to go another five, you can. Like I said before, if it goes a bit higher, well then just let it go.
But also, too, I say to buyers, look, you know, they, and they say, Brad, what does the owner want? I say, well, look, it doesn't really matter what the owner wants, does it? Yep. Because, like, they might want a million dollars. Now, through this process, it might only get to 900. Now, if I've got 30 offers there on the table, and it's gone from 800 to 900, and they want a million, it's like, well, you can't really argue with that.
You've really tested
the market properly, haven't you? I've got, I've got you. Without smoke and mirrors. Yeah. Without
someone not knowing what they're meant to offer. Yeah, and I think for buyers too, like they, They get frustrated with, I think on another episode we were talking about, where an agent told a seller a certain price, and Maybe bought the listing.
Priced it too high and those buyers went and saw that property. They're just completely wasting their time. 'cause there's just this difference of what the seller wants and expects based on what that agent told them. And where the market's at. It's an opinion, isn't it? That it's, I didn't ask
you what it's worth.
It's just starts as an opinion.
Yeah. And end of the day I say, well, you know, this system will really bridge that gap. And bring buyers and sellers together. And sellers, you know, buyers don't want to pay too much. They want the opportunity to increase their offer. You know, and sellers want to know they've got the maximum from the marketplace.
And this system will get them the maximum. And they can see it over that two weeks. It's great communication, and for the buyer. They know exactly where they stand 24 7, you know, so it's great, like I love it and I think when you explain to people, if they get it, they love it, and they're an advocate for life, and the people that don't get it, they criticise it.
That's me, and I
haven't even gone in and bought or sold with it yet, but just knowing how it works, when I do, you can shove private treaty where the sun don't shine, am I allowed to say that? Yeah. Yeah. Seriously, look, we do, we have run out of time. This episode didn't go in the direction I thought it would.
But look, that's the, that's the way this works. And when we do start talking about open offers, there is so much to talk about and get excited about. So look, if you are out there thinking of buying. Talk to, to Brad and his team. They are qualified and able to do open offers. If you've listened to this and you've gotten it, you've got to realize that, this is an easier way, whether you're buying or selling.
It's a win win using this. It's a win win. So jump online. Have a look at the smart real estate website, which is www. smartrealestate. com. au to, to reach out and, directly. Get in touch with Brad for his personalized advice. Look, thank you, for tuning in and, look, don't forget to hit that subscribe button.
We've got plenty. Every week we're here talking about a, another, Gold Coast property related topic. We'll, we'll cover them all. And if there's anything you want to know, jump on and, and tell us, but give us a like. Give us a review. Love to hear what you're thinking and, look until next time, , keep making smart real estate decisions.
Did you like that?
That's a good one. Very good. Thanks, Brad. Thanks, Adam. Thanks for tuning into the Gold Coast Smart Real Estate Podcast. Remember, if you're thinking of selling, be smart. Explore your options and consider the power of OpenOffice's method of sale to maximise your result. Don't forget to subscribe so you never miss an episode.
And if you found today's insights helpful, feel free to share with a friend. Until next time, happy house hunting.