Case study · Maribyrnong
A couple who already rented in the estate and had no intention of leaving it. Secured off-market at $1.87m, directly from the owner.
| Suburb | Maribyrnong, VIC 3032 |
|---|---|
| Location | Edgewater Estate |
| Purchase price | $1.87m |
| Method | Off-market, letterbox campaign, negotiated directly with the owner |
| Selling agent involved | None |
| Buyers | A couple buying their first home together, already renting in the estate |
| The problem | Suitable homes in the estate almost never came to market |
Our clients were renting in Edgewater Estate and had decided that was where they wanted to buy. Not Maribyrnong broadly. That estate.
That is a stronger position than most buyers are in. They knew the streets, the aspect, the neighbours, the walk home. There was no risk of buying somewhere that looked right online and felt wrong after six months.
Edgewater is not a large estate. Homes of the size and condition they wanted, at a price they could pay, came up rarely. Some years barely at all.
That is the hardest brief in property, and it has nothing to do with budget. When the buyer is ready and the supply simply does not exist, waiting is not a strategy. It is just waiting, and rent keeps being paid while you do it.
When the supply doesn’t exist, waiting is not a strategy.
Rather than watch the listings, we went to the estate. We identified the properties we judged would suit the brief on size, condition and position, and ran a letterbox campaign to those homes.
One of the owners read it and got in touch. That is the entire mechanism, and it is not complicated. It just requires someone to do it, on the right homes, in the right estate, at the moment a buyer is ready.
Because the approach came directly from us, there was no selling agent, no campaign and no auction. We dealt with the owner from first contact through to contract.
For the owner, selling this way avoided a marketing campaign, styling and the disruption of opening their home to the public. For our clients, it meant negotiating with a person rather than bidding against a room.
Secured at $1.87m. A home in the estate they were already living in and had no intention of leaving, bought from a property that was never on the market.
Being specific about where you want to live is an advantage, not a problem, but only if someone acts on it. A saved search cannot make an owner sell. A letter through their door sometimes can.
If your search has been running for a year with nothing suitable listed, the issue is unlikely to be your budget or your standards. It is that you are waiting on a market that is not producing what you need, and nobody has asked the owners.
Buyer advocacy by LP Advisory, Melbourne. Suburb-level detail only. Prices are indicative and shared with permission; some details withheld for privacy.
Approach the owners directly. In this Edgewater Estate purchase in Maribyrnong, a letterbox campaign to selected homes in the estate produced an owner willing to sell, and the property was secured at $1.87m without ever being listed.
A buyers advocate identifies the specific properties that match the brief on size, condition and position, then writes to those owners on the buyer behalf. It is targeted rather than blanket, which is why it works.
Yes. Where an owner is approached directly there is no campaign, no styling and no auction, and both parties negotiate on the property rather than against a room of bidders. Conveyancing and contract review still apply as normal.
That is often when it is worth the most. A very tight geographic brief is the hardest to fill from listings, because the supply is small and unpredictable, and sourcing has to be done rather than waited for.
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