Property News Snapshot: 28 April, 2023 – Ep 3: Matt Scafidi

Episode 3

Host: Ben Williams, Head of Investor Relations at Homely
Guest: Matt Scafidi – Founder & Director of Abode Advocacy Group

The Upshot by Homely invites you into honest conversations with the entrepreneurs, challengers and longstanding legends shaping the real estate industry today.

Introducing Matt

Matt Scafidi has worked his way to becoming a household name in the Mitcham area over the last decade. Starting a new career in real estate in his late thirties, Matt took up his first real estate sales job at Woodards, then moved on to partner with Noel Jones, Jellis Craig and eventually open his own business on the other side of the industry – Abode Advocacy Group in 2022.

Matt is an active member of his community as well as an ambassador for the 100 Words mental health charity.

Matt’s take on current property news

Despite the headlines, the property market remains competitive – for buyers and for agents.

Ben Williams:

You’ve got some really good insight into the property market from a sell side but now you’re working on the buy side as well with your advocacy business. How are you finding the property market at the moment?

Matt Scafidi:

The market is challenging for a number of reasons at the moment but we’ve got a historically low supply. So listings are just very, very hard to get at the moment for agents. 

And to be honest, I feel better being on the other side than having to compete with everybody on that side at the moment, because I was talking to someone the other day and we mentioned this when we spoke that he was competing against twelve other agents for one listing. 

That’s a lot of time, a lot of energy, a lot of effort from a lot of people. And only one person can be successful there. So, they’re talking about fees of .8% and everything else. And it’s just not sustainable. 

What we are seeing is that due to these low stock levels from the buying side, we’re seeing that a lot of clients now see value in the proposition that we offer them, and the services we offer – and we’ve really been inundated, because they’re just getting frustrated as buyers. 

As I said, there’s low stock. When they’re going to auction, they’re going over by $100,000-200,000. That’s not because it’s been a great result as such. A lot of the time, it’s perhaps a little bit cheeky on the quoting and all that sort of thing.

Our job is to navigate our clients through that and make sure they don’t waste unnecessary energy on property they’re just never going to be able to afford. 

So it’s an interesting time, but with international borders and everything opening, I do feel that there’s going to be a little bit of normalisation in the next sort of three to six months, and stock levels will come up, buyers sort of levels will even up, and then all of a sudden that pricing will just normalise that little bit and flatten out. I don’t think it’s going to drop off the edge of the cliff, but it’s going to be easier for buyers.

With demand still high, are stock levels set to pick up soon? 

Ben Williams:

So do you think the stock levels are going to pick up? I’m speaking to a lot of agents out there in the marketplace and it’s a pretty consistent theme across the board – bad market, no one wants to sell. Do you think it’s going to pick up? 

Matt Scafidi:

All I can say, Ben, is it should – because I’m telling the vendor advocacy clients that we’re talking to at the moment, that they want to be on the market sooner rather than later because they want to make the absolute most of these low stock levels because the low stock level is driving the price. 

So unfortunately, what the real estate market has done on a constant cycle over the time I’ve been in real estate is – its a very sheep-like and herd mentality. The conversations that I’m having with potential sellers and the conversations I’m having with agents is that everybody’s just sitting there waiting for Easter, waiting for ANZAC Day, waiting for the school holidays to finish. 

And I think what we’re going to see in that May, June, July quarter, is a lot of stock coming onto the market that has been holding back. And I think there will be a lot of vendors at that time that are going to be saying, ‘well, where’s all the buyers gone?’ And ‘where’s the good pricing gone?’ – and they will have missed the boat.

And in this real estate market, as you know, whether you’re buying or whether you’re selling, you can miss the boat by waiting too long.

Are you seeing a lot of willingness to sell off-market and pre-campaign? Or are vendors pushing for the full campaign with an auction-ending?

Ben Williams:

What about off-markets? I know that sometimes owners want to take the properties to auction because ‘the sky’s the limit’ with the auction process. 

Are you finding that a lot of vendors that you’re dealing with are open to selling beforehand? Are they more motivated now to sell beforehand or do they want to run the campaign through? 

Matt Scafidi:

At the moment, vendors are getting a bit nervous. If everything isn’t absolutely flying along with numbers to write for inspections, repeat inspections, section 32 requests and everything else, they are getting that little bit nervy and there are quite a lot of properties transacting prior to auction. 

In fact, here at Abode, we have only bought properties at auction this year. So far with clients that have engaged just on our bidding service only, our full buying clients, we haven’t bought at auction as yet. We’ve bought either before market, we’ve bought afterwards, or we’ve made the process come forward a lot more quickly – seen it the first week and put an offer in, and that’s been good enough to get it done with client. That’s the vendors I mentioned, who are just that little bit nervy at the moment.

What advice would you give right now to buyers, vendors and agents in the market? 

Ben Williams:

That was very good. I think we’re just going to finish up with a couple of really quick-fire questions for you The first one is if you were giving advice to buyers Vendors and agents in the current market. What would be the one bit of advice for each of those parties?

Matt’s advice for buyers in the current market

Matt Scafidi:

Buyers, I would be saying be ready. Get your finance together. Be clear on what you can and can’t do. Because at the moment, things that are blowing deals up are conditions that aren’t favourable to vendors. So subject to finance, subject to building pest inspections, you know, and settlement terms that don’t suit them. If you can be flexible on your in-order, you deposit in order, and that’s all ready to go, then we can get a building pest inspection potentially nice and early and not include that in the actual offer. You’re going to have a better opportunity securing the very low stock levels that are out there at the moment. 

Matt’s advice for vendors in the current market

In regards to vendors, my advice to vendors would be to get onto the market as quickly as you possibly can right now. Because if you wait, you will come across other vendors that are also sitting on their hands. And I’ve actually written a blog about this on our website. 

They’re sitting on their hands, waiting for other things to occur and happen. Whereas we are seeing really, really good results coming through at the moment for properties that have been presented well. That’s the other tip I’d give vendors. Please don’t bring your home to market with all the work required to do to get it up to a particular standard. 

Take the time, get it prepared, and get it done properly so when a buyer walks through, they’re not discounting your home based on a few little items that need to be looked after and done. 

Matt’s advice for agents in the current market

Agents right now, what I would be suggesting is that you need to be building your relationships right now. You need to be talking to your whole database. You need to be getting on the phone and seeing what their take is on the current market and sharing yours at the same time, adding value and giving people an actual relationship as well. 

Because once things get busy again, they’re not going to hear from you as much, but now is a great opportunity to really hit those phones, talk to your potential clients, but also talk to your past clients as well and see where they’re at, see if you can help their family and friends also. It’s a great time when things are a little bit quiet to be hitting the phones.

What would you do with $1 million right now? 

Ben Williams:

advice and certainly with the gamut of skills that you’ve acquired over your career that is going to be very powerful to a lot of people that are listening so thank you for that. Final question for you and this will be a good one for you because obviously you work with a lot of buyers and you’re looking to purchase properties out in the marketplace. I’ve got a million dollars I give it to you what are you doing with it in the current market?

Matt Scafidi:

market, what we’re probably doing is we are trying to find something for you and investment-wise, we’re probably steering clear at a million-dollar mark, we’re probably steering clear of apartments right now, even though there are some, you know, we have bought a number of apartments for people. 

But if you’re looking for capital appreciation moving forward, if you’re looking for great rentability, you think about this right now is that if you buy an investment property right now for a million dollars, you’re going to get good because we’re going to come out of this market and it’s going to continue to go and rise. So you’re actually buying, I would think pretty much at the bottom of the curve. And that’s the thing. They don’t ring the bell at the bottom, but you only know when you’re going back up the top that you’re at the bottom. 

So I think that now would be a great time to be buying. I think that if you found something that had, you know, good accommodation, you’re going to get a really, really good return because right around the country, you know, for example, we’re putting out to their holiday lets. 

They sent a whole heap of letters out for their holiday lets saying, would you consider full-time letting of your property and taking it away from holiday letting? That’s how desperate people are in the country right now to be getting a rental property. So you’re not going to be without a tenant. So it’s rock solid. Whereas you look at the million dollars put into the stock market right now, it’s quite volatile and keeps changing and moving the time. 

So I would be doing that and making sure of course you get a buyer’s advocate on board to be able to help you secure that property at the best possible price with the least stress saving you time and hopefully getting you something that’s going to pay back in spades in years to come.

You can find Matt:

• On the Abode Advocacy Group website: https://abodeadvocacygroup.com.au/

• On socials: https://www.instagram.com/abode.advocacy.group/