How Early Investors Capitalised on Ballarat's Property Boom 🚀

🎙️ Most investors spend too much time looking for the perfect deal.

The best investors? They know when to act.

In this episode of the Moves to Momentum Podcast, I catch up with Tony Zelencich from McGrath Ballarat to discuss what we've seen on the ground over the past few years, the lessons from hundreds of property transactions, and why hesitation can cost investors far more than getting started.

From market cycles and off-market opportunities to investor psychology and long-term wealth creation, this episode is packed with practical insights for anyone looking to build a portfolio.

Listen now and let us know your biggest takeaway.

📅 Want to build your own property investment plan?
👉 https://calendars.buyersedgeproperty.com.au/discovery

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

We both agreed that we're straight shooters. A spade's a spade. There is that saying, he who hesitates his loss. And I bloody believe it. You're acting fast for your clients. The amount of deals that we've done over the last two years, if you go and revalue them right now, yes, five grand at the time seemed maybe overs, but now look, like they're the ones that are laughing because you acted fast enough. Experience counts and the fact that you just don't muck around. It is as simple as that, and that's why we do so many deals together.

SPEAKER_01 0:24

Tony Zelenich, the Ballarat bandit. Mate, thanks so much for coming all the way up. Um, bro, I've been how long have we been mates? Two years or something?

SPEAKER_00 0:32

It feels like longer than that, though.

SPEAKER_01 0:34

It feels like a long time. We talk regularly and often. But uh, mate, I wanted to get you up here today, talk about your career in real estate, what's happening in Ballarat, but man, how did you get into real estate?

SPEAKER_00 0:43

First, thanks for having me on, mate. It's good to be here. Um, how'd I get into real estate? So I started actually doing a teaching degree at university first. Um I just love being around kids. I felt that that was probably my niche. And then I think just one thing led to another, and it was probably a little bit hard at the time, just with a few other things. And I was knocking around in some friendship circles and they said, Why don't you give real estate a go? And I thought I'll I'll give it a crack. And I actually started in the leasing department area. So I was actually the little lackey that hopped in the car and would open up all the rental properties. But how old were you? How old were you at this time? I was 21 at the time. Okay. Um, and just through opening these rental properties, I just got a feel for talking to potential tenants and just opening all the different properties. I actually started to get a little bit of a buzz out of it. I thought it was my niche. Like I love talking to people, I love just the authentic conversations you have with meeting people, and as a result, um, yeah, just sort of looked looked to get into the sales area and I sort of didn't look back once I got into it, to be fair. But when you say this um social group, I hear that as the footy club.

unknown 1:44

Yep.

SPEAKER_00 1:45

So you're a bit of an AFL player. Are you still playing? Uh not AFL as such, but uh I did play country footy, um, and I felt like even that in in a sense is it's just a great community feel. And I think um, yeah, I was it it would have been a function or something like that. I'm not sure if it was football per se, but it was definitely that sort of environment where somebody just says, You talk too much, get into real estate, and before you know it, I just jumped in and yeah, I didn't really look back. I just I love every facet of it. So you're in leasing, how long were you in leasing for? Say two, two and a half years. Like I definitely stayed enough doing that side of things just because I I didn't really have an ambition for sales, but it was just sort of grew on me over time just through opening properties and meeting all walks of life.

SPEAKER_01 2:23

Man, I I've seen your career, what you're at, Ballarat McGraw. Yeah, and what we met would have been maybe 2023, 2024. And your career in the last three, four two to three years has just gone like strength to strength to strength. Man, can you talk to us? A lot of the people listening to this podcast and also the property investors, they're high performers, I find. They're normally not just accepting the status quo of life, they're how they're giving it a bit of a nudge. You've gone from um leasing to one of the top three sales agents in Ballarat, probably one of the hottest investment markets in the country, super competitive. How have you done that?

SPEAKER_00 3:04

I feel like when you have conversations with people, sometimes there is just a flick that gets switched in fairness. And I just felt that even a couple of years ago, I felt I was building, I worked under a couple of really good mentors, and I think that sort of McGraw-Ballarat, um, the mentors that we have, they're just real people first. And they sort of empowered me to be the person that I am. And I think just through the confidence that they gave me that I actually can be a really good agent, I think that in essence just gave me a little pep in my step. And then as a result, I mean, I still remember we talk about it all the time. The first conversation that we had on the phone, it just it's almost like we connected instantly because it was authentic, it was genuine. And I just feel that through connecting with real people that sort of have similar ambitions, like we do, like we're we're driven in our field. As a result, you go to strength to strength, and then momentum just builds from that. So I'd say it's a culmination of hard work as well as you need a bit of luck on the way. And I was lucky enough to get a call from you, and we sort of struck up a relationship. And I'd say we're better friends than colleagues, to be fair.

SPEAKER_01 4:00

But I think you set that precedence pretty early. You said mates first, business second. And man, I that's I loved that. That's pretty much me. Like you're here at the office today, there's some there's mates here, yeah. Right. And um when you set that intention, I was like, I don't know if this is a country thing or like if he's just one of the lads. But then later on, I realized you're now for real estate investing property. Like you're a property investor yourself. You've got a couple of investment properties in and around Ballarat.

SPEAKER_00 4:29

I do the best area to invest in. You know, that's no, I'm probably biased, but yeah, I do. I just and I think through having conversations with similar to you, the knowledge that you've given me in order to then talk to not only my clients, but I go home and talk to my wife about hey, look, I reckon we should do this, even just talking um in your reception right now. We're talking about a really red-hot deal that you're dealing with in Melbourne, and that almost almost gets me to go, maybe I should buy that. So I think it's just the confidence and the knowledge that you have just gives me confidence, you know, in the field that I'm in.

SPEAKER_01 4:59

Last time I checked what you had a two-property portfolio.

SPEAKER_00 5:01

I did, yes.

SPEAKER_01 5:02

Yes. And um, I don't know if you want to disclose the numbers. Maybe we'll just glance over that. But you've got you've holding some properties in Ballarant. Can you tell me a little bit more about the peak performance? Because you've what you've done, I I mentioned it and you you were very modest about it. Oh yeah, a bit of luck, bit of hard work, blah, blah. Can you let me know of like what is someone who's gone from working in a team to top three agent in Ballarat? What's the separation from working in a team to being a top top agent in a team? What I'm talking about day to day. What are you doing? What does it look like? What's the decision-making process? How do you how are you protecting your time to get the performance?

SPEAKER_00 5:46

Yeah, awesome question. I think it's something that even you'd no doubt know it yourself. When you branch out to your own business, everything falls on you. So it's sort of that responsibility. You take ownership of everything that I do, I know will fall back on me, whether it's clients that I meet, the buyers that I talk to, um, to the appraisals that I walk into. I need to make sure that I'm sort of 100%, you know, the energy that I have. I always need to sort of be on to be at my best. And I think that just comes through having a healthy balance. Like I really feel that I've got a healthy balance between work, life. I like to get out and exercise. I go to Hot Tempo, which I've taken you to, and it's Jamie before. But just having that ability to just switch off momentarily. Like obviously, real estate can be a 24-7 job. Like even this morning, you're getting messages from investors saying, Hey, Jace, hit me up. It sort of never ends. But the difference between that is to just have the ability to say, right, this is my time, whether I need to switch off, go for a walk with the dog, um, go to the gym. I think just having that balance allows me to go, right. As soon as I walk into those doors at McGraw, I know that it's my business, and the harder I work, the not the luckier you get, but you definitely get rewarded for your hard work.

SPEAKER_01 6:49

So you're a classic country lad. You want to spend time with your beloved, Liv. Pretty much and you you train hard, you love your footy, yeah, but then also you work when you're on, you're working hard. And the you're almost a country lad at heart, but you belong in the city. We've been doing deals in Regional Vic for a good part of the last two, two and a half years now. And what I find in Regional Vic, everyone's pretty slow, you know. To put a deal together, to come back to you, to get the section 32. So so so. When we work with you, bang, it's happening, it's on, like the communication's clear, the process is fast. Like, bro, that's Sydney stuff. That's met that's metro market behavior.

SPEAKER_00 7:31

And I feel like how good is it though, like when we first had that first initial conversation, we both agreed that we're straight shooters, a spade's a spade, and it just eliminates that going back and forth, the hesitation. Like, there is that saying, he who hesitates is lost. And I bloody believe it. Like, I just think that you're acting fast for your clients, and as a result, like the amount of deals that we've done over the last two years, if you go and re revalue them right now, I'd hate to think the growth because again, that was because you acted fast. And even when we were talking, I said, Hey Jace, I reckon we need another five here. You going, yep, let's do it. Like, yes, five grand at the time seemed maybe overs, but now look, yeah, like they're the ones that are laughing because you acted fast enough. And yeah.

SPEAKER_01 8:11

It right at the early stages of Ballarat, it was it was like you need to understand what's happening in the market. The the data's always a bit lagged. And if the market's pushing, and I'm talking to you and the likes of the other probably top five agents in the area, I'm getting a very good pulse check of what's happening. Who's buying what, who's paying what for what, like, okay, three by ones are moving at this price in these areas, four by twos are moving at this price in these areas. And you're starting to get a gauge and you can start to read the play a little bit. This is where it's going. And I've got the benefit of, I've done Perth, I've done other markets, I've done Townsville, where I've bought and you're like, I see how these cycles start to heat up. Before we move into the Ballarat market, what it was, what it is now, what are you doing for your own personal portfolio? What's the goals?

SPEAKER_00 8:55

You got a family cooking away? The goal would be I think I just want to set myself up long term. So I think just building a strategy that works for my lifestyle as well, and that the income, and obviously sitting down with someone like you and going, right, this is what my life looks like for the next hopefully 10 to 15 years. This is the goal. How do we get there? I sometimes think that it's not at the forefront of my mind where, you know, I'm scouring, looking for my next purchase, but it's also when we're talking, having a loose conversation that, hey, this one stacks up. It just triggers me to go, yep, this is where I need to go for the next purchase, so to speak, and then build from there. So I think the goal is I want to be able to set my family up. Um, and what that looks like is just continuing to work hard. And then once I'm in a position to pull the trigger on the next one, Jace, instead of regional town, point me in the right direction, and then bang, we yeah, we get another one.

SPEAKER_01 9:44

I mean, you're you're a you and live quite young, you know, but and you've had success early on in your career, which is mad. Not a lot of people get that. And then so it's like just adding the right strategy. Sometimes, and I and I I commend you for it, sometimes people get so carried away with success, with um uh just earning potential, right? But you've always had a healthy mix of good balance, spending time with your beloved, you know, your own, your training, your fitness, you know, and then also work, which is so so important, so strong. I've sometimes there's this school of thought out there that it's like you've got to absolutely ream it. Like you've got an opportunity and you've got to just milk it for all it's worth. And there's also it's almost like a bit of a scarcity mentality with that. I mean, if you're gonna be on this path of property investing and working hard, that's there's nothing that can get you off that path. The market might be good, it might be shit, whatever. But if you're on that path and you're moving towards a destination, you should, I believe, you should also make decisions for some type of lifestyle return. Not only just, I'm gonna make heaps of money and then we're gonna invest, invest, invest. And that's what I'm saying to you. Like you, I think you have a great mix of that. You're investing, you're spending time with your beloved, everything.

SPEAKER_00 10:58

And the one thing that I really like about even how the way that you go about it, and obviously I follow you heavily on social media, is that sometimes it's not just a numbers game. It is you look at that client and say, What do you want? Like, what can we do for you? It's not just a matter of, oh, if you're not gonna touch three, four, five, I don't want to talk to you. It's you only want one, let's sort you out with one. So I think it's just that you build relationships, you care, and that's sort of what what rings true to me as well. It's not a I want to have 20 properties by 40. Like, yes, that would be nice, but in the same respect, it's I look at my own situation and say, right, this is where the next one looks like. I reach out to you, and then yeah, that's the beauty about what you guys are doing as well.

SPEAKER_01 11:35

Tell us, bro. The Ballarat market. Yep. Go back to 2023. Like you would have just been getting out of the leasing space at that time frame, getting in. What did the market look like then? How much stock was there on the market? What were the buyers saying to you? What was happening with average days on market?

SPEAKER_00 11:54

Market, the market was probably tough. Like, and you found that there was a stack of properties that were being withdrawn just because they had sat on the market for a long period of time. How long is long? Give me days. Give you days, probably over 120, 120, 130 days. Oh, four months plus. Yeah. Yeah. And the thing was with that is that it was just a real uncertain time where owners were getting really stressed about what was happening. I mean, you read the news, you read articles, is it doom and gloom? Will interest rates, you know, kill people? Will the COVID market stop people purchasing? But I mean, when you guys come in before that market was obviously being withdrawn, properties were being stale and et cetera, the amount of properties that we then went back to what we call the graveyard and said, right, these are all the properties that have been withdrawn. What do you reckon? I reckon we picked up, I'd hate to put a number on it, but there was a fair stack that we just went, this is the price, this is a rental yield, yep, deal. And we just went from strength to strength as a result. So to see it from when it was probably uncertain, people were panicking. That's 2023-ish. Yeah, it was sorry, yeah, 2023 when Ballarat looked as a zone of, oh, it's just stagnating, it's pretty like there's not much going on there to when you arrived, and then we just changed the landscape. And now would have been like, would have been like mid-2024.

SPEAKER_01 13:07

Yep. And then did you feel it coming? Or do was it just like overnight?

SPEAKER_00 13:12

Honestly, honestly, no. Like, and even when you gave me that first call, like I was a little bit hesitant going, I don't think we're about to do as many deals as what you're probably telling me. And in a perfect world, if that ever happened, that would be like Christmas in real estate, if that makes sense, because the sheer volume and you know, it's not easy. You still gotta go and source it, you've still got to, you know, condition the client, etc. But when you first made that call, did I think it was going to be where it is now? Absolutely not. Didn't didn't say it. No. To be honest, I'm blown away. I think anyone did.

SPEAKER_01 13:40

No, no, I'm I'm always blown away as well. Like you think, yeah, this stacks up. Fundamentals, brother for population growth, infrastructure spend is like rife. There's billions of dollars being spent around here. You got average incomes going up, but you've got building approvals, barely anyone's building around here. Oh, this has got to go. And then you're thinking, yeah, yeah, this got to go. And you see it. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 14:01

And pretty much though, like I feel like you're right, you hit the nail on the heads. I am sort of a still country boy. Like I tell people, despite Ballarat being so big, it is still a small community town. And I feel like maybe I was a little bit blindsided, but I'm still a little country, like everybody knows everybody. Yes, I knew things were happening, but then once you talk to the right people, similar to yourself, and you spruk Ballarat, and you're like, you know what, we actually have got a bloody good regional town. And as a result, look what happens. All right. It is correct. And then I think people just start relocating, you start investing. It's the number one hotspot to invest in because we've probably got more going on. The rental yields are more healthier than the other regional towns like Geelong and Bendigo. And we just went from strength to strength. It was crazy.

SPEAKER_01 14:41

And what's happening now in the market? Because it it went ballistic. I bought a place in Winnery. Windery, what, did 20% last year in 2025?

SPEAKER_00 14:49

Exactly.

SPEAKER_01 14:50

And then now we're talking almost mid-2026. What's the market like now? Is it still just as hot as that investors galore, or is it a bit more of a balanced investor owner arc?

SPEAKER_00 15:00

I'd say there's more a healthy balance now. Um, I certainly think it's it's not slowing down by any means, but certainly investors are probably a little bit more wary just because of the prices have gone through the roof. Now it just really comes down to facts and figures. Does this rental yield add up? And I think sometimes now some other agents are probably trying to capitalize on buyers, agents, and advocates and utilising that network to then put an extra 10, 20% on properties. Now, what people can you explain that to us, bro? And I don't want to go like it's it's a long-winded um sort of conversation. That one but I mean, in essence, I think that some sort of, you know, whether it's an inexperienced agent or an agent that thinks that because there's a lot of activity in the town, that because you can go and put a little bit of GST and a buyer's agent will just pay it. And I think as a result, buyer's agent have access to the same data that you and I do to price up property. And when you look at a deal, go, that doesn't stack. Like even I looked at one with Jamie this morning and he just asked for my opinion on one. And even when we looked at it, it doesn't stack by a mile. But the agent talking to Jamie was sort of like, this is an absolute deal, you know, utilizing that, you know, buyer's agent are gonna buy everything.

SPEAKER_01 16:07

Yeah, yeah. There there was that type of vibe, and I think you understood that so because you asked a lot of questions early on, but what makes a deal stack? But some of these agent, bro, they never even asked us, you know, and you're like, what makes it stack? Well, we're looking for this style of asset, three by one, windery in this price bracket, this type of rental yield, bam, and you just say, Yeah, sweet, I know those people, I'll call them.

SPEAKER_00 16:29

So that's what slows the market down too, because as a result, these cowboys are coming in at the moment, and then the tallying owners probably pie high pie in the sky prices. So then as a result, that's what slows the market down because you and I, as investors, or even a relocator, you look at that and go, that's probably 20 or 30 grand over. Yeah, I'll wait for it to correct until what till meet market value, and then by the time it meets market value, it's three months on the market.

SPEAKER_01 16:53

That's right.

SPEAKER_00 16:53

So it's yeah, it's the inexperience that's probably killing us. Therefore, that's probably why the the ledge is probably squaring up at the moment to investors, owner ox.

SPEAKER_01 17:01

When I was in Ballarat earlier this year, was it no, uh that was in 2025. When I was in Ballarat in 2025, I feel like uh why don't you just go down Stewart Street and just work with a megaphone? Say every every property manager up the rents. If we up the rents, man, in Ballarat, that market is gonna have a second wind and just race again. I think how do we do that?

SPEAKER_00 17:24

I was just gonna say, I think there'd be probably 200 agents behind you with the microphone saying the same thing. Our rent pretty much our rental department uh tells us to go away politely a lot of the time because we're trying to say, hey, look, we need this rent a little bit more and we can get a deal done here. But yeah, I don't think that's evening out just yet, too. And that's probably a factor while it's slowing down a little bit. I agree. If the rents go up, yeah, we might have another kick.

SPEAKER_01 17:47

Unreal, man. Unreal. Um, tell us so that's what's happening in the market now. It's a bit more balanced, owner rocks and um investors. The owner rocks or the people moving to Ballarat, what are they like? Are they are they quick to do a deal? Are they overpaying? Are they being frustrated that they've been beat by all these investors for so long? What last time I checked, stock levels in Ballarat are the lowest they've been in history.

SPEAKER_00 18:14

I feel like you hit the nail on the head. There is a literal biodemography for everyone you just mentioned. There's the ones that have missed out on properties and that are happy to pay a little bit over. There's the other ones now that are starting to read the news and what's happening on the other side of the world, uncontrollable factors that go, maybe the market's going to come back, I'll wait. And then there's some that are probably in between that go, you know what, there is still a few more that I'm looking at. There's a little bit of hesitation. I want to pull the trigger because I know that it's probably the right decision for me. But when you hear a few naysayers, it does probably hold you back a little bit, hence the hesitation. So I feel like it's a real mixture at the moment. But at the end of the day, I always come back to if you price the property well, you and I can obviously make the deal stack, it'll still sell pretty quickly. So I think it's just making sure you read the market, understand the biodemographic, knowing that it's probably going to be a little bit more a combination of all walks of life, but price it right, it'll still sell.

SPEAKER_01 19:06

It'll still sell. On that, man, this is a question that everyone asks me. They ask me at barbecues, they asked me on the discovery calls when they're signing up with us. They asked me even once they're an established client, they've bought three, four, five properties with us. How are you getting these properties off market? And why would the seller sell off market? I explained to them, not every seller is the same, right? And in their mind, everyone, because they're property investors, everyone is in property to make money. But that's not everyone. So why is what are the buckets that people off-market people are in?

SPEAKER_00 19:42

There's probably a few. There is. So, like obviously, there is that common question. Like, even I walk into appraisals every day, and it's well, why would I sell it off market? What's the benefit? You know, it might not sell for as much as what it did on the market, but what we say confidently, McGrath, and you know, obviously, know how we deal is that because we deal with a large portion of buyers' agents and advocates, like I deal with Buyer's Edge, there's a couple of other agents that deal with separate firms. As a result, it's like casting a net far and wide. You know that the amount of agents that we've got in our office, by the time you do cast that net, you're creating that competitive tension. And then that's how prices will go, or you'll probably, you know, it'll go more than what it would on the market, if that makes sense. So you can say that it's a real competition element to it, that everybody thinks that there's this off-market opportunity. You know, it's obviously rarer that if it went to the market, you'd have to pay more. But sometimes, because there's that competition, it actually goes for more. Now, there's the other side of the coin where owners just want the off-market sale because you don't actually have to go through the open home process. It might suit their life, their lifestyle or their situation. Like every situation or every seller has a situation and I tailor sort of, you know, a strategy for their needs. If they say they want to hit the market, we do it. But if they say, you know what, I can't be bothered with an open home, send it to your database. Well, hey, look, we send it out. There's that competitive environment. I ring you and say, hey, Jace, this one stacks, it's a ripper. You've got a client, the moves pretty quickly. And as I said, some some owners just want speed, therefore, off market is probably the way to go.

SPEAKER_01 21:06

Yeah. I mean, I think that a lot of people don't realize that. That you're in stocks, you're in shares, it's pretty bang, sell, you get the cash. Whereas a property isn't like that. And sometimes people need, let's say they're selling for they've got no mortgage on it, and they're selling 500. And to sell it in 30 days at 500 is decent. That's market value. Or do you go on the market, you do a month-long campaign, bing, bing, bing, you get the competition, now you sell it for 530.

SPEAKER_00 21:39

I was just gonna say, and then sometimes you find that because you go on the market, it's like a shiny new toy. If that doesn't sell within the first couple of weeks, you call me in a month's time and say, hey, look, that one that's effectively what we call the graveyard stock. Is there a deal here? Yes, there is, and then all of a sudden that client picks up a really good deal that's on the market too. So sometimes I feel that, yes, for you and your clients, like off markets. You know, you might do 80%, and that's probably the preferred option. But I can still categorically say here that we've put a lot of deals together with homes that have gone to the market that have probably been bet equally as good as buyers as the off market, too. So it's very much uh you work, you have so many conversations with agents, and I have, you know, enough conversations with you to say, hey, listen, this stacks up, it's been sitting on the market for a while, or this one's off market. It's very much if the deal stacks, it's good for your client.

SPEAKER_01 22:24

Mate, that is that's what it comes down to. Spot on a lot of people come down, like um, there is some schools of thought of like, if I'm getting it off market and it's worth 500, I want it at 480. It's like, bro, it's worth 500. We've got it maybe again with one or two other people. And if we act quickly, we can buy the market value today and we know this market is pumping. Do you want to wait another three, four, five, six months to do a deal at 480? It's already done. Ballarat did 20% last year. You're missing out. Just get something, the right asset in the right market. And if it stacks, it's a it should be a purchase. You know, there's maybe there's always little particulars around like building pairs, what comes up, but you deal with that at the stage of when it comes up.

SPEAKER_00 23:12

And that's another good thing that I think you preface your clients with is that you have a buffer for that if something on the off chance does come up, it doesn't factor into their thinking in terms of no, we're not gonna go through with the deal because you know there's a couple of things that need fixing. The way you structure it up with your buyers, I've seen still a lot of deals that we've done, you know, where they probably needed a little bit more cuddling through and like, hey, listen, if we get a couple of quotes here, this is what it will cost you, probably go above and beyond than just getting the building report and assessing it. You'll get a few extra quotes. You'll make sure that this is what it's gonna cost to bring it up to speed. Let's still do it. And as I said, if we went through all the deals that we've done together, everyone would be sitting pretty pretty right now. Oh man, they'd be fine, right?

SPEAKER_01 23:49

I I bought one from you personally, and man, I am so glad I'm taking equity out of that thing at the moment to buy more. And we only did it like a few months ago, right?

SPEAKER_00 23:57

And that needed a lot of work, did it not? Correct. Well, you had the quotes, you had it all in front of you, and because you've done this enough with the clients that you're servicing, for you, it was a no-brainer. It was, yep, still stacks up, I'll proceed. And now look.

SPEAKER_01 24:09

Man, I I'm giving away a bit of secret source, and I I think I do this podcast not only for um the client to understand and get a bit of a lens of how deals happen, how portfolios are built, but I think there is a portion of buyers agents who listen to this, right? Um, and can you tell me like what we've done personally, done a lot of deals together, and you we've done deals as buyer's edge. Why do you sell to one buyer's agent, not another? Like there's a I've always spoken about, and I feel like there is, I teach the team this all the time. You've got your main agents, and your main agents will either give you an exclusive or you'll be one of three. Then if the exclusive or the one of three don't buy it, then the agent is gonna go out to another pool, and maybe that's five to ten, you know, or four to ten on the on the list, and then it's just like open slatter to a database. Is that kind of how it happens? And um, I feel like buyers edge and myself are probably one of your three.

SPEAKER_00 25:18

Top one.

SPEAKER_01 25:19

Yeah, how why is that? Why is that a thing? And what what makes that a thing for you? Top selling edge in Ballarat, why you'd rather sell it to us, or not sell it to us, give us an opportunity on it.

SPEAKER_00 25:32

So I feel like one thing we do really well at McGrath is we make sure that we we're casting the net far and wide, if that makes sense. We want to make sure that we don't just necessarily sell it to the first buyer, we want to make sure we've run the process. But what makes you stand out, and the reason why you probably do a lot more deals than anyone that I deal with and anyone in our office deals with, is that you're a straight shooter, you don't muck around. If we if you like, and it's it's just that straight transparency that we love about you, where it's if the deal stacks, let's proceed. And by the time you turn around and offer, the other buyers' agents and advocates are still mucking around. So I feel like because you're experienced, and I I mean I say that loosely, but you're experienced, you know the market, and even now I I label addresses to you, and you know where that is in Ballarat because you know why? You've come to Ballarat multiple times. You've hopped in the car with me, we've driven around Ballarat, we talk about the areas, we talk about the streets. Been to our temple. Correct. You immerse yourself in the community. So as soon as you hear an address, a price, it stacks up in your head. You look at the comparables, you look at the rental unit. The faster that you turn around that offer, most of the owners turn around and said, Well, we don't want to wait. Like that's exceeded our expectations. We're happy to go with you. So I feel like to put it in a nutshell, your experience trumps anyone that I've dealt with in the last five to six years, and better part of the last two or three in terms of buyers, agents, and advocates. Experience counts and the fact that you just don't muck around. Like it's it is as simple as that, and that's why we do so many deals together.

SPEAKER_01 26:55

So sometimes when a client's signing on by this, it's like, hey Tony, just signed on. Just to let you know, we get some access to some great stock in some great markets. Markets that everyone's talking about on the forums, we're getting access to stock in those markets every day, definitely every week. If you want access to that, there's a bit of a rule. You gotta act quick because that is our tool or our thing in the marketplace. We know the market very well. We're looking at everything that's going on, market, everything that's sold, everything. And then we get access and we can assess market value very quickly. Does it stack? Yes, it does. Bang, bang, bang. Happy days. We and we press on.

SPEAKER_00 27:33

And there's also one other thing that I always want to touch on, especially with you. And I always say this to even buyers' agents that said, how come buyers edge of edges out on another one? Pardon the pun. But it works because I say that half the time when we've had these conversations, I say, Jace, we need another five. Now, at the time, five might seem like it's a big stretch, but somehow you make it work. And I'll tell you all the deals that we've had to do a little bit more, they've paid in space. So I think sometimes you know, you've got the vision, you know what the market's going to do. You go, an extra five. Yes, not everybody has the five grand and you're working to budgets, but I've heard sometimes that you've, you know, made it work for that client, and that just makes our job a lot easier when we're negotiating with the vendor as well. Hence why you trump a lot of buyers' advocates in town.

SPEAKER_01 28:16

It's what stacks, there's that's that's one piece of the vi the deal stacks. So then you've got to understand the client's property portfolio and their personal situation, right? You and live uh with child at the moment, right? Brilliant. It's ridiculous how many people call me. Hey man, I got a pre-approval. I need to do a deal in a month. Bro, what's going on? Are you pregnant? Yes. Like, what do you do? Very soon, and she's off work in a month. Like, we need to get the we're not extending this pre-approval. We need to go now. Paying and let's say it's worth five, five ten and we pay five fifteen. The market's in the first one year of a five-year growth cycle. Is it worth paying 515 for that property when they're not going to be in the market again for 18 months? I think it is.

SPEAKER_00 29:05

When you value it in 12 months' time and it's 600, well, no brainer.

SPEAKER_01 29:10

But for that person, it is. For the young upstart that is only just getting into the market, they've got time, they've got cash, they can wait. It's not the right deal for them. It's not the right thing to do that. So it's like understanding the client, and that is what I try and I've done the majority of my career is deeply understanding the agent, deeply understanding the market, but also deeply understanding the client.

SPEAKER_00 29:31

What do they need? What are they trying to do? That's our mantra. And that's, I think, exactly why we get on so well. Because you and I are very much client-driven. Not every client is the same. So when I walk into an appraisal, I actually listen. It's not just a matter of trying to sign them up and sell the home. It's where are you going to get to or where do you need to get to? Let's put a plan in place. Does that look like an off-market? Does that look like an on-market? Do we need to tap into our database before we hit the market? There is so much more than just uh, yep, let's just get them off the book, so to speak. So I think that's why we get on so well.

SPEAKER_01 30:00

I'm gonna tell one more story and then I'm gonna throw it over to you to wrap us up. I had this one client, the guy, the guy's done over 10 properties with me in the last 12 months, and he signs up, he's like, Jace, if I'm signing up for a lot of deals, I want bangers. I was like, man, I I love bangers. I love bangers. But we're buying 10 properties, right? And you're saying you want you want some some margin on the way in. Let's say some I pay market, some I pay five over. Some I might get 40 under. I've done one recently for the guy, it was 70 under and it was a distress sale, and they needed it gone. I was like, this guy's got cash, he'll buy it today. 21-day settlement, boss going. So I make he's made 70 grand signing some paperwork on this one, but he's definitely paid five grand over on a couple. And I tell him, hey man, I think it's worth 505. We're buying it for 510, but we're doing it now, it's at the right stage of the cycle. Yep, boom, done. And it's like, if you zoom out across his whole portfolio in the last year, every deal would be 20 grand under. But like there's a 70 grand below, there's a five grand over, there's a market value, there's a 10 grand under. And it's like they all stack, they're all in the right markets. And he's you zoom out and you're like, if he makes 100 grand of each of these properties in the next 12 months, a guy's made a million dollars in equity in a property portfolio. I don't I don't know how people save a million bucks in a year, but because he's ready to take action, understands it's not always about this one little deal. You zoom out, what am I doing? What's the goal? What's the strategy? When you're looking at that, it makes it very easy. It makes to make sense of should I do this or not. But bro, every time we chat, we we do or talk on the phone for 20 minutes, but we're spoken about one deal, about one quick thing. Anything else you feel like property investors need to know about Ballarat market before we wrap?

SPEAKER_00 31:51

Call Jace and figure out what is going on because you can see that we're still in the growth cycle, there's still a lot of opportunity in Ballarat. And I think it just comes down to aligning yourself with someone that's got their finger on the pulse. Now, we've got a such a good relationship where we're calling each other regularly. As a result, you are becoming the most knowledgeable person for regional Victoria, even in Ballarat Shepherd and all the other areas that you're looking at as well. But it's a matter of there's still opportunity in Ballarat, there's still growth, and it just comes down to pulling the trigger and even having a conversation. It's like everything. Start the conversation because you just don't know what you can get. And I think Ballarat's the place to live. And you know, you bought in Ballarat, I'd buy more if I can. Yeah, yep. Okay. So boy in Ballarat because there's still growth there and you're the man.

SPEAKER_01 32:33

Uh, Tony, honestly, man, thank you so much. And I I think what sums you up is that first, I don't know, like uh mantra that you said for the both of us mates first, business second. And honestly, man, I I've I've loved getting to know you and Liv over the time. I'm excited to see what you do with your family, with your portfolio, with the business next few years. So thanks for having me on, mate. Legend. Thanks so much for listening to the Moves to Momentum podcast. If you got any value out of this episode, please give us a like or subscribe. Or if you think this is relevant to any one of your friends or family, please flick it to them so they can have a listen.