A nail-biting chain of four property deals pushes the limits! How much effort does it take for an agent to sell homes in a sluggish market?

The real estate industry is facing unprecedented pressure in the current economic downturn, but Nadia Johnston, an agent with Auckland’s NorthWest office, faced an even greater challenge. When she took on a Swanson listing on her birthday last December, she had no idea it would push her career to its limits. She unexpectedly became caught up in a nail-biting chain of four interconnected property deals, where any failed link could bring down the entire chain. How did she persevere under immense pressure to get the deals across the line in such a sluggish property market?

 

West Auckland real estate agent Nadia Johnston

 

New real estate agent Nadia Johnston was initially excited about her new listing, but soon found herself caught in a complicated, high-pressure chain of four interconnected property transactions. This involved the sale of not one, two or three homes, but four, meaning that if one sale fell through, all the sales would be cancelled. The pressure over the past six months had left her barely able to breathe. She gritted her teeth and pushed through repeated setbacks, even breaking down in tears in her boss’s office.

 

She had been in real estate for just two years when she took on the listing on David Rogers Lane in Swanson. The market was flat, however, and there was little interest in the six-bedroom, four-bathroom home, which included a granny flat. Then an offer of NZ$1,500,000, just NZ$95,000 below its CV, renewed her hopes. The owners eventually accepted, but there was a condition: for the deal to go unconditional, the buyers needed to sell two properties of their own.

 

The buyers’ family home on William Wallbank Crescent in Swanson and rental property on Glengarry Road in Glen Eden were put on the market in turn. They hoped to sell the rental first while continuing to live in their own home. Unexpectedly, however, their home sold first for NZ$950,000, while interest in the rental was scarce. Eventually, a buyer made an offer on the rental, but that was also conditional on selling their own home on Bruce McLaren Road in Henderson.

 

The first property listed was a six-bedroom home in Auckland’s Swanson,

on David Rogers Lane

 

Johnston brought in colleague Sahil Mehta to help with negotiations and also sought help from others in the office. She was desperate to sell the properties, and the intense pressure often kept her awake at night. She worried that if one link went wrong, every deal would fall through. The sellers also risked losing the home they lived in, sometimes calling Johnston in tears to say, “If this house doesn’t sell, we’ll have nowhere to live.”

 

The auction was unsuccessful, however, and Johnston and her team had to work hard to change their marketing and sales approach. Even then, the sluggish market meant few people came to view the properties. By the fifth month, the David Rogers Lane owners were losing patience and considering withdrawing their home from the market. This left their buyers in a difficult position, as their family home had already sold.

 

The rental property on Glengarry Road in Glen Eden

 

Another buyer then appeared, and Johnston persuaded the David Rogers Lane owners to hold on a little longer. “I had to ring her and say, ‘Sorry, this depends on another house selling,’ and she said, ‘No, I can’t accept that.’ I said, ‘Give me another six weeks to sell this house, and if you need to take yours off the market, you can.’” Johnston said the stress and lack of sleep became overwhelming. At one point, she even thought: “I’ll leave it all to God and accept whatever happens.”

 

Eventually, the fourth home in the chain sold for NZ$777,777, and the remaining sales also went unconditional. Johnston also managed to sell another property during that period. “From four o’clock last Friday afternoon, I had four successful unconditional sales!” she said. She joined a gym during the ordeal to help relieve the stress. “Countless times I walked into my boss’s office, said, ‘I’m leaving real estate,’ and started crying.” Now that it was all over, she said real estate was her passion and she would do it again, although perhaps without taking on so many interconnected deals. In the current market, she said, agents had to do everything they could to get homes sold.

 

A house on Bruce McLaren Road in Henderson

 

Johnston’s Facebook announcement of the four deals

 

 

Summary

 

 

Johnston concluded that there was so much competition in the current market that even a minor dissatisfaction could send buyers on to the next property. Agents could not sit back in a sluggish market. They had to try different strategies and keep changing their marketing and photographs, moving from price negotiation to inviting enquiries. If that did not work, they needed to list a price, and if that still failed, switch back to accepting enquiries.

 

Ray White NorthWest director Ronald Hachache said he was proud of Johnston. Chains of property deals were not unusual in themselves, but a chain of four was certainly rare in the current market. Completing all the deals within the same timeframe was extremely challenging. Hachache said the current market conditions were the most challenging he had seen. Legislation, changes to bank lending rules and falling house prices had reduced buyer numbers. There was also an oversupply of properties on the market. People were selling rental properties, and homeowners were also selling, often at a loss, because they were struggling to pay their mortgages.