By Brendan Leahy, Naked Real Estate®
Here is a Mount Nasura sale that still makes the point for me. The automated valuation said around $600,000 to $650,000. Another agent thought $700,000 was the ceiling. It sold for $835,000. Same house, three very different numbers, and I will come back to why below.
First, my interest: I sell property in Mount Nasura, so of course I would like you to pick up the phone. Take what follows with that in mind, and test it.
The biggest reason those three numbers were so far apart is the mistake almost everyone makes here: treating Mount Nasura as one market. It is not, and the differences sit inside a surprisingly small area. Older homes on smaller blocks closer to Armadale. Larger properties around 1,200 square metres and half-acre blocks. Homes looking across the valley. Homes with city and coastal plain views. Properties within walking distance of the hospital, the shops and the train station. And occasionally something that does not fit the Mount Nasura mould at all.
Which side of the hill you are on
A median cannot tell where you sit in the suburb. Buyers can, and it changes what they will pay.
The lower parts tend towards older homes on smaller blocks with excellent access to Armadale’s shops, the hospital and public transport. Move higher and both block sizes and housing styles change. On the southern side of Blackwood Drive and nearby, properties can have attractive valley outlooks. On the northern side, some homes look towards the city and the coastal plain, which is a genuinely different living environment from the west-facing outlook you get across much of the Darling Scarp. Around the eastern side towards Paterson Road, the outlook turns towards the Brookton Valley.
Before anyone walks through the front door, position within the suburb has already changed who the likely buyer is.
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What moves the number here
Position within the suburb. Block size, slope and usability. City, coastal or valley views. Orientation. Sewer or septic. Age and condition. Renovations. Access. Proximity to the hospital, the shops and the train station. Schools. Outdoor living. Privacy. What else is currently on the market. And the type of buyer the property is likely to attract.
Then one more question that matters more than people expect: does this property fit the comparable sales at all?
The 320 square metre home that did not fit
The sale I opened with makes that point better than any explanation.
It was not on a half-acre block. It was not on 1,200 square metres. The original block had been subdivided and this home sat on roughly 320 square metres.
On paper that made it very hard to compare with most of the suburb. The automated valuation put it somewhere around $600,000 to $650,000. Another agent had been through and thought around $700,000 would probably be the ceiling.
I saw it differently.
The owners had designed the home around the smaller site and done it well. Two storeys, three bedrooms, two bathrooms, and the presentation was as good as I have seen. The design worked with the block rather than apologising for it.
More importantly, there was a buyer for whom 320 square metres was not a compromise. Close to Armadale Hospital. Public transport nearby. Walking distance to the train station and the shopping centre. For someone who wanted a beautifully presented, low-maintenance home in the hills without a half-acre to manage, this offered something almost nothing else in the suburb did.
So I did not think we should price it by taking larger Mount Nasura homes and discounting for less land.
My recommendation was to go to market from $750,000.
Twenty-three groups, and no offer
We ran it as a Select Date Sale®. The first home open brought twenty-three groups through.
And no offer that weekend.
It is easy to tell property stories where everything lands in twenty-four hours. Real selling does not always work like that. We ran private viewings through the week and opened again the following weekend.
By Monday night we had six offers, running from about $750,000 up to the one the owners accepted at $835,000.
Set that against where we started. An automated estimate of roughly $600,000 to $650,000. Another agent’s ceiling of about $700,000. A sale at $835,000.
Was the algorithm wrong?
I want to be fair about this. An automated system can only work with the comparable sales available to it. If almost every property around this one is substantially different, what exactly is it supposed to compare against?
The computer was not stupid. The property did not fit the dataset.
A human appraisal could weigh things that do not reduce to bedrooms, bathrooms and land area. The design. The presentation. The low-maintenance proposition. The walkability. And most of all, the specific buyer who wanted that combination and could not find it anywhere else in the suburb.
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Views are not a fixed dollar amount
A home with an uninterrupted outlook towards the city and the coastal plain is not automatically comparable with one two streets away without it. Same for the valley outlooks.
But I would not add a set figure for “views” either. What matters is which rooms have them, whether they can be built out, the orientation, whether the outdoor living actually uses them, the privacy, and how buyers respond when they physically stand there and look.
The location changes the buyer, not just the price
Proximity to Armadale Hospital is a good example. For some buyers that is enormously convenient and worth paying for. For others it is exactly what they are moving away from, because they want land and separation.
Neither buyer is wrong. They are different markets, and the job is working out who is likely to value what you actually have.
What the $835,000 does not mean
It does not mean everyone should renovate heavily before selling.
Those owners had built a home where design and presentation were fundamental to the whole proposition. On a different property, spending $100,000 before sale could be entirely wasted.
The question is never whether renovations will make the house nicer. Of course they will. The question is whether the buyers you are targeting will pay back more than you spend.
Frequently asked questions
What is the average property worth in Mount Nasura?
Averages give you context and not much else. The suburb contains enough variation in blocks, views, position and housing style that a median can be a poor guide to any individual property.
Do city views increase value in Mount Nasura?
They can. How much depends on the quality of the outlook, whether it is permanent, the orientation, and whether the home is designed to use it.
Does a smaller block reduce value?
Not necessarily by as much as people assume. A well-designed, low-maintenance home close to amenities can attract a buyer pool that larger properties in the same suburb do not reach.
Are online valuations accurate in Mount Nasura?
They work reasonably on standard properties with good comparable sales. They become unreliable when the land size, views, position or design fall outside the dataset.
How do I get my Mount Nasura property appraised?
Combine recent comparable sales with an inspection that considers the exact position, the outlook, the land, the improvements, the presentation and what else buyers can currently choose from.
About the author: Brendan Leahy has been selling homes throughout the Perth Hills and Foothills since 2002, with more than 1,500 personal sales. Learn more about Brendan Leahy and the Naked Real Estate story
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