By Brendan Leahy, Naked Real Estate®
I sell Mount Richon property for a living, so factor that in. The case study below is published with the permission of both the seller and the current owner.
Mount Richon is long and narrow, running along the Darling Scarp, and the property changes considerably depending where you are in it. Newer homes and larger lifestyle blocks. Older homes closer to Armadale. Half-acre blocks. Properties of two or three acres. Valley outlooks, coastal views and some of the better sunsets in the Hills.
One median figure hides all of that.
The different parts of the suburb
At the southern end around Richon Heights you get newer homes, including properties on roughly half-acre blocks. Around Cooliabberra Drive and nearby, some properties run to two or three acres, which appeals to buyers wanting a more substantial hills lifestyle.
Through the middle towards Bedfordale Hill Road there is another mix of larger homes and half-acre properties. Towards the northern end, closer to Armadale, the housing gets older, blocks get smaller in places, and convenience to shops, transport and schools gets stronger.
On the eastern side some properties have valley and creek outlooks. On the western and elevated sides, homes take in the coastal plain and the sunsets.
Want to know what your Mount Richon property is worth? Ask for a free appraisal.
What I look at
Exact position in the suburb. Block size and usable land. Slope and access. Views and orientation. Age and condition, including structural condition. Renovations. Workshops and sheds. Outdoor entertaining. Character features. Proximity to Armadale. What else is on the market. And demand at that particular price point.
Then one question that can matter more than all of it: what problems does the buyer inherit?
A house I sold twice
One Mount Richon property let me see that from both ends, because I sold it at two very different stages of its life.
The first time, it had already been on the market for about five months without selling. The problem was not hard to find. The house had significant structural cracking throughout.
The earlier campaign had not put that front and centre, so buyers were arriving with one expectation and finding something else once they walked in. That is a strategy problem, not a price problem, and it had been playing out for five months. A house does not sit that long by accident. It sits because the marketing is aimed at the wrong buyer.
My advice to the owner was to be completely upfront about what we were selling.
We advertised the cracks
We made the structural cracking part of the marketing. The message was effectively: if cracks frighten you, this is not your house.
That sounds like the opposite of what an agent should do. But five months had already shown that soft-pedalling it did not work, and I did not think the answer was simply dropping the price. I thought we needed to change who we were talking to.
We were not trying to get every buyer to like the house. We were trying to find the one buyer for whom the problem was manageable.
We went back to market from $399,000, which was higher than it had been advertised at. It sold in about a week for $411,000.
So it finished $22,000 above the $389,000 the earlier campaign had been asking, and $12,000 above our own from-price. On a house that had sat for five months, we put the price up rather than down.
The buyer was a builder whose work included underpinning and restoring homes with exactly that kind of cracking. The thing that frightened everyone else was something he knew how to fix and could price accurately.
Good marketing is not about attracting everybody. It is about attracting the right somebody.
Then I sold it again
Years later I was asked to sell the same property, except it was no longer the same proposition.
The structural work had been completed. The owner had done a genuinely good renovation and, importantly, had not stripped the character out of it. The jarrah floorboards stayed. So did the architraves and the arches. But the home had been brought up to date where it needed to be.
He had also added a substantial workshop, and built a deck that finally made proper use of the outlook towards the coast. You could sit out there and watch the sun go down, which the house had never really let you do before.
By the time we came back to it, there was essentially nothing left for the next owner to do.
I initially thought it would land somewhere around $800,000 to $850,000. We launched from $850,000, had three offers within about three weeks, and it sold for $904,000.
That result gave those owners enough to buy their block in Mount Nasura and start on the house they had wanted to build for years.
Why the last sale price is not today’s value
A previous sale is useful information. It is not a valuation.
Take that earlier price and apply average Mount Richon growth to it and you would miss the structural remediation, the renovation, the retained character, the workshop, the deck, the proper use of the outlook, and the simple fact that a problem which had ruled out most of the buyer pool no longer existed.
The property had changed. So had who could buy it.
Do renovations return dollar for dollar?
Not reliably.
Some return more than they cost. Some return less. Some do not lift the price much at all but make the property considerably easier to sell, which has its own value. And some strip out character that buyers would have paid a premium to keep.
What I liked about this renovation was that the owner did not try to turn an older character home into a new one. Keeping the jarrah and the arches while modernising what needed it is a very different decision from making everything new, and in this suburb it was the right one.
Workshops are not all equal
A good workshop has real appeal to certain Mount Richon buyers. But I want to know the size, the construction, whether it has power, the vehicle access, where it sits on the block, how much usable land it eats, and whether it suits the buyer the property will actually attract.
The right workshop is a selling feature. A poorly positioned shed dominating the backyard is something else.
Having a view and using a view
Some Mount Richon homes have excellent outlooks. Having one and using one are different things.
A well-designed deck or outdoor area changes how buyers experience the place. Instead of noticing there is a view over there, they picture themselves sitting in it with a drink watching the sunset. That is emotional value, and emotional value shows up in the price.
If your property has a problem
Hiding from it is rarely the play. A buyer will find it. A building inspection will find it. Their lender may ask about it. Pretending it is not there destroys trust at exactly the moment you need it.
Often the stronger strategy is to name the issue, get proper professional advice where it is needed, and market honestly to buyers who understand what they are looking at.
Five months at $389,000 with the issue soft-pedalled. About a week at a higher asking price, sold for $411,000, once the marketing was honest about what it was. Sometimes the problem is not price. Sometimes it is strategy.
Frequently asked questions
Are all Mount Richon properties valued similarly?
No. Block size, age, views, position, slope and improvements vary widely across the suburb, and it is long enough that the northern and southern ends behave like different markets.
Do coastal views add value in Mount Richon?
They can. The quality of the outlook, the orientation, the privacy and whether the home is designed to use it all affect how much buyers will pay for it.
Does a workshop increase value?
A useful, accessible, well-positioned workshop can be a strong feature for the right buyer. It needs to be assessed as part of the whole property rather than added on as a figure.
Will renovating increase my Mount Richon home’s value?
Possibly, but not dollar for dollar. The type and quality of the work matters, and so does what was there before. Removing character can cost you.
Can I sell a house with structural cracking?
Yes, and I have. The circumstances matter and appropriate disclosure and professional advice may be required. Marketing honestly tends to attract buyers who understand the issue rather than disappointing unsuitable ones at inspection.
How do I find out what my Mount Richon property is worth?
Start with relevant recent sales, then look at the position, the land, the outlook, the condition, the improvements and what buyers can currently choose from instead.
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
Truth. Strategy. Sold.