A Sydney sales agent and buyer’s agent have teamed up to run a viral marketing campaign on an unlivable Enfield home that’s expected to sell for about $2 million at auction this weekend.
Richard Matthews Sales Executive and Auctioneer, Matthew Blackmore, has teamed up with JBX Buyers Agent, Jason Ballo, to market 21 The Parade, Enfield, in a campaign that’s generated more than one million views on Instagram alone.
Mr Blackmore called Mr Ballo in to shoot the walk-through video given he’s developed a large following for showing homes Sydney’s Inner West and Eastern Suburbs.
He said this was the first time he’d joined forces with Mr Ballo, but the campaign had gone viral, with 37 contracts sent out and about 20 bidders tipped to register for the auction this Saturday.
“It’s had more than one million views and 800 comments,” Mr Blackmore said.
“People love to see what’s out there in the property market and Jason has quite a big following.
“I can’t tell you the number of local buyers who have contacted us and said ‘We saw it on social media’.
“It has certainly helped us with our campaign.”
Mr Blackmore said his approach with the campaign for the dilapidated home was to ‘tell it like it is’.
The three-bedroom, one-bathroom home is not structurally sound to live in, with holes in the roof and walls, damaged, falling apart amenities and black mould throughout.
“There’s no point hiding any of the imperfections,” Mr Blackmore said.
“It’s a land value property.
“It’s created a lot of excitement, particularly from the local neighbourhood.
“When we had only put the sign up, there were a lot of neighbours, from surrounding streets, that rang up because it’s one of those homes where they’ve said if it ever comes on the market, they really want to bid on it.”
Mr Blackmore said it made sense for him to team up with Mr Ballo and to leverage his online following.
“Buyers agents are there to help someone buy a property and we’re here to help sell people’s properties,” he said.
“It literally makes sense (to work together).”
Mr Blackmore said working with buyers agents was positive as they had qualified buyers who were ready to purchase and knew what they did and didn’t want.
He said while buyers agents used to mostly work in the high end of the market, that was rapidly changing.
“I sold a unit in Enfield a couple of weeks ago that was $700,000 and those people had appointed a buyer’s agent to negotiate to buy for them,” Mr Blackmore said.
Mr Ballo said more and more agents were reaching out to get him to do a walkthrough video on their properties.
He said not all of the homes were rundown, with many quite luxurious and several attracting millions of views.
“I had one video that got 4.5 million (views), I’ve had a few at two million, a lot between one and two million and a lot between 150,000 and 300,000 views as well,” Mr Ballo said.
He said he started the videos as a way to show potential buyers what they could get for their money in Sydney, especially in the Inner West and Eastern Suburbs.
“What agents don’t do is, they don’t talk about price,” Mr Ballo said.
“They hide the price, so I decided my thing was going to be talking about price and say, ‘This is what you can buy for your money in Sydney’.”
Mr Ballo said creating the videos had definitely helped bring in business, even if not specifically for the properties he features.
“I get three to five calls a week from people saying, ‘I watched your videos, I’ve been looking for a place and I need some help’,” he said.
Mr Ballo noted that the rivalry that once existed between buyer’s agents and selling agents was changing.
“Real estate agents need buyers and buyer’s agents need real estate agents,” he said.
“These days, it’s better to deal with a buyer’s agent, particularly if it’s off-market, because you’re bringing in someone who has qualified the situation, there’s no time wasted.”
Mr Ballo said numerous agents had seen his social media videos and contacted him to see if he had buyers for their properties.
The property at 21 The Parade, Enfield, will be auctioned on site this Saturday, June 29, at 3pm.
