Does Putting Pressure On Helps You Get A Better Price

Selling: Setting Your Price Releases The Pressure, Not Adds To It

Sellers often feel the market circling long before the home goes online: getting the property presentable, arranging trades, dealing with the "for sale" nerves. That build up is its own kind of pressure. What actually relieves it is agreeing on a number. Once you've set a price or a reserve and you're genuinely ready to sell, the anxiety eases, because the ambiguity is gone.

The sellers who struggle are the ones who insist they're "not fazed" about selling. That line is usually a sign of caution rather than confidence, a seller who's quietly hedging rather than commItting. Anyone who puts a home on the market wants it sold. The ones who aren't sure tend to go off market instead.

Buying: A Deadline Changes How Seriously You Compete

On the buying side, the pattern is just as clear. Buyers with no real timeline tend to turn up late to the process, or make an offer after being told clearly where they need to land, miss out, and then come back to the same property wishing they'd moved. Buyers working against a deadline behave differently. They're more focused, more decisive, because they're picturing themselves in the home by a set date.

A good example is the Frankston High School zone. Families with kids heading into grade six are already house hunting by September or October, specifically to land inside the zone before their child starts high school. That self imposed deadline pushes them to act rather than drift.

Finance timelines create the same effect. Preapproval typically runs for a few months and can be renewed, but some buyers are working against a tighter window, for example someone about to move from being an employee to running their own business, whose finance position changes once they do. Buyers who've sold unconditionally with a 90 day settlement often find much of that window eaten up by terms, conditions and finance, and end up needing an extension, which is its own quiet pressure to find the next property fast.

There's also a seasonal rhythm to it. A lot of sellers hold off over December and January and get their homes ready to list once the new year kicks off, which means a wave of buyers are competing for a wave of fresh listings at the same time. If you're searching through that period, expect more competition, and know that the sellers you're up against are very often buyers too. A lot of movement in Frankston is local upsizers and downsizers trading between Frankston and Frankston South.

Why Auctions Put The Pressure To Good Use

Auctions are a useful structure precisely because of this. A three to four week campaign gives a buyer a genuine window to get finance sorted and building and pest inspections done: real due diligence, not stalling. Then auction day itself compresses everything into a short, live negotiation. That combination of a fair run up followed by a hard deadline tends to bring out a buyer's best offer rather than their most cautious one.

If You're Buying: Go To The Open, Don't Just Trust The Guide

Our advice to buyers is simple: don't assume a property will sell above its quoted price range, and don't assume it will sell within it either. Go and look for yourself. If a property is quoted at a range and it's early in the campaign, it's too soon to read much into it. If your budget allows, it's worth allocating somewhat above the top of the quoted range as a buffer, rather than assuming the quote is the ceiling.

Most importantly, go to that first inspection yourself rather than relying solely on your mortgage broker's read of where the property will land. We've seen campaigns where the first open draws a crowd, interest builds from there, and buyers who held back because they assumed competition would be too strong end up missing out on something that sold within range after all. Turning up and watching how many other buyers are genuinely interested is the best information you'll get.

If your budget is closer to the entry end of the market, it's also worth looking at units that have been tenanted for a long time or haven't been well maintained. They often present poorly, not because of the layout, but because of how they've been lived in, which can put off buyers focused purely on first impressions. That's often where the value is.

If You're Selling: The "Another Agent Said They Could Get More" Line

If another agent has told you they can get a higher price than we have, ask them how. Agents who quote high to win your listing and then negotiate you down later aren't protecting your result. They're costing you. We'd rather set a price based on comparable recent sales and be straight with you about it than tell you what you want to hear and adjust later.

Price guide and reserve matter more than people think, because your result is shaped by where the campaign starts, not just how many people show up. A well set starting point, with a handful of genuinely interested buyers, is what pushes a price up, not an inflated number nobody believes.

This article draws on a conversation between Juan and Josh Merchan on the Selling Frankston
podcast. Juan has been selling property in Frankston and Frankston South for more than 25 years.