In today’s market, buying a fixer-upper in a growth suburb may just about be the smartest thing you can do. 

Go-getting Millennials, the Canon sisters have one common goal: to buy a home in Melbourne, ideally by the time they hit 30.

Although Emily, Pamela, Cerise and Hannah are following different paths to home ownership, they’re supporting one another through every step — and they’re letting us come along for the ride…

The Canon sisters all have their hearts set on owning a home of their own. Picture: Eugene Hyland

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Emily: Tackling a reno out west

Emily, 29, and her husband Clint have recently jumped off the auctions treadmill and snapped up a two–bedroom fixer-upper with bags of potential in Melbourne’s west.

“We were going to auctions almost every weekend for several months and, to be honest, we were starting to feel a bit despondent,” says Emily.

“Then we found a great property in a great location, and as luck would have it, the vendor was happy to accept our offer prior to the auction.”

The newlyweds are hoping to benefit from good capital growth and the opportunity to add value to the property by carrying out renovations before moving up the property ladder. They are also considering sub-dividing further down the line.

With Melbourne’s current softening market seeing a 4.1% dip in house prices in the past three months*, there are more opportunities to break into the market right now.

“Emily and Clint did well to buy in a growth area and invest in a property that can be increased in value. Buying in areas where there is a lot of older housing stock and heaps of first home buyers is one of the best ways to set yourself up for some great capital growth,” says Nerida Consibee, realestate.com.au’s Chief Economist.

“If we look long term, gentrifying areas generally achieve the best capital growth. This is because young people improve homes and create demand for better retail precincts. Eventually, they have children and improve the local schools, too. Renovating and/or sub-dividing isn’t for everyone but it can be a great way to move up the property ladder,” adds Consibee.

Emily and her husband Clint have bought a doer-upper in Melbourne’s west. Picture: Eugene Hyland

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As well as wanting to stay close to her mum and older sister Cerise, Emily feels there’s more bang for your buck in terms of land value on the west side of Melbourne’s CBD.

“We were attracted to the area’s affordability and hope that buying and renovating a fixer-upper in a growth suburb will prove to be a good move in terms of building capital growth and adding value to the property relatively quickly,” says Emily.

“And while living around construction can be frustrating, it’s a case of short-term pain for long-term gain.”

The young couple are more than happy to live a little further out in order to be able to afford a sizeable property on a large block of land, however they wanted to stay within 20km of the CBD so they could travel to work easily and would still have access to good amenities.

“We knew we’d have to make compromises and never expected to move straight into our dream home. We’re throwing ourselves into the renovations and are looking forward to putting our own stamp on the place,” says Emily.

“However, we weren’t prepared to budge on having quick transport links and at least a few good places to go for coffee, eat out etc. For us, Melbourne’s west ticked all these boxes and more.”

Melbourne’s west has some great outdoor spaces as well as cheaper property prices. Picture: Supplied

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A learning curve: Home buyer’s red tape

Buying your first home can be a daunting process, especially when it comes to the legalities.

“Probably the biggest learning curve for us as first home buyers was the contract side of things,” says Emily.

“We found it’s best to get legal advice before you get your heart set on a property as contract of sale conditions can differ quite a bit.”

When it came to sorting the finances, the couple did their homework then turned to the experts.

“Going through the finance process was intimidating at first; we ended up using a mortgage broker and they helped us navigate the process,” says Emily.

As Emily and Clint bought an established home, rather than buy or build a new home, they weren’t eligible for the First Home Owner Grant (FHOG). However, they did benefit from the Victorian first home owner stamp duty exemption (available on homes which have a dutiable value of up to $600,000).

The couple’s fixer-upper needs a lot of work but has loads of potential. Picture: Visual Domain

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Attending and bidding at auctions was also a fairly challenging experience for the couple, who ended up bidding at three before striking it lucky.

“Bidding at auctions was definitely a challenging experience for us. They can be a real rollercoaster ride — at first there’s a big adrenaline rush but after a loss you feel pretty deflated,” says Emily.

“You have to remind yourself not to become emotional and to be firm about sticking to your budget.”

Although thrilled that they’ve managed to break into the market and have purchased a property with plenty of potential, it’s not Emily and Clint’s forever home.

“It’s the first stepping stone of our property journey,” says Emily.

“We’re hoping to finish the renovations this year, sub-divide in the next couple of years then, all going to plan, be in the position to buy our dream family home within the next five years or so.”

Is west best?

Melbourne’s west continues to be popular with first home buyers thanks to lower property prices, good growth prospects and the variety of urban developments on offer.

The overall median average sale price for Melbourne’s west is $575,000, while the median sale price for houses in this area is $595,000.

“Melbourne’s west is attracting a lot of first home buyers and younger residents thanks to its affordability and close proximity to the CBD,” says Consibee.

“It’s possible Emily and Clint may find the area changing around them and their property increasing in value more than they expected.”

* As reported by data researcher CoreLogic

Median sale price: The price of a property that falls in the middle of the total number of properties sold over the preceding 12-month period. Data current as of 1 March 2019. Data supplied by Hometrack Australia.

This article was originally published on
4 Jun 2019 at 12:04pm
but has been regularly updated to keep the information current.

Mauricio Umansky has served at the helm of The Agency for 15 years now.

The luxury brokerage founder and CEO has been through all kinds of markets, had stints on reality TV, and is now a co-founder of a budding professional association, the American Real Estate Association.

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But things in the industry — and the world at large — still surprise him, he told Inman, musing, “Who knows what’s going to happen in all of this world?”

At least one thing is certain: Attendees at Inman Connect New York can count on seeing Umansky’s vibrant personality light up the stage when he speaks at the event on Feb. 3, 2026 at the New York Hilton Midtown.

In advance of his appearance at ICNY, Umansky spoke with Inman about some of the latest headlines and what attendees should prepare for in New York. Here’s what he had to say, edited for brevity and clarity.

Inman: The big Compass and Anywhere merger just closed. Were you surprised at all that the deal went through? What are your thoughts?

Umansky: I’m not necessarily surprised that it went through. I’m surprised how easily, and how there was zero request to get rid of any particular spots in any market. Like the market power…. I mean, they made them sell off a couple of locations when they did the @properties deal. But then, they didn’t do that to them during this deal, the feds. So that was a little bit shocking. But, was I shocked it went through? No.

I’m curious if you think that deal and its impact will change the greater M&A landscape in the industry at all this year?

I think it will. I think that you’re going to start seeing a lot more M&A. But, by the same token, I would have to imagine that Compass and Anywhere are pretty much done with M&A, which kind of opens up opportunities for everybody else. I mean, I can’t imagine that they would have the opportunity to do anything much more sizable. And they have a lot of work on their hands to just operate. And even from a size perspective, I think that takes them out of the market.

So, you know, I think that will create other opportunities amongst other brokerage firms. I also think a lot of the other brokerage firms really, really need to consolidate and collaborate, you know, even if it’s not in a true M&A type of situation. We do need to collaborate from the perspective of just having market strength and market power together. Because that is such a strong market power that we all need to get together to make sure that we’re able to defend ourselves [against it].

Is that something you’ve been thinking about for The Agency, specifically?

Yes.

We’ll have to keep an eye out for that then. Thinking more about how the 2026 market may play out more generally, what do you think will be the main themes in 2026?

We’re still super low on transaction volumes. We need to improve that.

Interest rates are compressing, but they need to compress a little bit further in order to start purchasing. We still need to fix affordable housing in this country.

I think consolidation is going to be critical.

I think there’s going to be a lot of stuff happening with NAR, Compass, Zillow, lots of changes in that world, from the perspective of market strength, people getting together. What’s going to happen with these exclusive listings, off-market listings? NAR’s got a lot of things to fix and a lot of things to do.

Between Zillow, and now with the market strength that Compass has, it will be an interesting thing to see what happens there. So data, inventory, is going to be critical.

You’re going to start seeing a lot more brokerage firms get into much more aggressive ancillary businesses. Mortgage, title, escrow, all that stuff.

The competitive marketplace that has been created, primarily by Compass, over the last 10 years has really compressed agent splits. So brokerage firms are, with agent splits compressing and low transaction volume, brokerage firms are going to be … they’re three years into a struggle, right? Valuations are still low. So that gives opportunities. I think that’s a lot I just gave you [laughs].

Yes, definitely lots to think about. Let’s talk a bit about the American Real Estate Association too. It sounds like you all are building up member ranks and the organization more generally. What’s the latest?

I think we’re close to 30,000 members, which is solid. And as you know, we’ve hired Mary-Frances [Coleman] to run it. We’re making some really great partnerships with a couple of different companies and what we want to offer real estate agents, from advocacy to benefits, to all different kinds of things. And I think 2026 will be an important year for us to really have a strong outcome by 2027. 2026 will definitely be a continuation of a build year.

And who knows what’s going to happen in all of this world? I don’t know.

Yes, thinking about the global uncertainty at hand, I wanted to ask since it’s everywhere in the headlines — there’s a lot of rhetoric surrounding Greenland right now. And I know that The Agency is very much a global brokerage today. Are you concerned about that rhetoric and how it might impact your business or relationships in other countries?

I mean, [The Agency is] not in Greenland yet. I don’t know how [large] the population is there. But look, the world’s a mess right now. It’s just all over the place. And thank God, we’re very connected. We’re opening up in Saudi [Arabia] this year. We’re very excited about that. We’ve got a couple other things that we haven’t announced yet, but are on the way. And we continue to grow as a global company.

There are some areas that are just booming and there are some that are not. But, we’re looking forward to our growth and surviving.

Well, that’s good to hear. So, transitioning here, as we prepare for Inman Connect New York in a few weeks, is there anything you’d like to tell people who are attending the event?

The timing for this event is fantastic. I like that it’s at the beginning of the year.

I think agents that are going there and spending time, I think AI is a critical piece. The old-time agents, the veterans that have been around forever, just have to embrace the new technologies in order to continue to be relevant as time goes on. They all have their relationships and they will always have those relationships, but if they want to build new relationships, their business is going to compress unless they get relevant and take advantage of that.

Because you’ve got all the new agents that are using all these tools. So the older agents have to adapt and use the tools because the newer agents are going to be super efficient, because they’re born with all these tools, right? It’s part of their generation.

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Email Lillian Dickerson

The Real Brokerage has been on a record run for the past two years, tripling its agent count and sales volume all without increasing its back-office staff. However, the foundation of Real’s current success dates back more than 11 years, when brokerage co-founders Tamir Poleg, Yuval Niv and Gal Weiss began building an artificial intelligence-powered operating platform, reZEN.

Tamir Poleg, Real

“Brokerage is a low-margin business. If you continue to rely on humans for processing of transactions, and if you rely on office locations, and if you need to scale while adding more and more headcount, you would probably fail,” he said. “So for us, it wasn’t a choice. It was a necessity. Our ratio is one full-time employee for every 90 agents, and this is due to the fact that we automated so many of the tasks that people typically do at an office.”

Poleg said his team is continually refining the platform and pushing the envelope with Leo, the brokerage’s AI assistant that supercharges the agent and consumer experience through incredibly detailed operations and home search support.

“You don’t have to wait for a human to actually answer the question or go and collect information. Leo knows,” he said. “Leo has visibility into everything that you do at Real — all of your past transactions, pending transactions, closing payments, past support, tickets, revenue share payments, licensing situation, MLS situation. Leo knows everything.”

The CEO said his focus on technology and supporting his agents has helped him tune out industry noise and focus on what matters.

“So very often, people will say, ‘Hey, this company did this, maybe we should do it.’ And immediately we’re saying, ‘No,’” he said. “I mean, if you’re just reacting to what somebody else is doing, you’re following. That’s the wrong strategy.”

Inman: It’s been years since we’ve spoken, and obviously, a lot of exciting things have happened since then. The first thing I’d like to touch on is the tremendous growth REAL has seen over the past two years in sales volume and agent count. How were you able to achieve that?

Poleg: I think that we’ve demonstrated that we know how to grow in good markets and in the worst possible market conditions. We are constantly improving our per-agent productivity, which means we’re attracting agents who are more productive than the industry average. What that tells me is that we’ve built a platform that is compelling to agents.

When we ask them, ‘Why did you join Real?’ we get a few answers. One is the freedom of flexibility. Agents are small businesses, and we ask them to run their businesses however they want, as long as they’re compliant. We give them all of the technology that they need, which saves them a lot of money on third-party tools and time spent on each transaction.

The next thing is the culture we’ve built here. Agents want to be surrounded by agents who support them, who root for them, and who are there, especially now when the market is tough. Real agents don’t compete. They collaborate. Most of our agents are shareholders in the company, so they have a vested interest in seeing their fellow agents succeed.

You mentioned being able to grow in both the good and the bad times. How does your growth strategy differ based on market forces?

I think that, generally speaking, we think very, very, very long term in terms of 10 years, sometimes five years. What [that mindset] enables us to do is eliminate the noise created, sometimes by temporary events, sometimes by market conditions. It gives us a North Star and a way to kind of plan for the future and what agents will need in 10 years, and what buyers and sellers will need in 10 years, and eliminates the need to cater or react to what others are doing.

In terms of market conditions, there are opportunities to win in every market — some of our largest teams are experiencing their best year ever. Even when the market is challenging, people are still buying and selling homes, and we’re focused on giving them the edge they are looking for.

When it comes to noise, there’s plenty of it right now. Before we officially started our conversation today, we briefly chatted about the legal battle between Zillow and Compass. How do you think these things will impact real estate five to 10 years from now? And what does that mean for your strategy as one of the smaller players in the industry? 

Good, good question. I think that, generally speaking, there are no winners in wars. And if Zillow and Compass are at war, I think both are losing and will lose. And I think that the entire industry will lose. Instead of showing the amazing ways agents make the American Dream come true and help families, it just shows the negative side of real estate.

In terms of private listings, they — or the idea of them — have been around forever. At the end of the day, it’s about what’s right for consumers. If I were the average homeseller, I would want my property out in the market with as much exposure as possible so I can sell it as quickly as possible for the highest price. That would be my motivation as a homeseller, and I think that contradicts the idea of [a private exclusive].

When this whole thing emerged — the debate over private listings and bypassing MLSs, or even creating a nationwide MLS — for me, that was noise. I think people are underestimating the power of MLS infrastructure and agents’ habits of using MLSs, and I don’t think that can be easily changed.

But I think that at some point, Zillow and Compass will probably settle and return to focusing on their own businesses, and the sooner they do that, the better.

Shifting focus, Real has 100 percent agent tech adoption. I can’t think of another brokerage that can say that.

That’s a metric we’re really proud of. There’s a real struggle to convince agents to use the technology that the brokerage provides, but most brokerages are just buying third-party tools. But adoption for us was about ‘You have no choice but to use our technology.’

You cannot be an agent at Real without using our technology, so that naturally pushes agents to interact with it. You cannot generate a transaction, you cannot close the transaction or get paid outside of the Real platform.

That naturally forces people to use technology, and once they actually use it, they fall in love with it, understand the benefits and appreciate the time saving. They understand the ease of use. They understand the visibility it provides and the 24/7 support available. Everything is done automatically on our app.

So all in all, it’s just a set of benefits that works in favor of the agent, but they also don’t have any other option.

One thing to remember is that everything we build is done in collaboration with our agents. It’s not ideas that came out of nowhere. It’s a process of brainstorming with our agents about what their day-to-day looks like, what they’re missing, what’s not working well for them, where they can actually improve and save time, and creating software solutions.

Our time is winding down, so I’ll ask you the same final question I’ve been asking everyone else: What are you most excited about in 2026? What do you plan to do next year that advances your goals for Real in 2036?

What I’m excited for in 2026, first of all, I care deeply about our agents. And a lot of our agents in the industry are just struggling right now, and I hope that 2026 is just going to be a better year for agents overall, not necessarily just at Real. I think that after three very challenging years of very low home sale figures, hopefully 2026 will bring a change.

I’m excited about everything we’re building on the AI front, and I’m just excited to continue, grow, take market share, become a more meaningful player and deliver value to more agents.

Email Marian McPherson