Michael Ramsay helped me last year to find and buy a holiday house on the Bellarine peninsula. I did not know the local market at all. Michael at all times was courteous and helpful. He listened to what I wanted and located suitable properties, which saved me a good deal of time and work. He was a valuable part of the process, culminating in bidding at the auction. Highly recommended.
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We have two young children and we are moving down from Melbourne to Geelong for lifestyle reasons. Michael was great – easy to work with and got us what we wanted. Worth his weight in gold when bidding at auction and getting an idea for property value. Would highly recommend him as a buyers agent for anyone looking to buy in Geelong.
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| Michael had a way to access properties for sale which were not open for inspection or were about to be put on the market. This meant we could see the properties without other buyers around. As I had to travel from the country, he arranged for us to see 4-5 with in a short time, and at a time when they were not open for inspection. When we found the perfect property, I didn’t want to lose the sale and without Michael, I would have paid more than I needed to. His experience in negotiating a purchase price definitely saved me thousands of dollars and I was never left wondering if I’d paid too much. With more properties being sold by EOI using an advocate is paramount. Michael was able to recommend building inspectors, plumbers, security firms etc. He inspected the house before settlement saving me a trip to Melbourne, taking videos as he went. Michael also called in after we took possession to make sure all was in order. |
I can highly recommend engaging The Advocates to help purchase your property.
I always felt very safe in Michael’s hands, as he communicated so well and provided thorough detail on the houses I was interested in.
He really understood what was important for our family and he cared about securing us the right home to suit our needs.
Importantly, his auction day bidding was a master class and now we have the home we always wanted, with far less of the stress of doing it all ourselves.
Bo and Rachel
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Being Sydney based and looking to buy a house in Melbourne was never going to be easy at the best of times. In the middle of the Covid restrictions it would have been impossible without the help of Michael. Throughout the process, during a very heated market, Michael’s advice and counsel was thoughtful and balanced. He went to extraordinary efforts to assist us in our search and gave an honest assessment of the pros and cons of all the house we viewed. Michael is what you want in a buyer’s agent; knowledgeable, calm, thorough and trustworthy. Michael is an absolute gentleman, and I could not recommend him and The Advocates highly enough. Thank you, Michael, for all your help and your patience.
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We are two busy young professionals who attempted to buy our first home during a pandemic and the subsequent property boom. We are so glad we had Michael and Tony to help us. They took the time to truly understand our needs and give us clarity around what to look for. Throughout the search, they were proactive, organised and consistent. Always easy to talk to, professional and honest in their opinions. We learnt so much from them and have saved ourselves a lot of wasted time and stress by engaging someone to be on our side in the home buying process.
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Incredibly happy with our experience with The Advocates! We engaged Michael to assist us with buying a property on the Bellarine Peninsula during the Melbourne lockdown so we had the added challenge of being unable to view the property ourselves in person. Michael went above and beyond in giving us full confidence in our purchase; answering all the questions and concerns we had and being readily available during the whole process. Definitely worth the investment and we will certainly use them again. I would recommend them no matter the location/budget or property type.
A & A, Brunswick
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It was late in November 2018 and we had decided to relocate to Sale. We place a deposit on the Sale house with the transaction subject to the sale of our Eltham home. The seller also had a condition that we sell our Eltham house by the end of December 2018. Never having been involved in the sale or purchase of a house before we happily set off to the local auctioneer to proceed with the sale of our home. It can’t be too difficult as lots of people do it every weekend.
Things were happening and everything seemed to be in order but we were starting to cool after our initial rush of excitement. Meanwhile there were suggestions in the local press that the property market might be a bit overheated. In order to gauge the market we started attending local auctions. One such auction we attended not one bid was forthcoming from the attending crowd. Whether this was due to the market or other factors we didn’t know but is was enough to make us stop and think what we were letting ourselves in for. Perhaps we needed some advice. We subsequently contacted our financial adviser with the result that he put us touch with The Advocates.
Following a phone call to The Advocates, Michael and Tony met with us and explained how they could assist us in selling our house. The good news was that it would not cost us anything as their fee would come from the auctioneer’s. Michael or Tony attended at every weekly open house and followed up with the interested buyers.
The house was scheduled to go to auction a week before Christmas. At about this time the papers forecasted that the Sydney/Melbourne property markets may be about to fall. This caused all sorts of doubts to race through our mind. What have we done, are we doing the right thing, should we wait until the market improves before selling. We were becoming unsettled with doubts of what to do. A subsequent visit and some straight talk from Michael strengthened our backbone and we resolved to continue. A week or two later Tony was able to negotiate an agreeable offer from one of the attendees at the weekly inspections. The house was subsequently withdraw from auction and the rest as they say, is history.
Without Michael’s and Tony’s guidance and knowledge of the property market we shudder to think what might have been. There were times when we had our doubts but The Advocates kept our spirits up and our eyes on the ball for which we are thankful. And the best part, the final price, through their efforts was higher than that initially quoted by the auctioneer prior to the price fall.
A job well done, and all thanks to Michael and Tony.
All the best for the future guys.
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The Ryan clan are thrilled with the service you have provided to us. It is the bottom line that counts. By that very benchmark, our children are delighted with their townhouse while we are positively beaming over the acquisition of their duplex. The outcomes did not happen accidentally. We are mindful of the great effort made in scouring the marketplace, highlighting properties at different points of the spectrum, allowing us to better formulate our own ideas by exposing us to the range of what was available and when moving through the stages where purchases were effected. It has been a pleasure doing business with you!
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Hi Michael and Lisa…
Over the years we’ve bought and sold 4 houses with the help of The Advocates. Michael’s expertise in gauging the property market has been invaluable, giving us confidence that we were neither overpaying nor underquoting on all our properties.
He’s negotiated on our behalf in auctions and private sales with positive results. His help in readying our properties for sale enabled us to achieve a positive result in relatively poor market conditions on more than one occasion.
We would not hesitate to recommend The Advocates for all your property needs.
Thanks to you both.
