How ‘stalking’ helped this Aussie secure a rental – Yahoo Finance Australia

Becky Casey recently moved into a rental with her partner and brother, and said it was her “stalking” skills that helped her land the place.
The 35-year-old Sydney resident had been looking for a new place to live for about a month, but found the rental market extremely competitive, not to mention pricey.
After leaving an inspection for an apartment in Dulwich Hill, Becky and her partner ran into some of the neighbours, who mentioned they were good friends with the rental property owners.
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“I said, ‘We should be friends on Instagram, what’s your name?’ I thought we needed to find them and befriend them and show them we are normal people and we would fit in,” Becky told Yahoo Finance.
The couple ended up adding the neighbours on Instagram, which Becky said was not her finest moment.
“I felt like such a stalker. I probably shouldn’t have [done it] but it is competitive and you’ve got to do what you’ve got to do,” she said.
But it worked out in the end, with Becky securing the apartment and becoming actual friends with the neighbours.
Melbourne resident Cecilia Distefano is another Aussie who went to resourceful lengths to try to get an edge over her competition.
Cecilia purchased a two-bedroom unit in Essendon with her partner about a year and a half ago. The couple had been searching for a place for about six months. The 28-year-old said it almost felt like having another full-time job.
Cecilia ended up bringing a friend to one of the final inspections of the Essendon apartment, who suggested she try to discourage the other prospective buyers.
“As we were walking through the property, we spotted a bit of water damage on the ceiling and he started talking really loudly, really negatively about it for other buyers to hear,” Cecilia told Yahoo Finance.
“He would say, ‘This is a really big job. It’s going to cost thousands to fix. Are you sure you want to take that on?’
“The other buyers definitely heard him and, afterwards, I saw people go over to the ceiling to look at it after we were done. So, that was interesting. It was a funny experience.”
Cecilia and her partner ended up winning the property at auction, beating out four other bidders.
Becky and Cecilia aren’t the only ones going to creative lengths to get an edge over their competition.
Recent research from Domain found 90 per cent of Aussies were trying creative tactics to land their property. This included things like writing heartfelt letters to sellers, buying slabs of beer or baking for the seller and agent, and offering to pay the moving costs of the seller.
Like Becky, 29 per cent of the 1,000 Aussies surveyed admitted to seeking out intel from neighbours, while 19 per cent said they stalked sellers on social media.
Some Aussies went to even more extreme lengths, with Domain hearing of people buying the agent a car, hiring a helicopter to make it to an auction on time and getting their friends and family to put in under-bids.
Domain chief of research and economics Dr Nicola Powell said the tide was changing for both the sales and rental markets.
Auction listings rose for the second month in a row, Domain’s August data found, with Sydney up by 24.4 per cent annually and Melbourne up by 18.3 per cent.
“What that means for a buyer out there is that they’ve got more choice,” Powell told Yahoo Finance.
“What we were seeing over the winter months is conditions were competitive and buyers were finding there was a lack of supply. That tide and trend is now changing.
“We’ve seen it lift consistently month on month and now we are in the spring selling season we are expecting these things to boost significantly, particularly over September and October.”
There’s also a bright spot for renters. Domain found the vacancy rate had remained steady at 0.9 per cent for the second month in a row.
“The vacancy rate is a proxy of supply and demand in the rental market, so how many vacant properties are there compared to overall supply,” Powell said.
“It is steady so I would say that is saying the tide is changing, but we still can’t disregard the fact that it is still very challenging and extremely tight.
“But I think that steady nature of that vacancy rate is a good sign. [But] it still remains tight and what that means is that we are likely to see asking rents continue to rise.”
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