Damian Montgomery has sold some pretty ordinary property over the years, but the four-bedroom Tuggerawong home he sold under the hammer on the weekend easily takes the cake.
The only way to describe the brick home at 23 Warners Avenue is as a ‘hoarder house’, meaning it was full of clothing, rubbish and old furniture.
The kitchen was a scene frozen in time with dirty plates and cutlery festooned with cobwebs.
One bedroom was completely blocked by boxes stacked to the ceiling.
“I’ve sold some pretty ordinary properties, but that actually took the cake,” the LJ Hooker Budgewoi | Toukley principal said.
“The solicitor met me onsite, to see if I’d be interested in selling it.
“They were going to get it all cleaned up but the quote came in at $15,000 and they said they didn’t know what to do because there was no money in the estate.
“So I said, ‘Why don’t we market it as is’, and they laughed and then realised I was serious.”
But that straightforward approach is exactly the marketing campaign Mr Montgomery ran.
He took the photographs rather than using a professional photographer and the listing description got straight to the point, highlighting that the property was an “opportunity to turn some hard work into some real $$$”.
The listing also fully disclosed that the property was a deceased estate and would be sold with all of junk, except the vehicle, in the photos.
“Yes, nothing will be cleared,” the listing read.
Mr Montgomery said interest in the property was astounding, generating more than 2000 online views and more than 300 people at the auction.
“We ended up having 112 groups through, 46 of them registered and there was seven different bidders,” he said.
Initially, Mr Montgomery thought the property could have sold for between $600,000 and $650,000 if it had been cleared and tidied up.
It ended up selling for $680,000, which was well above the $500,000 reserve.
“The opening bidder, their best friend is a real estate agent and they had been told to go in strong and blow everyone out of the water,” Mr Montgomery said.
“We were expecting the bidding to start at about $450,000 and they started at $560,000.”
The young couple that ended up winning the auction were Kayal and Vili Manamokan from Regents Park.
The Manamokans, who have been searching for an investment property, were not deterred by the home’s condition.
“If anything that sold it for us; we like projects and being able to add value,” Mr Manamokan told realestate.com.au.
The house last sold for $365,000 in July 2014. According to PropTrack data, the median house price in Tuggerawong currently stands at $810,000.
