Mark Josem from Storyhouse Real Estate sold 154 Victoria Road, Hawthorn East for $3.351 million in 12 days — $150,000 above the best 2022 offer, despite a softer market and half the suburb’s median days on market.
What determines the sale price?
Mark didn’t sell 154 Victoria Road, Hawthorn East by ignoring market conditions — he sold it by controlling what he could actually influence. The same five-bedroom, four-bathroom family home with two-car spaces that attracted a best offer of $3.2 million in 2022 sold for $3.351 million in March 2026, despite a softer market working against vendors in real time.
The difference wasn’t the house. It was who competed for it.
“Agents don’t set the price, competition does,” Mark said.
“Our job is to engineer it.”
That’s what Storyhouse Real Estate’s selling system is designed to do: control the controllables. At Victoria Road, that meant reaching buyers before, between and during active search — not just when they happened to be scrolling property portals.
How social reach created more buyer competition
The major property portals reach buyers when they’re actively searching. But buyers aren’t actively searching every minute of every day. Mark’s story-led video and social campaign is designed to fill that gap — to reach buyers in the moments between portal sessions, when they’re scrolling feeds rather than filtering listings.
At Victoria Road, Mark says that strategy generated more than six times as many views as the portals alone. One of those views mattered more than the rest.
The underbidder came through the social campaign. They didn’t win the home, but they changed the sale.
“Sometimes all it takes is one genuine buyer,” Mark said.
“In this case, we found two.”
That’s when reach stopped being a marketing metric and became part of the result. Two genuine buyers competed for the home. One bought it for $3.351 million in just 12 days, sold before auction — half Hawthorn East’s 28-day median time on market. The other pushed the price.
Same home, softer market, better result
Sellers spend a lot of time watching things they can’t influence. Interest rates, clearance rates, median prices, buyer confidence — they all matter, but sellers can’t control them.
“You can’t control the market, you can’t control interest rates, you can’t control buyer sentiment,” Mark said.
“But what you can control is who represents you, the marketing, the presentation, the story behind the listing.”
Victoria Road doesn’t prove that marketing makes a home immune to market conditions. It demonstrates something more useful: same home, softer market, better result — because sometimes all it takes is one more buyer, and price changes when you change who competes.
The Hawthorn East appeal for family buyers
Victoria Road sits in a heritage-strong, leafy inner-east pocket of Hawthorn East, characterised by intact Victorian and Edwardian streetscapes and established family homes. The property is walking distance to Auburn Village and close to Camberwell Junction, with trains, cafes, parks and private schools all nearby — amenity that positions the area as a tightly held, premium family market comparable to established pockets in Canterbury and Kew.
About the Agent
Mark Josem is the founder of Storyhouse Real Estate, an inner-east Melbourne specialist with more than a decade of experience selling premium family homes across Boroondara and Stonnington. An award-winning sales leader, he conducts bilingual English–Mandarin auctions to maintain fast, direct momentum that builds price tension and competition. Mark combines proven selling fundamentals with story-led, social-first, video-mandatory marketing designed to help buyers connect earlier and compete more confidently. Visit Mark’s website for more information or call Mark on 0488856736