Zian William Fox Gibbs secured a four-bedroom house at 23 Wickerson Crescent in Bli Bli, Queensland for $1.2 million after just seven days on market, delivering his investment client an immediate 4.12% rental yield.
Finding the right property in one weekend
Zian William Fox Gibbs signed his investment client on a Friday afternoon. Twenty-four hours later, he’d found them the perfect property.
The four-bedroom house at 23 Wickerson Crescent in Bli Bli was the third property Zian inspected that weekend. It was the second open home on Saturday, and it matched everything his client needed.
“I had signed my client on 24 hours prior and that was the first Saturday, so we had open homes to go to,” Zian said.
“It was my second open home that I attended and it matched what we wanted. It was just going to produce the rental yield that we desired for my client.”
The property sold for $1.2 million via private treaty after just seven days on market, delivering an immediate 4.12% annual yield.
Winning against higher offers
Zian wasn’t the highest bidder on the day. He also wasn’t the only buyer’s agent at the table.
What won the deal was contract structure.
Zian coordinated his client’s broker, conveyancer and building inspector before making the offer, enabling a potential seven-day path to unconditional. That speed, combined with matching the owner-occupier vendor’s desired 60-day settlement period, made his client’s offer the strongest on terms rather than price.
“I was able to have everybody arranged in a way that our contract to unconditional was roughly seven days, making it a really fast contract term,” Zian said.
“We also worked within the settlement period desired by the owner occupiers, which was about 60 days because we were an investment client. It was very straightforward.”
He also built strong communication with the sales agent, which helped position his client’s offer favourably despite not being the highest figure.
Local knowledge drives the investment case
The purchase delivered more than yield. Within days of going unconditional, Zian checked comparable sales and estimated the property’s value had already grown to around $1.32 million.
That immediate equity gain wasn’t luck. Zian grew up in the Bli Bli area and watched it transform over the past decade.
“Bli Bli, I’m a local from that area. I grew up in that region. It didn’t used to be what it is now. It was a rural little town situated in cane fields,” he said.
“Now it’s just been striking with development for the last 10 years and only now has the market realised.”
Zian sees Bli Bli capturing about 15% annual market value growth as buyers look beyond the coastal townships like Coolum Beach, Maroochydore and Mooloolaba.
Bli Bli sits 10 minutes from Maroochydore and within 15 minutes of the beach, yet remains removed from the coastal price premium. The suburb has transformed from rural cane fields to a residential and commercial hub over the past decade, with the motorway five minutes away providing direct arterial access to Sunshine Coast CBD and coastal townships.
The client’s response
The client’s previous experience with a buyer’s agent had been negative. Signing with Zian was something of a last chance for the buyer’s agent model.
“He was very satisfied with how fast and smooth the whole process went and how well his money was spent,” Zian said.
Zian works on a bracketed fee structure rather than a percentage-based commission, meaning there’s no incentive to push clients toward higher spend, often saving his clients thousands of dollars in fees, according to Zian.
“My intent is to save my client as much money as possible,” he said.
“There’s no incentive to me to get him to spend more, but there’s every incentive for me to get him to spend less or to capitalise on a property that is worth far more than it’s being listed as.”
About the Agent
Zian William Fox Gibbs has assessed over 150 open homes in the past year under the guidance of Tim Allen with IPS Buyers Agents. His clients typically secure a property within two to four weeks. Before real estate, Zian spent 11 years in the Australian Army as a Combat Engineer specialising as a lead searcher, training that now informs his property inspection process. Visit IPS Buyers Agents for more information or call Zian on +61 466 247 046.
