Conversation with Jonathan Fordham of Capital Edge | You&Me Personalised Property Services

Jonathan Fordham and Simon Deering-Who are YouandMe PPS

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Buyer's agent and co-founder

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Meeting You&Me Personalised Property Services in Scarborough Beach, WA

Hi team, Jonathan Fordham here from Capital Edge and there’s not just a treat for me today it’s a treat for you. The treat for me is I’m here in Scarborough in beautiful sunny weather. I know you’ll be jealous if you’re watching this from Melbourne, but I’m here with Simon Deering from You&Me Personalised Property Services.

And what they are is they’re buyers advocates and agents that help people buy their own home.

Simon Deering of YouandMe PPS and Jonathan Fordham of Capital Edge

Buyer’s agents in Western Australia

A growing space for property buyers

Now, this is a bit of a new space in Australia where people are getting used to it, but it’s absolutely worth its weight in gold for the time you can spend trying to find your own home, dealing with agents, understanding the market. So we’re going to hear from Simon now. It’s great to meet you over here.

Simon Deering, Perth buyer’s agent

Thanks, Jonathan. Thanks for having me on. And welcome to all the Capital Edge viewers. I’m the co-founder of You&Me Personalised Property Services. And thanks for the warm introduction. As Jonathan said, we are buyers advocates, buyers agents and we specialise in representing the buyer in any transaction, whether it’d be an established apartment, home, large acreage or even huge development sites, up to 250 units.

It’s what we specialise in. I’ve been in real estate for 26 years, started when I was 18 and I’m 44 now. We deliver our work with an absolute passion, but like you said, the buyer’s agent space is relatively unknown. I’ve spent a little bit of time in New York about 15 years ago, and 95% of every single transaction that happens in New York will involve a selling agent and a broking agent.

The majority of buyers in Australia are still buying through selling agents

And then when I came back to Australia, I was like, I can’t believe people are going and spending hundreds of thousands of dollars in some cases tens of millions of dollars on the property where they are basing all of their advice from someone that’s legally representing the other party.

Why get advice from someone who represents the other party?

That makes 100% sense because they’re protected by their agent. And as a buyer, we just think we can do it by getting on real estate.com.au. I’m ringing an agent with no real experience in real estate negotiating the best deals.

Yeah. So let’s play it through like, okay, so I’m in Victoria and I’m looking in Perth and we’ve just heard of Scarborough’s: it looks gorgeous. Let’s have a look there, I ring up John the selling agent: “Hey John I’ve found this beautiful property that you’ve got for sale. Look it’s really, really nice. Well, it is really, really nice Simon. And what do you think the value is worth? Well, look, you know, we’re asking north of 600,000, but I think if you put in an offer of around $660,000, you’re going to be in really, really good stead.

You’re thinking, wow, what a lovely selling agent this guy is. He’s telling me everything I need to do to buy the property.

Buyer’s agents can help you save money

But what you don’t know is if you’d come through us, you could have got that same property for $620,000. Or what you don’t know is if you’d come through us, we would have said: no, you can’t buy that property because of this encumbrance or this easement, all this projected planning that’s actually going to happen. And those views that he’s talking about, they’re not going to be there in three years time, which is what you’re paying for right now.

Understanding the buying cycle

The buying cycle has never been more important, in my opinion, with inflation and interest rate rises, understanding different property cycles. So Victoria had such a great run with its property market for so long a period. Now it’s about understanding, well, what do I do with the wealth that I created in Victoria? Do I sit there and wait for the market to change or do I look to increase my portfolio and increase my wealth by looking at different regions?

A buyer’s agency that works with only 50 clients per year

And if you’re looking at something established and you want something that has an inundate understanding of the Perth market, well, myself and Heath Bassett, we specialise in good relationships, like your business, Jono. We’re big on relationships. We only work with 50 clients a year and our clients only ever work with myself and or with the co-founder Heath Bassett.

Helping buyers buy in Western Australia

And I think that’s massively important. And you mentioned the areas. Now if someone’s looking to buy an existing home, what areas do you cover?

Where can they get help from You&Me Personalised Property Services?

Good question. We service Western Australia North all the way to Lancelin and South all the way to the Margaret River Winery region. So we do service a lot of areas in the Perth and Greater Perth region. And in terms of when you’re talking about top suburbs and stuff like that, we love information and educating people, and I’ve always been an advocate of like I don’t mind sharing information with people if they feel that they can go off and do it by themselves.

Affordable areas in WA

All the power to them. If they find out that it’s a little bit more difficult than it looks, then they always know where to come back. But if you’re interstate right now and you’re watching this and you think that, you know, after you’ve done a house and land or an established could be your next source and you’re in that sort of $450,000 to $550,000 bracket look at suburbs like Butler, Clarkson, Alkimos North of the river, then south of the river.

Jonathan Fordham with Simon Deering in Scarborough WA

Look at areas like Port Kennedy, the Rockingham region, Waikiki, really good areas where the supply is quite limited, but the demand is high. And then the same things that you look for, we’re talking about great community, great demographics, higher owner occupiers, young families looking to build community, which will bring gentrification into those suburbs as well.

And what about people obviously wanting an existing home in Perth? You can help any other areas of Australia that you cover to help people. They’re looking to buy their own home.

Operating in Perth and Brisbane

It’s Brisbane and Perth, Brisbane as well where we’re based and you know, Daniel Rich, is our Head of Property Acquisitions over in Brisbane and again it’s just 50 clients year, it’s all we do. We have no interest in being the biggest. We just want to be referred to as the best in the industry and how we measure our successes is by what you know, people watching and people that have invested saw us have to say.

And I think with Heath, Simon and Daniel, you talk to the people that run the business and own the business, it’s the same at capital age. You’re talking to AJ, you’re talking to me. We’ve all been there. We have property, we love property. So if you’re looking at something existing in the Queensland or the WA market, please contact the team at You&Me Personalised Property Services.