Agents team up for $2M viral Enfield home campaign

A Sydney seller and buyer’s agent have teamed up to run a viral marketing campaign for an unoccupied Enfield home expected to sell for about $2 million at auction this weekend.

Richard Matthews, sales director and auctioneer Matthew Blackmore teamed up with JBX buyers agent Jason Ballo to market 21 The Parade, Enfield, in a campaign that generated over a million views on Instagram alone.

Mr Blackmore called on Mr Ballo to film the pitch video as he had developed a following for showing off homes in Sydney’s Inner West and Eastern Suburbs.

He said this was the first time he had joined forces with Mr Ballo, but the campaign had gone viral, with 37 contracts submitted and about 20 bidders received to register for the auction on Saturday.

“It’s had over a million views and 800 comments,” Mr Blackmore said.

“People like to see what’s on the property market and Jason has a huge following.

“I can’t tell you the number of local buyers who have contacted us and said, ‘I saw it on social media.’

“It definitely helped us with our campaign.”

Mr Blackmore said his approach with the dilapidated house campaign was to “tell it like it is”.

The three-bedroom, one-bathroom home is not structurally sound to live in, with holes in the roof and walls, damaged amenities that are falling apart, and black mold everywhere.

“There’s no point hiding any of the imperfections,” Mr Blackmore said.

“It is a property with land value.

“It created a lot of excitement, especially from the local neighborhood.

“When we just put the sign up, there were a lot of neighbors, from the surrounding streets, who called because it’s one of those houses where they said if it ever goes on the market, they really want to bid on it. .”

Mr Blackmore said it made sense for him to team up with Mr Ballo and use his online following.

“Buyers’ agents are there to help someone buy a property and we’re here to help sell people’s properties,” he said.

“It literally makes sense (to work together).”

Mr Blackmore said working with buyers’ agents was positive because they had qualified buyers who were ready to buy and knew what they did and didn’t want.

He said while buyer’s agents used to work mostly at the top end of the market, that was changing fast.

“We sold a unit in Enfield a few weeks ago that was $700,000 and those people appointed a buyer’s agent to negotiate to buy for them,” Mr Blackmore said.

Mr Ballo said more and more agents were contacting him to get him to make an explainer video on their properties.

He said not all the homes were run down, with many being quite luxurious and a few attracting millions of views.

“We’ve had one video that’s had 4.5 million (views), we’ve had a few at two million, many between one and two million and many between 150,000 and 300,000 views as well,” Mr Ballo said.

He said he started the videos as a way to show potential buyers what they could get for their money in Sydney, particularly in the Inner West and Eastern Suburbs.

“What agents don’t do is they don’t talk about price,” Mr. Ballo said.

“They’re hiding the price, so I decided my thing would be to talk about the price and say, ‘This is what you can buy for your money in Sydney.’

Mr. Ballo said the creation of the videos has certainly helped attract business, even if not specifically for the properties it showcases.

“I get three to five calls a week from people saying, ‘I’ve watched your videos, I’ve been looking for a place and I need help,'” he said.

Mr. Ballo noted that the rivalry that once existed between buyers’ agents and sales agents was changing.

“Real estate agents need buyers and buyer agents need real estate agents,” he said.

“It’s better to deal with a buyer’s agent these days, especially if it’s off-market, because you bring in someone who has qualified the situation, there’s no time wasted.”

Mr Ballo said numerous agents saw his videos on social media and contacted him to see if he had buyers for their properties.

The property at 21 The Parade, Enfield, will be auctioned on site this Saturday, June 29 at 3pm.