Alfred’s lesson for homebuyers – realestate.com.au

While Alfred didn’t cross in his full glory last week he certainly did have an impact and he has left us with a few lessons.

The market had to batten down the hatches. Most real estate companies made the call to cancel all open homes for the weekend.

We pushed our scheduled auctions from Saturday March 8 to our monthly ‘In-room Auction’ event at The Calile Hotel (Saturday March 15 from 9am).

MORE: How cyclone Alfred will hit home prices

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Haesley Cush is a principal at Ray White New Farm, charity auctioneer, and an award-winning real estate agent. Picture: Lyndon Mechielsen/Courier Mail

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Property managers stand in the front line when disaster strikes.

Alfred’s demise was met by a collective sign of relief from these industry stalwarts but their week has still been about managing leaks, wet carpets and damage caused from flooding.

But my biggest learning was insurance.

It was a battle between the lawyers and insurance companies on whether a buyer can assign the liability of insurance to the seller pre-settlement.

The word from the insurers was they can’t and at the climax of pre-Alfred preparation the insurance industry issued an embargo on policies! Sending buyers into a panic.

Thankfully a knight in shining armour, Kelly Tatlow CEO of Ray White Concierge, personally came to our rescue and managed over 300 policies with Ray White insurance across the group!

Finally with the water now evaporating, many people want to know whether the weather dampened the prices.

Well I can share that at our first open house on Monday night, a two bedroom unit in Hamilton, saw over 30 buyers – with umbrellas or raincoats – lined up for an inspection.

A strong sign that the rain didn’t water down the market over the short break.

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