MAKING A PLAN WHEN NATURAL DISASTER STRIKES

When a natural disaster strikes, like the one North Queensland is currently facing, the real estate market and its local leaders need a pragmatic and calm head to help navigate the short term road ahead. In 2011 we faced the Brisbane floods.

At the time Brian White, Ray White Chairman, connected me with the owner of Ray White Christchurch who has just faced the devastating earthquakes. He talked to me about the importance of managing the early stages after a significant natural disaster and his learning focused initially on two external groups. The first was the people who were currently for sale.

These people had a plan, they were selling for a reason. They were now facing significant uncertainty and had lots of questions. The second, he said, was the ‘Bargain hunters’. He said people would start calling or presenting to these sellers as ‘helpers’ but they were anything but that. I was so surprised how accurate he was and how many of those ‘Vultures’ called our office from other states.

Our strategy started with ‘cleaning the shop’. A real estate shop is the community, it was filthy and it needed a clean. We joined the mud army and polished up the area. We met with all our owners who were selling and assessed their situation. We shared what little information we had on how values could be affected. Oh and we told those ‘opportunist buyers’ to take a hike!

We found once the market was back in shape (only a few weeks) we went back to full operation. Some areas did see a drop in prices, while other properties saw no drop at all.