My wife and I recently sold our pretty little garden apartment with Costa Karabatsos at Hocking Stuart St Kilda and we are happy to recommend him to any prospective selling vendor. Disarmingly youthful ( but not a man child by any means ) Costa is all at once credible , good humored and knowledgeable . Costa instantly impressed us with his extensive local area feel, accurate quick maths (who does that?) and later his winning auctioneer skills, he seemed to possess an almost photographic memory resulting in detailed recall . At our appraisal , in tandem with Director and StKilda Real Estate Celebrity Statesman Mr John Manning ( see John’s review) in a kind of two-headed charming monster partnership , Costa seemed to file enough memories and remember enough details on demand for the both of the two men combined ( lol no disrespect intended) that basically put them miles ahead of their local counterparts . Showing the same “easy-going” and “ no pressure “ flexibility when negotiating their commissions and marketing packages that not only seemed un-“sales-like” (read as No Cringe ) but actually made my wife and I feel like VIPs despite our precious little listing being the most inexpensive in their glorious Red Book and helped us quickly realize that Costas confident presentation, open honest delivery style and a skill for concise communication (taking all the notes, the first with an answer ) knew we wanted our prospective buyers dealing with this guy. The approachable pair proved to have broad rapport and appeal right across the whole age demographic of our buying range , Costa understood our joy living here and how to communicate that to buyers. Our campaign performed well above average and had big numbers at our opens. All buyers came on the Auction day. Costa worked the bidders like a matador from his introduction, he controlled the pace and the subsequent bidding frenzy took us 16% above reserve and exceeded our expectations to champagne and high-five status!
