John Manning has been in local bayside Real Estate for many years. It appeared to me as a seller that so many years in the industry may have led John to 'talk the talk' and that I might be led into a sale process provided with unrealistically high expectations, upgraded marketing and last minute advice to sell at any cost due to 'market conditions'. This approach as is used by so many Agents in the property game was never used by John and indeed, the same process was one full of transparency, factual information and appropriate communication. Johns easy going approach backed by infinite honesty was freshening, informative and open. The result was better than expected but it was the process and feedback that impressed me the most. The final price on a property will always sort itself out but it is mutual trust that gets you there in the end and faith in your Agent. Thank you John for an impressive and fresh campaign. I would certainly recommend you to other vendors thinking of selling. Satisfied Vendor, 1/4 Alfred Square St Kilda

We have bought and sold property with John achieving excellent results each time. John is a highly skilled and honest real estate professional who gives 100% effort to his work. We have always enjoyed the partnership and would not hesitate to recommend John to others.

John Manning was absolutely charming , knowledgeable and “low pressure” from the moment my wife and Inopened our door to Hocking Stuart for an appraisal on our East StKilda garden apartment. When you are considering a selling agency it’s nice to have The Director turn up to appraise your property. With a solid two decades of experience under his belt , and a non-pushy approach to winning our listing ( including an unprecedented flexibility when negotiating his commission and when tailoring our marketing strategy to our budget.) John was instantly a head above the competition by making us feel at ease and reflect an understanding what we love about the property, how it is placed on the market in the area and most importantly how to convey that in our campaign to reach our buyer range (and how to really bring genuine well qualified bidders on our auction day . ) When our property performed well above average during our campaign, we knew we were onto a winner with John . Always available to us , although our beautiful little place was probably one of the smallest in The Red Book ( and comparatively insignificant compared to the featured multi million dollar listings they handle with the same charm) but John, paired in classic “good-cop/good-cop” combination with personable and fresh faced auctioneer Costa Karabatsos -(Kudos to Costa too, see Costa’s review) made us feel like VIP clients. They remained contactable, continually giving us tons of progress reports after each open and answering all my calls and questions. John and Costa facilitated with finesse the runaway bidding war that took place on the most formidable of inclement Melbourne Autumn days . Bucketing down rain till the hammer with five groups competing to own ..which resulted in the best possible outcome - Thanks, John . .thanks for that fabled , triumphant “champagne and high five “ sale (16% above our auction reserve! ) Five Stars to John Manning at StKilda HS for exceeding all our expectations.

John was wonderful all the way through from first visit to our house to after the successful sale. We had many conversations which were always pleasant and while John maintained a professional manner we found him friendly and relatable. Communication was so important. It was a really nice experience selling our house.

Right from the start I had confidence in John because he communicated so well and often. At every stage of the process of property preparation for auction, the legal paperwork and the lead up to auction day, he kept me in the loop. Even though the property did not sell at auction he assured me it would sell very soon, and it did. He negotiated a price with a buyer that suited all, and very efficiently sent through the paperwork within 30 minutes. He is a busy man, but I felt he was working for me, as his attention to detail was admirable. Thanks John.

Couldn't fault the service from the start, good advice and guidance on how to best present the property for sale including organising work that needed to be done, excellent ongoing communication on progress, results of open days and generally keeping us fully informed and we got a sale!

From the start of our dealings with John he always made sure we were happy and that we understood the selling procedure. John's advice on the day of the Auction was spot on and as such achieved a great result. We are so glad we selected John to sell our property and would highly recommend him to prospective sellers. Thanks again John :-)

John is a very personable, thorough and honest agent to deal with. For any vendors or buyers seeking a local, knowledgeable and capable ally for real estate transactions in the St Kilda or Elwood area, I totally recommend John and his team as being well able to look after you.

After many interviews with all the major real estate companies we choose John Manning from Hocking Stuart to sell our house in Elwood. We decided to go with John because he was by far and above the most passionate, personable and professional agent combined with excellent market knowledge of the area. The whole campaign orchestrated by John was seamless,professional and he delivered an outstanding result! We believe this brilliant result was due to John being 100% hands on with the campaign from the outset with superb communication and negoitation skills!

Thanks to John Manning and Costa we sold our property on the day of auction after it had been passed in. Both me and my wife were pleased with the speedyness of the process and we felt like John handled the auction like an absolute pro. We would use john again.

John Manning was the first agent I spoke to at Hocking Stuart.He provided helpful correct advice right from the start prior to listing the property for sale.He was encouraging during sale process and acted in honest professional manner in helping conclude sale

John gave us good advice without being pushy. He helped us through every step of the sales process and kept us very well informed along the way. He has a very good knowledge of the local market. We really couldn't have asked for better service from him and his team. We would choose to use John again if we had our time over.