Melbourne comedian Brett D’Souza becomes real estate agent to sell three-bedroom Brunswick house
A comedian has dumped realtors and announced he will try to sell his house on his own.
Brett D’Souza is cutting estate agents altogether as he sells his home at 6 Walton Street in Brunswick, Melbourne’s northern suburb.
D’Souza hopes to raise $1.8 million for the property and has vowed to launch “Australasia’s greatest house sale ever.”
With 20 years of advertising and filmmaking experience, the 46-year-old hopes to turn his DIY real estate venture into a TV show for the ABC.
Melbourne comedian Brett D’Souza tries to sell his house without using a real estate agent, while also pitching the project to the ABC as a television show
D’Souza has ordained one website to his project and explained why he made the drastic decision to go it alone.
“I hate brokers,” he said.
“I think they’re shiny charlatans. It only takes six weeks to get your real estate license and then they want two to three percent of your house price. What?’
In the video, D’Souza says he lives in a “great house in a great area,” but he just can’t afford it after the Reserve Bank’s rapid rate hikes.
“My interest rates are about to go through the roof and when they do…eek,” he said.
He explained that his nine-year-old son goes to school in Footscray, a 25-minute drive away, and D’Souza wants him to be ‘close to his friends’ and be able to walk to school.
D’Souza said he will put the two to three percent commission that would normally go to a real estate agent into assembling a team to sell his house.
“You don’t shake up an industry by following the same path as them,” he said.
‘I will have to be bold, innovative. I’m going to have the biggest home sale this country has ever seen.”
The campaign, which he has been planning since December, will run through social media sites Instagram, LinkedIn, Facebook and also on Campaign Brief, the site of an advertising agency.
D’Souza recruits actors to perform skits about real estate and other real estate-related issues, which he hopes the ABC will turn into a series.
‘While it’s about selling my house, it’s also about finding my career or deciding what I want to do later. I want to make things that are fun and make people happy,” D’Souza said news.com.au.
“I don’t want to advertise, I hate it.”
In the first video, which appeared on Saturday, he describes the property as “a great house in a great environment.”
He says area attractions include “tons of bars and cafes,” a swimming pool, and a Bunning’s, all within walking distance.
“There are about 47 gyms here,” he says.
“Lots of barbershops, I don’t know why, but there are.”
D’Souza says that because the house is on a cul-de-sac, there is no through traffic, making it quiet and even allowing the road to be closed for street parties.
The three-bedroom house is located in the suburb of Brunswick in northern Melbourne
“I’m very, very lucky to live here,” he said.
The promotional video features a skit in which two supposed realtors express their awe and outrage that the house is being sold without them.
“This is one of the most tightly held and highly sought after bags in all of Brunswick,” someone exclaims
‘This early Victorian has been beautifully redesigned.
‘Three large bedrooms and a central bathroom fan out from a central corridor.’
She notes that the house has a European laundromat, parking for several cars and even a cricket pitch in the backyard.
Using the real estate app, Homesta D’Souza placed free listings on Domain and realestate.com.au, which would normally cost $750 with a realtor.
In the listings, the advertised price is $1,800,000.
‘Tucked away at the end of a small cul-de-sac, right in the middle of Sydney Road and Lygon Street, is a beautifully renovated working-class cottage’, the listing reads.
‘Beautiful hardwood floorboards lead to a polished concrete living-dining room and north-facing backyard.
“Zone and ducted, heating and cooling, central bathroom, off street parking and one of the largest avocado trees in the Northern Suburbs make this an opportunity not to be missed!”