Just 15 minutes after viewing an Annandale semi for the first time, one young couple became the winning bidders in this million-dollar house auction.

They’re part of a new pattern for Sydney buyers making life-changing decisions in an instant just to secure a property. With home hunting consuming Sam Green and Jess Lindsay for 2016, they decided to flip the notion of what is ‘the perfect property’. Rather than follow one campaign for five weeks, they planned to spend just one Saturday following five or more suitable homes.

It was the first time these buyers had visited Annandale in their hunt for a house. But they had become fed up with following a succession of dream purchases through a five-week campaign, only to be outbid on auction day. Being quoted $800,000 for an apartment that went on to sell for $1.2 million was the last straw – they altered course.

Making a list of homes going to auction that day, the goal was to (hopefully) buy something and not let the emotion of the auction run away with their budget. The result was this semi for $1,245,000.

“This was the first home we were buying together so you do put so much emotion into your search,” Sam says. “This decision was as much about trying to make a smart purchase as it was about taking our lives back. You get to a point and realise all you do is talk about property and you spend five weeks at a time chasing something, doing your due diligence, only to be disappointed.”

Rather than get outbid on another apartment purchase, Sam and Jess shortlisted terrace houses within inner-Sydney, in suburbs that offered similar lifestyle traits. They had a budget of around $1.2 million and were looking for livable properties that had potential to improve the entertaining space and add a second level in the future.

The list included houses in St Peters, Annandale, Paddington, Tempe, Newtown and Glebe. The successful bidders at the second auction, they never made it to view the remaining properties. “I came home and deleted every property app and every real estate email from my phone,” Sam says. “I’m done with that for a while.”

They’re not alone. A growing number of buyers are seemingly frustrated with the unpredictability of the current market, making impulsive decisions to get off the property-hunt hamster wheel.

But perhaps it’s not as unsystematic as it seems. Sam and Jess’s Annandale home is more than $250,000 below the area’s median house price of $1.45 million. In fact, plenty of BresicWhitney impulse purchases of 2016 also sit around/under their suburb’s median price.

At 222 Mitchell Road, Alexandria, another young couple was in the same predicament as Sam and Jess. Buying their first home together, they viewed this terrace the morning of the auction and decided to increase their budget on the spot for a better chance of buying in the inner city. They secured the house well below Alexandria’s median of $1.48 million, paying $1,217,500.

Our Ryde team saw similar themes at the auction for 114 Coxs Road, North Ryde. A buyer turned up on auction day and immediately began bidding. Looking for an investment property, it was less about personal emotion and more about securing a larger 860sqm allotment in a suburb that’s growing in popularity for families. It landed bang-on North Ryde’s median house price of $1.43 million.

Another investment buyer snapped up this inner-city Strata terrace at 23 West End Lane, Ultimo. Arriving shortly before auction, it was the buyer’s first inspection and bidding was pushed to $1.56 million. A hard-to-compare townhouse, it’s just above the area’s median house price of $1.41 million.

Looking for a renovation investment, another buyer bought 90 Cecily Street, Lilyfield after inspecting the property that day. Needing updates throughout, it came in well under the suburb median of $1.5 million. The successful couple was looking at a property around the corner and only decided to register to bid as the auction kicked off.

These instances make for interesting case studies for the behaviour of Sydney inhabitants. What seems erratic is perhaps more considered than it first appears. What it really says is buyers are educated and tired of misinformation during property campaigns. They know their micro-markets better than anyone.

They’re tired of the property carousel. And they’re coming ready to buy.