A good price is about $775,000. I would walk past $805,000.

• 4/44 Rutland Street is not on the market. It has been tenanted for years and has not been openly marketed for sale since 1994, so this is a value read rather than a negotiation - anything here would have to be a direct approach to the owner.
• It is a 2 bedroom unit in a 1972 full-brick walk-up of three levels, no lift, with one bathroom and parking off the driveway at the rear. It presents well for the age of the block - white kitchen with a wall oven, white tiled bathroom with a bath and shower over, floating floors through the living areas. It is tidy and updated rather than freshly renovated, and it is certainly not a project.
• A tidy ~77m2 two bedroom unit in a 1972 walk-up.
• The sale in the same building is the one that matters. 10/44 is the same size to within half a metre, in the same block, and presents at a similar standard - so there is very little to argue about. It made $825,000 under the hammer.
• Against that, 4/44 gives up a little. 10/44 has balconies at both ends where 4/44 has one, its kitchen is the more generous of the two, and it had a competitive auction behind it. That is worth something, but not a great deal - call it $40,000.
• Everything else lines up with that. The renovated unit on Barsbys Avenue made $830,000 being larger with a garage. The renovated flip at 5/36 made $800,000 being smaller and flood-affected. And the one genuine renovation project, on Illawarra Street, made $730,000 - well below 4/44, which is where it should be.
• Fair price is around the $785,000 mark for the unit as it stands.
• Worth keeping in mind that the block is a 1972 walk-up with no lift and a single bathroom, which is the narrower end of the market when you come to resell.