A good price is about $665,000. I would walk past $710,000.

• 9 Metcalfe Street is listed on Domain with a public guide of $600,000 - $660,000, no auction date, 40 days into the campaign. There is no hidden exact price on this listing — the seller has publicly named the range, so the floor is around $600k and the top of the agent's ask is $660k.
• It is a 2 bed / 1 bath / 2 car weatherboard cottage on 354m2 of land, ~10km west of Newcastle CBD. Partial update: hybrid timber floors, split-system air-conditioning, repaint through the living area. Original weatherboard facade, older mesh security fence, older security screens on the windows, and one dated deep-blue feature wall in the living. Owned by the same vendor since 1993 ($89,000 purchase price) so no recoup pressure driving the ask. Metcalfe Street is a through-road (Cowper Street to Lambton Road corridor), a small position step behind the quiet-cul-de-sac 2-bed stock in the same suburb.
• A partially updated 2-bed weatherboard cottage on 354m2, in a cool Newcastle market.
• 57 Metcalfe is the anchor - same street, same 2/1 configuration, same 101m2 internal - and it lands at about $695,000 for the subject today after a 9-month time-adjustment on the cool NSW index (Sydney proxy — the closest capital pulse to Newcastle). The other two 2-bed sales converge on $704,000 and $718,500 once the subject's extra internal m2 and second car space are priced in and a small through-road position penalty is taken off. All three sit around $695k-$720k, and CoreLogic's High-Confidence range of $636k-$717k (mid $675k) aligns with the same band.
• Domain's own AVM reads lower ($520k-$700k, mid $610k) - that is where the agent's $600k-$660k guide is anchored, and it is also where buyer activity is landing: 40 days on Domain with no auction booked and no offer closing the campaign means bids at $650k+ have not arrived. That is the buyer's leverage.
• A good price to pay is around the $665,000 mark, still fair up to $695,000 if the kitchen and bathroom check out on inspection. That $695,000 ceiling sits exactly at the cheapest adjusted comp (57 Metcalfe, same street) - anything above ignores what six weeks with no offer has already told us. Open at $615,000 (the agent's floor sits around $600k, so opening just above it tests where the seller actually is without giving anything away) and be ready to walk past $710,000.

The guide sits below every band on this ladder. That is normal for an auction campaign and it is not a bargain signal.