anyone who brought a house in VIC this year?

[Salsa]

Thanks for the advise everyone.

Im feeling rather anxious about us 'getting in'. We know our top dollar, but seems many of the places in the area we want are listed as starting at that.
Strecthbearer - we are looking in the east! I hope we dont encounter what you have
I suppose we will look round some houses and get an idea. Its very fustrating not knowing an area and what its worth etc.

What do you all think about revealing budget to agents? Like is it advisable to not let them know what your top $ is? Just thinkig about if we were to make an offer on one of the many places listed as say $320,000+, and the most we can go to is $320,000.


I do feel that there will be a house for us, I just hope it wont take too long to find it and get it.

[fionas]

There's really no substitute for doing your research as the others have said. You can buy a report for the suburb you're interested in for about $9.95 from one of the usual real estate websites - that will give you six months of sales results then just google the addresses and the most recent sold ones will still have their photos/floorplans available.

I was looking at buying/selling until, oh, about last week, and my rule of thumb was to add $120K to the lowest quoted starting price and that SHOULD secure the property eg. if it was quoted at $680 - 730 then really it would go for about $800K. So that's about 20%.

My real estate agent said the way to get a bargain is to look for houses that are advertised with an agent who doesn't have many properties for offer in that area. It means that they won't have as good a feel for how much properties there are going for and, in my experience, usually means that the owner is trying to get an agent with lower fees. He said that makes it more likely they will take an offer before auction so go around with your cheque book and make an offer on the spot.

Good luck - it's nuts at the moment so don't lose heart. There's plenty of us who're just going to wait until it settles down again.

[Lulu]

Don't EVER reveal your budget. Always keep your cards close to your chest, never tell them how much you want a property.

In fact, pretend you are buying a property for me. It will help keep the emotions out of it.

xoxoxoxo

[Cassius2]

hi salsa!

we bought a house 2 months ago after almost 12 months. it was a hard and emotional slog as we were FHB with a definite limit.

home price guide com au is a great place to see what properties sold for in your area in the last week. it also gives you prices for record sales of the year and previous years...good way to gauge how far it can go up.

we were looking brunswick/northcote area and basically if they advertised say 400-450, that ALWAYS meant AT LEAST 500. at one stage in the beginning of the year DH and I went to 20+ auctions and they all sold roughly 100k above the advertised price.

when making offers on houses new to the market, try to come up with a figure that a) you are willing to pay for that property and b) a figure that is attractive enough for the owner to place it on the market (ie pull out of an auction...not too easy as melbournians love an auction!). ALSO, if making an offer try to do it on a Friday just before close of business, that way it reduces the chance of other people getting organised in time to also place an offer (sounds cruel, and it is but it's the done thing).

if it is a property that has sat there for more than 28 days at private sale, then usually the vendor is more flexible and you can work your way up from a lower offer...

if it has been passed in at auction and a reserve price is set then i recommend making an offer that just tips over it. we had to wear the brunt of missing out on a property that had a bid only $500 above the reserve (we bid just under). also good to remember that just because it is private sale does not mean that you have exclusive right to the vendor, others may come in and pull the rug from under you...we had this happen soo many times.

in our case after attending countless auctions and watching delapidated junkie house after junkie house sell for 100ks of dollars more than the advertised price we landed an opportunity with a local RE agency. in this case, the fact that they were crapulent at advertising etc worked in our favour, no one was impressed by the online images and we took advantage (on a whim) and checked the place out, only to find that it was really lovely! we waited a couple of weeks before making an offer as the price was $1000 out of our maximum (it was a private sale) and we were def not going to go over. during this time we realised that there were no other potential buyers so we rather cheekily on a late friday evening put in an offer 30K less than the asking price and told the RE agent that we needed an answer that night by the vendor as we were going to auction the following morning (this was no lie luckily!). we got a call a couple of hours later with the news they accepted.

[MamaPan]

i get chills reading your story clare!

[Cassius2]

i get chills reading your story clare!

ha ha! i break out in a cold sweat just thinking about it lol!

[Lulu]

WOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! Cass, that's awesome.

I totally agree with the crapulent advertising thing. I got both my houses before the For Sale sign went up...

[Salsa]

Thanks again for all the advise

Im getting a much better idea of what to expect and what to do - but I was wondering, if we want to make an offer on a property, what sort of things is it advisable to put into the offer - such as a building inspection? Finance? Is there some sort of thing you can put to find out what the councils plans and permits are for that home or street?
Perhaps we should be looking for a lawyer now? Or should we do that once we have made the offer?

Im nervous, and just wanting to make sure we do this right and dont get ourselves in trouble.