Firstly how exciting!!! The more you can save for a deposit the better off you will be!

So a few things, firstly calculate the interest rate going up at least 2-3% (will never forget my parents talking about 18% interest rates in the 80's) and see if you can still afford repayments. They might be steady and sometimes dropping a 1/4% right now but they can also go up and up and up and you want to be sure you won't lose your house if they do.

Secondly neg is negotiable as to how far it really varies on the area you are looking at but usually you could expect to offer around 10k under but also over actually!! Depends on how competitive the market for that house is. Also if they say buyers over 270 it would indicate to me around 5% over, so I would be expecting to pay 280ish? but again it really depends on the market. Unless it's listed as an auction it will be a private sale.

For private sales what the will do is call for anyone who is interested in a property to put in an offer by a certain time, and then present to the seller. If there is only you and the seller there is room to negotiate if they reject your offer, or if they reject all offers presented but usually the agent will get all buyers to put in their best price to get it all over with!!

At the moment the Melbourne market is pretty flat in some areas but others are booming so it really depends(I'm not much help really am I!!) When properties are listed at 270+ for e.g. you can calculate around 10% above that for what you would think the seller is wanting. It's the worlds stupidest system. Agents are not allowed to list properties more than 10-15% above or below what they think it will sell for so that is usually a good starting point.

Some agents simply list a price, if nobody else is interested in the same property then you could get it for that listed price(we did a few years ago) but if you are competing you have to probably put in an offer a bit higher.

It's worth speaking to a few agents about how it all works, going to see a few places IRL and chatting to the agents and asking them - What price does the seller WANT and see what they say, they do hedge a bit but you can sometimes get a better indication of price that way. Also look at a lot of houses, and I mean lots. We saw probably 10 houses a weekend for a few months before we bought this house - it's a long sometimes frustrating process but then again it's very rewarding!!!

Good luck!!!