Hi everyone,
I've been house hunting for the last 8 months and i am exhausted.
The whole process of going to inspections every weekend, covering only a very small area, trying to put a bid in, gets outbidded last minute, repeat next week.. it's so frustratingly inefficient..
What techniques / strategies do you employ when you were buying your house / unit to make the process better?
Thanks in advance all!
Yeah, Melbourne & Syd house prices have increased by circa 100% since 2009. That's an average growth rate of 12%p.a
Those growth figures include big blocks that are sold for redevelopment. This was a single story 3 bedroom townhouse getting 9% pa growth. Blew my mind.
Yeah but 6 years in a crap school for the final 6 years of your kids schooling is pretty damn important…
.. bidding in (big) increments, that's a hit and miss.. so I would suggest being aware of the other bidders appetite when the auction start (I don't believe being first will get you the prize).
But bidding with confidence is important. As soon as an opposing bid came through, I upped mine.. till he gave up (of course still within my budget)
I should add that you shouldn't jump in at the beginning, wait til on the market or people are into $1k bids before you come in with the $10k ones. $5k is okay too.
Yep, agreed. I typically wait for the vendor bid to emerge when auctions are eeriely quiet at the start. If the auctioneer can blabber for 10 mins about the property at the start, there's no chance it'll get passed in the next 5 if there are no initial interest.
Why would you ever bid except at the last second? Bidding early is ridiculous. You're throwing money away any time you bid early.
Oh yeah I recall a few year ago the struggles of this. I hated Barry plant specifically where they had inspections just to find out the value of the house from potential buyers. So I would take time off work and drive a few hours just to find out we were test subjects before the real thing began.
Oh gawd barry plant and their private bullshit bidding where you have to bid twice is complete bull
im too fussy is half my problem
i hate
retaining walls
corner blocks
battle axe driveways
blocks that back onto parks
houses with numbers combined with letters, ie 13A
Me too! Some things you shouldn't cave in on though. I will never cave on a corner or park block!!!
Nice to have support…my misses thinks I'm mental
No way! Id rather not have randoms wandering around the side of my house on a corner block or park block!
I also have to agree with the letter number combo and avoid looking at places with both :/ i think i am worse i am extremely fussy about room locations and ensuit bathrooms…over a year looking for me!
Yes the home hunting process is massively massively inefficient, and soul destroying. Did it for over 20 months in inner Sydney from mid 2009, through 2010, until Jan 2011, before giving up and renting.
Some of the inefficiencies are trivial to fix. For example, every listing should include:
* Price guide. [vast majority did not include this, so had to ask price guides for every listing of interest, and not every agent responds, or sometimes you get multiple responses with different figures]
* The address [a few just had the suburb… how do you evaluate a house if you don't know the address?!]
* Floor plan [with dimensions of all rooms - a fair number did not, despite this being very fundamental information]
* Photos of living room, kitchen, garden, front of house, bedrooms. [plenty just had a few bad pics]
Added to this:
* Agents were just awful. Real estate agents are all take, and no give. They placed no value on anyone else's time or money. And I'm certain many of them knowingly gave price guides substantially under what they actually thought it would sell for.
* The auction process is just awful. It's designed to get the best price for the seller by pushing all the buyers to their maximums. Unfortunately more than 99% of the properties we saw were auctions, and all of the ones we liked, which forced us to have play a part in this process.
* Excessively high prices, primarily because interest rates are way too low + partially because of the tax-favoured nature of property investment (CGT discount combined with negative gearing). The search for yield (or more accurately, capital gains) has pushed prices way beyond what the fundamentals of rental yield and wages would suggest are reasonable levels. IMHO, borrowers should have to show that they could service the loan at historically normal levels (e.g. 5% to 9% interest rates). We already factored a reasonable buffer into our borrowings, but there always seemed to be someone that would borrow more, leverage harder, and the end consequence of that process extended over 25 years has been a vast increase in risk for all home buyers, and indirectly, society. I strongly expect that the next recession will be a doozy, when you get rising unemployment, combined with falling rental yields (as people won't be able to pay high rents when one or more of the rent-payers lose their job), combined with record-high household debt, combined with very high asset prices, combined with sellers of investment properties all wanting out when it's clear that rents and sale prices are falling, combined with the opposite of FOMO as property buyers don't want to catch a falling knife. The fallout will be very painful for many years, and I think as a society we will look back at these years with bafflement and wonder how we ever let the basic human need for shelter cause so many problems via excessive debt.
Some fixes I think should exist:
* It should be a legal requirement that the auction reserve should be published one week before the auction, and the property must be come onto the market at that price. That would reduce bogus price guides.
* Interest rates should be much higher. If the CPI calculations factored in home prices properly (they don't, land prices and mortgage interest were removed from the CPI circa 1997, so it's strongly under-weighted), it would be clear that inflation is higher than the official figures suggest (which is part of why everyone feels squeezed as everything keeps getting more expensive, but their wage doesn't go up proportionally), and that interest rates are too low.
* Changes to tax system (fix CGT combined with negative gearing, land tax instead of stamp duty, etc). Most likely these will be fixed after the horse has already bolted. Both sides of politics have failed woefully to act on this.
Recently bought a house which was not advertised on the market… Basically we wrote a letter with our contact details, the reasons we were interested in houses at the area (nice character house, good neighbourhood, good schools nearby, etc) and that we were willing to make a good offer to purchase if the owner decides to sell one day. We wrote a few of these letters and dropped them at a few houses (that were not on market) that we were interested in. Few weeks later, we got a call from an agent (the owners approached the agent with our letter), arranged a meeting, and few weeks after that, we made an offer which got accepted… and we bought the house!
Great thinking - I like this!
We just bought a house after 8 months of searching.
Make a spreadsheet of every house you visit, It's pros it's cons, price/guide ( you can get this by calling agents if auction), agent details (good for filtering), area and final sold price. Put comments in as well after you inspect it. If you dont inspect the home you still should get the price and sale price for records. This is good as you can see the price differences and trends on you're spreadsheet rather than domain/that other site.
Record every house you visit. We visited 5-9 per Saturday and it turns into a blur! The video helps answer some questions post inspection. Only 2 agents of the 100+homes we saw had an issue with it.
Also take a pen and right some notes as you inspect or on that house flyer they give you.
Don't worry about making friends with the agents. They don't care about you or your needs. They don't want to give you off market deals and they don't care about your requirements. There is always someone else out there to sell to. Be polite. And be firm. Don't make flaky offers and lie, there's only so many agents in an area and you will see their similing faces and nice Audi's often.
Go to auctions. Learn how they work. Also ignore all those internet auction tips about not bidding until late. Start the bid. Make sure everyone knows you want the house and you won't leave without it. Make them feel intimidated. Also don't let the auctioneer bully you. If you want a 1k raise after the bidding slows down tell him several times until he understand. He also doesn't care about you and doesn't want to be friends.
Call every single house prior to visiting. Ask for auction guides…if it's more than 200k more than budget don't bother. Find something aligned to your budget and go there.
Check the houses that went under contract…some do fall through and come back on the market. These are usually hard to find.
If you're serious about a place make a written offer that day. There's no commitments until you sign. If you do this, follow through, call the agent. Get them to speak to the owner.
Don't tell the agents your budget, just as the above point they don't have a list of houses that they'll send nor are they going to help you. It'll let them know what you can and can't afford so when it comes to offer time they'll know who's serious and whose bluffing.
Look at both domain and that other property site. Sometimes home will be on one but not the other. It's not a big ratio but it happens.
That's house you loved and lost. Forget about it. It was shit. There'll be another one. Don't give up or they win.
Also get some sort of pre approval prior to searching. It's not worth the paper it's printed in but it gives you an idea if a bank will lend to you when you need it. Also it may improve the turn around time for a loan when ready.
Also mortgage broker is free and usually helpful. Find one. They will visit you and tell you what a bank "may" lend you. They also do all the paper work when it works out. Brokers also have access to rp data reports which can be helpful.
Good luck.
Edit: there will be no housing crash…the market may stabilise but that's it. Armchair economist's have been predicting a crash for at least 5 years. If you need a house and can afford one then do it.
As mark twain said.
"Buy land, they're not making any more of that" or something etc etc
Trying to explain this odd behaviour to older relatives and parents was difficult. Some till think it's really easy to buy a house and you just need to make friends with the agents and they'll push you to buy so be careful etc etc … It's not like that anymore. We'll not my experience.
Most important piece of advice you'll get: Ignore auctions. They're sucker territory for both buyer and vendor. The exception would be if you're going to put in an offer before the auction, rather than stand around fighting like 30 seagulls over the same chip. Any agents that doesn't know what a property is worth, is an amateur at their job. Agents con vendors into an auction for a few reasons - they get to list lots of properties in their window making them look more successful, they get to charge all advertising to the vendor, they know vendor is now committed to an auction due to all that advertising they've been charged for. Later the agent will push them to sell even at a lower price with excuses, "I really thought it would sell for xyz, but it seems 'the market' just isn't there." Rubbish. Another reason is idiots gathered together for the same auction will get emotional, or weary of auctions - and so will bid tens of thousands more than a property is worth… and the list of reasons to avoid them goes on. Read my other post below for what to do instead.
Oh - and you could also approach agents, say you won't consider an auction under any circumstances, tell them you'll engage a quantity surveyor when they come up a suitable property - them what you're looking for - and phone them once every two weeks to show you're a serious buyer, not a tyre-kicker. If they keep fobbing you off, etc. - stop phoning them. Only telling them the maximum you'll pay if you're prepared to also say you will not go above it, no matter what - and after making it clear you'll be valuing with that QS - so you don't want them wasting your time inflating prices hoping you'll bite. I would only do this last one, if you're truly in a high-demand area when things sell fast.
Soul. Destroying.
We had deal breaker criteria: bayside, school zone and 4 bedrooms OR renovate at that price to 4 bedrooms.
12 months of every Saturday to open for inspections with children in tow - put in a number of failed pre-offers and missed out at a few auctions.
Agree with lots of the other tips but here are mine:
1. Have a spreadsheet: I would track address, suburb, bedrooms, bathrooms, land size, comments (renovated, not, townhouse etc.), land size to quoted price number, BOQ estimate, on the house estimate, quoted price, sale price, agent and % difference from quoted to sale price. This helps you to (a) work out which agents are the worst under-quoters (and yes, I did report shocking stuart on one property), (b) value i.e. land, they are not making any more of it.
2. Minimal engagement with agents - I ignore their calls.
3. Decide a bidding strategy that works for you and stick to it - for me, I generally waited until it was on the market, then went in calmly and solidly, occasionally offering a small increment to slow things down - but when I was out, I was out.
4. Go alone - no kids or husband for me (they often wandered in at the back once bidding was underway - did not even notice as in the adrenalin zone).
5. Be prepared to up your limit but not during an auction, do it when you are clear headed - agree with most other posters - by 12 months of looking mark you are kicking yourself for ones you should have gone that bit higher with your limit and gotten (still have regrets from last process 11 years ago LOL).
6. Did not bother with building inspections this time - felt fairly confident most things I could see (google it up, not too hard) or fix - had done most of them on previous renovation.
It is really hard, good luck, I finally go there….now planning a reno so off to get ozbargain tips on that apart from don't….:)
An auction has you at a disadvantage right from the start, due to the number of other people wanting the same property. And it's common knowledge among real estate agents, a home that is correctly priced will sell in under two weeks. I'm not going into all the reasons why here, but auctions are for suckers - both buyers and sellers. Wipe every auction off your list and only look at property with a real price. It will often be too much of course. So look at photos online - obviously to reduce the number of properties you have to view - listing a few at the price you can afford, or that go a little above it. Then pay a quantity surveyor to value the home. If it's a high-demand area, you can either submit a lower price, the same price, or more than that report. You're now in the negotiation phase. So you could go right to adding X thousand, possibly provide the report itself as evidence you know your offer is more than fair. Give them a date, by which you expect a yes or no - say 5 to 7 days. It's less than those ten days (reducing the risk it will sell to someone silly enough to 'guess' if they should pay the asking price, or more), but it's also not a two-day mad panic for the vendor to decide. This puts YOU in control. If they don't agree, ONLY THEN tell the agent and vendor they can contact you again - but make it clear you are actively looking at other properties. You can use the report to support your offer, stating you're offering the price it quotes - or more than the solid valuation (not an estimate) if you wish - referring to the report. The agent now knows they have someone serious, who knows what it's worth, isn't just window shopping wasting their time, and will push the vendor to sell, telling them it is the market price, they may wait another 12 months, etc. they spin to the vendor, wanting that < 2 weeks sale so they get their money. (Effectively working for you.)
You might even want to pay for a buyer's advocate to do all this for you. Sit back and let them do all the work.
Oh - and private sales are good. Because many potential buyers will be scared away, not understanding the process. And private sale vendors often price way to high. But some f them have ALSO paid for a quantity surveyor. So when you get a QS too… and the vendor sees you're offering what they know is an accurate/similar amount - and having so few buyers interested… I'm sure you follow.
My old place was advertised for 800-850k. I offered 950k pre-auction and they rejected. Sp yeah…
At one point i comtemplated pooling money with another party to buy and partition it between us. Im sure this will no doubt open another can of worms but apart from that i cant see anyway forward unless buy regional.
I agree, finding a house at a right price is difficult and can be very long and tiring process. In Perth, I find many agents trying to inflate listing price (upto 300K sometimes), knowing the buyer will negotiate before buying.
Can people here please list out issue they themselves have either faced / heard of with Auctions?
A property agent auctioning one in Perth told me these.. and I was not very comfortable with such conditions attached and so decided to not attend the auction
1) No final inspections are allowed. If won, you have to buy it as it is!
2) I cannot put subject to finance or subject to inspection condition in the contract, though they will allow 30 days for settlement that I could possibly use to get finances sorted at my end!
3) 10% cash on the fall of hammer. This means, you actually carry around 100K+ for a property that is starting action at 1Mil!
4) Also, this auction was for a Mortgagee Sale (current owner not being able to pay instalments). So if anytime during the process (even after the auction being successful), if the current owners situation changes before settlement, and they are able to start paying the instalments, the contract is forfeited and the winner is refunded the deposit he paid and will be left with the hassle of cancelling the loan and everything with the bank!
Are these applicable to all auctions out there? Has anyone heard of any other weird conditions and would like to help OP with their knowledge?
3) make sure you have 10% free in the bank and usually you can transfer it right away into the trust account, no need to carry cash.
4) If it has a sunset clause yes the chance of losing it is real. Show the contract to the bank. If you borrow from the same bank that is re-possessing they are not allowed to charge you.
Auctions as well as other real estate deals primarily fall under state laws. Whilst dummy bidding is forbidden it is up to you to spot it and I have seen it over and over again.
Remember banks borrow from the US at 1.5% and lend it to buyers between 4.8 to 5.8% so do not do favours for them.
Yes that's how auctions work. I know Perth isn't used to it as it's not how mist properties get sold over there. It's a buyer's market now so you guys are in the box seat.
Most people just carry around blank cheques and not the cash. 100K would require a suitcase!
Also auctions work entirely as buyer beware "caveat emptor" and there is no backing out of it without significant penalties (i.e. your 10% + fees + any difference in final sale price). Auctions are for the benefit of the seller not the buyer.
Post your house requirement, suburb and budget on gumtree website. someone will work hard to get a commission from the seller.
Property is far more stable than the stock market. Having said that there have been bloodshed outside Sydney and Melbourne with some rural centres having dropped to half and crime has doubled.
Sydney is now 2nd behind New York and Melbourne with 200,000 empty units is of course a Chinese hot spot. There is strength in numbers wherever there is action there will be high prices.
Being near the sea is always good in the long run a bit of elevation puts the icing on the cake. Buying close to good shopping is better than isolation.
Head the warnings about interest rate rises. Borrow max 60 % if you can and you will be safe.
just you
I can understand your frustration, I had the same feeling when I first came to this country 7 years ago and trying to buy a house. Very stressful! I inspected 66 houses n put in few bids and agents kept saying you have been outbid so increase your bid! On day I couldn't take it anymore and I told the agent to 'F off!' 'You guys are controlling the price to get more commission'..I felt we are at the agents' mercy. I was so feedup and in the end I put an offer for a builder house (private sale) and I told the agent to tell owner take or leave it. And within 10minutes agent called and said I got the house! Everything was settled within 2weeks. This is Melbourne!
agents are not the most trustworthy people…
Hi Capstew,
Please don't give up, I know how frustrating it is. Took me almost 2 years to find my current home which I had bought 3 months ago.
Keep pushing :)
I'm amazed that people still buy at auction. All the rights are with the vendor, non with the buyer. Far more efficient, safe, and cheaper to do a straight sale, no auctions. You can negotiate a sale, but not an auction. You can also spend time considering value for money, unlike auctions where prices can spiral up in seconds.
Shame 90% of properties sold in Syd/Melb are auction. Oh well.
Still worth persevering though. I got 10% off the asking price in a booming market.
Oh yeah? What suburb?
Just you
the prices are only going to continue to go up. The longer you wait the more expensive property will get.
Just look at the migration and population increase, no way there is going to be a crash soon.
"The whole process of going to inspections every weekend, covering only a very small area, trying to put a bid in, gets outbidded last minute"
I've just started looking to buy and this bidding process is still very new to me. I have some dumb questions that I really want to ask everyone…
1) when OP said getting outbidded in the last minute, as in during private sale not auction?
2) If it is during private sale, if I put in an offer of 500k for example, and I got outbidded by Buyer B, will the agent call me to see if I will increase my bid? or they will just take Buyer B's offer to the seller? This thought made me thinking I cannot put in a low starting offer as I afraid the seller thinks I'm not serious.
3) If I did receive a call from the agent asking me to increase my offer, is it possible that there was no Buyer B and it was purely the agent or the seller wants a higher offer? Is there any ethics that the property agent need to comply?
1) Auction
2) Depends on agent if he is only accepting 1 best offer or he is going around the table with better offers.
3) Indeed possible. Agents are not there for buyers, they are there to suck blood out of buyer and make their commission.
Re 3) They can lie and do lie. They are there for the vendor, not the purchaser.
OP, where are you looking? Try QLD or other state capital other than NSW/VIC.
The first thing you should do is give yourself a pat on the back. You have been very committed and patient. The last thing you should do is impulse buy.
I do have a few questions regarding your situation
Can you afford the area you are looking in? Limiting yourself to a small area is only going to limit your choice.
How is your relationship with your local agents? Agents will look after you if there is a easy commission in it for them.
Let your agents know what you are after and what range you are prepared to pay? (Keep your figure at the lower end) Might be a good idea to type/print it out and hand it to any agent you meet.
Avoid auctions! Stick to fixed price (if possible)
Lastly take all the advice from this forum!
Just been through this and suffered a bad case of house hunting fatigue. Doing the open home circuit with other potential buyers every Saturday, seeing the same crowd at every open inspection, prices crept up and up….it just turned into a drag.
Decided to go one suburb down one weekend, saw a house that we liked, offered 20k above asking price to put me out of my misery. Now my Saturday entails cleaning of said house.
Might be a bit off topic, but just wondering - with all the frustration around buying houses, why not consider apartments (unless you're looking in a particular housing area that is within a school zone)?
I find apartments so much more convenient (without having to worry about things like mowing the lawn etc); there's plenty of public parks etc that you can bring children to run around; and you hardly see or hear your neighbours anyway (unless you're really unlucky and someone's running an AirBnB or something).
As the population grows, apartments are probably the way forward (until maybe one day when we can teleconference/video conference for work everyday while living in a rural area).
Look for a decent block with a brick building that has a decent roof, floorboards and solid windows, the rest can be an absolute dump. It is amazing what sanding and a coat of paint can achieve. Avoid structural amendments like a plague.
If I would have taken people advice 9 years ago about waiting for a crash to buy then I still would be waiting. And if i did not listen to them 10 years ago I would have more properties by now.
Anyway, 9 years and 3 properties later a crash of 20% would still place me ahead in the bottom line and I would ride it out.
If you are desperate, look for properties just outside the "good" school zones, those properties are generally cheaper and sometimes are only few hundred meters away from the catchment area of the good school.
Lastly, don't be scared of bad suburbs, people still live there so if the numbers make sense buy it and rent it, at least you are in the market. Rentvest.
I moved from a good suburb to a bad one 8 months ago because I wanted a decent sized block and be close to the beach, I did not care about the stigma, in the end, this was the best performing property so far. 30% gain in 19 months and I thought that it was coming hence I found good bones property that was absolutely disgusting and bought it (even the agent thought I was mad - after the sale that is), I did cosmetic renovations during summer holidays and you would not recognise the place (if you don't know how to renovate and cannot be bothered learning from online sources just use AirTasker), it is a beautiful home inside but needs cosmetic work outside.
All of my colleagues laugh that now I live in Frankston while they rent in the city - 30% equity in the house in 18 months is nothing to laugh at as now I am ready for the next one (not that I will buy another one, 3 is plenty)
PS 9 years ago I lived in a caravan park to save for the deposit and was a student so I started from the bottom.
Just go for it and don't be scared to put in a bit of hard work in the right properly.
As for the crash, if it happens we are all stuffed because of our exposure to real estate in the super system which is on top of the properties that oldies own - the government cannot let it happen as the government cannot finance social benefits for the oldies. So if the crash happens then we all will be in the same creek at the same time, regardless if you own a property or not.
Still outside that catchment zone though, what will that do for you?
My parents were waiting for a crash of properties in Shanghai(China) since like 2006. At that time per square meter was about 7000RMB (around 1400 AUD), and now it is about 70000RMB (around 14000 AUD).
One of my friends bought an apartment in 2012 with the price 1,200,000 RMB, and sold it last year for 3,800,000 RMB.
I had a similar experience. I decided to only inspect homes that weren't going to auction. They sell for a reasonable price and no one wastes their time going to auctions that fly out to $100k over the advertised range. After so many disappointing weekends at auctions, I put one offer on a house in the late stages of construction and got it at that price. So much less stressful.
Seriously. But learn the game and buy what you can afford. When I was looking for a house I went to total of two auctions both in one day and bought the latter house in a area of melb that is booming at the moment. The simple reason was I knew prices were probably going to be 10% above the top range of asking price so factor that in. First auction I went to went 20% above because of all out bidding war. Second house was 300m up the road in another suburb, bigger, better condition and sold to me just with price range. It isn't the perfect house, but you have to look at it and say "can I live here for 10-20 years given my lifestyle choices" if the answer is yes, buy it. That advice is more for people who aren't in their 20s.
I was in the same boat 10 months back, until Sept'16. (Sydney, budget $1Mn)
Started searching in Apr'16. 6 months all lost auctions or gazumped by the real estate agent. Frustrating, emotionally draining and loosing heart.
Bought a house in Sept'16 and settled in Nov.
My Learnings , wont name these as tips as these are just my views and I am no expert:
General guidelines to buy the property:
-Look for good suburbs with good connectivity + schools around, they will always hold their prices.
-Try and own a piece of land instead of an apartment (freestanding townhouse or house)
-If going for a strata property, check the split of strata admin fee and sinking fund. If sinking fund above 40%, it a decent plan.
-Always check how loaded is the sinking fund so that you don't get hit by a renovation repair bill when you move in.
All the best with your hunt !
House hunting in Sydney has got to be one of the most soul-destroying things you could ever do.
In 2011, my wife and I spent a year looking for a house - at the start we had a newborn, at the end we had a 1 year-old and my wife was pregnant again - those weekends driving around trying catch the properties we wanted in the ridiculous 30 minute window were very hard towards the end.
Ultimately we reduced our wish list to ensure we had a chance at the properties we wanted.
My tips would be:
1. Avoid auctions at all costs (I refused to buy at auction on principle - it's an unfair system) - where I come from the only time a property is auctioned is because the bank has repossessed it otherwise property sales must be private treaty. Auctions are for greedy sellers / agents - no one else.
2. If you find a property you like, consider doing what we did. We watched how long it was on the market and knew the owner was asking too much. We also knew that the property was vacant so the seller should be motivated - if it's vacant his new home is costing as well as the one he is selling or he's not making rental income from it.
3. After about 4 weeks on the market, I approached the agent in her office on a Wednesday morning with a bank cheque for 10% deposit and a signed 66W form (it basically says you forfeit your cooling off period which you do in an auction anyway). I made an offer 10% below asking price and said it was valid until 2pm that same day. I left the paperwork with her and walked out. We had several calls from the agent over the next couple of hours asking for another 10K, or another 5K and each time I simply said, my offer stands and is valid until 2pm. This shows the buyer you are serious and guarantees him a sale if he agrees - you cannot back out.
4. Drop an offer during the mid-week period in the morning and make it valid til just after lunch. It doesn't give the agent enough time for another show house and they will struggle to call other potential buyers and get them to commit in the short timeframe.
5. The seller then needs to make a quick decision - accept a reasonable offer for a guaranteed sale or say no and potentially sit with a property he can't sell at the higher price.
We eventually got the house after agreeing to an extra $5K. Stressful, yes. But so glad we bought when we did. Since then our property has way more than doubled in value - even if the "bubble bursts" and property drops 20, 30 or even 40%, it will still be worth more than we paid.
Good luck - I feel for you.
"even if the "bubble bursts" and property drops 20, 30 or even 40%, it will still be worth more than we paid."
It might be worth more than you paid the owner but very unlikely it will be worth more than your total true costs (ie. stamp duty, yearly rates, property improvements, interest, mortgage insurance, investment return on the deposit money over the years, etc.) plus inflation. Bought our house in 2009 and while it's close to been paid off, so far we paid the bank 130k and counting in interest alone. If I was to sell the house today I'll be barely in the black if you take ALL the costs in consideration and add inflation on top. So if the "bubble bursts" many people that bought a house in the last 5-10 years will actually loose money if they had to sell.
Excellent point, many people forget about all those extra costs.
You have to factor in the rent you would have paid if you didn't own a house. Although chances are rent would have been less than interest.
I'm in Melbourne
I have only bought one house under auction condition, rest have been private sale or off market. Couple have been like, place your best offer in. One was passed in (my best buy). Another was off market last year; I bought the house next door at auction and the agent asked if I wanted to buy the neighbour and i negotiated with the bank and the vendor. ;~
My view is to buy the worst property on the best street that has good solid foundations and can be cosmetically improved.
Land and location is important to reduce risk of property price fluctuations.
Make sure your finances are sorted, know your limit.
New houses date, period homes are timeless. Know what you are after.
Know your 1st, 2nd and final price (emotional price). I find auctions emotions tend to really kick you around and it's the FOMO. Serious FOMO. Try to get to your 2nd price unless you really want the house.
Bidding tips: start early, bid different amounts, bid smaller amounts to slow the auction down. Take your time it's not a race.
If it's private sale, don't put conditions on it. Esp if you have done your homework. Offer your price, no conditions and shortest settlement.
It's terribly frustrating. I look back I could of bought more private sale if I just had more balls and looked at the fundamentals. Land, location, type of house.
Wish you the best.
All sounds too familiar to me.
Have you considered using buyers advocate?
For a fee only when you got a house, usually fixed price.
They will research based on your criteria, and recommend you a realistic options.
crash = entire economy goes down = average Joes loose their jobs = no job no loan approval = no house.
even worse no money for renting in desireable suburbs.
everything is interconnected.
those who wish for sydney and melbourne to crash back to 2008 prices are gambling with their future as well.
as long as people still want to live in sydney and melbourne, long term, the only way for prices to move is UP. there will be some years of decreases or stagnation. but again long term, UP.
Request for the Contract of Sale upfront and go through the planning certificate to identify any glaring issues such as bush fire prone, flood prone, etc. The contract of sale should also show the stormwater lines and any easements.
This should give you a good idea of the property before you even go to the open house.
Also I tend to look at properties via street view to see any potential issues with properties such as if its sloping, next to a petrol station, etc.
I know it doesn't ultimately help you getting outbid by another builder but at least you have a strategic approach to it and use your time efficiently.
There are also APM and RP Data property reports you can do to give you an idea of recent sales in the area.
At the end of the day, the locusts have more money than you and will always do you over.
Yes it is.
Bought a house in Melbourne 2 months ago, after looking for around 6 months. Got lucky and bought via private sale. The property was up for auction but the vendors did not want to sell to the winner (long story) - so they put an asking price on it - saw it and immediately asked the agent for an inspection, right then and there we gave them the asking price and said it's only valid until 6pm. She quickly called the vendor and they were happy to sell, I didn't want the agent to contact other parties to tell them an offer has been made so I was like "take it or leave it, it's the asking price anyway".
Prior to that, been going to auctions for a year - I agree the entire process is BS. We've found the worst offenders to be a real estate company with the initials N.A., underquotes by like $100k on every property. I would sell with them though hahaha.
you think this is hard, try being a female earning only 57 cents for every $1 a male earns.
/s
Perhaps you only do 57% of the work.
read pls - /s you idiot
Men spend 43 cents of every dollar on porn, strippers and alcohol so all even
Hi OP,
My Personal Advice
-Be patient (Yes I know it is hard and sometimes you just want to give up, It is worth it when it you land a deal)
-Take lots of notes and photos on what you look at
-Be ready to make unconditional offers
-Find Trustworthy Real estate agents, Who understand your situation i.e. ready to buy.- May or may not work but it can!
-Offer Prior to Auction if an Auction campaign - This will also mean by law in NSW (sorry not sure where you are from OP) that their guide will need to be adjusted to above your offer if declined prior to auction. - Fair Trading is your friend.
-Negotiate on Terms, Price isn't everything, Length of settlement (works for both vendor and Buyers) Releasable deposit, and As I mentioned Earlier Unconditional offer/ 66w / Solicitors exchange
- Have a Deadline/Expiry on your offer (Can be particularly effective if they have had an offer fall through or passed in at action)
Good luck Mate, PS: settled on something today! Great Deal - was looking for 10 months!
saw a listing and went to inspect the house. it is set for auction, asked the agent that would the vendor be interested in taking offers priors to auction.
Was told that the seller wants to leave the listing on the market for a bit longer to generate interests, and he does not have the contract of sale until closer to the auction date.
is this common practice? list the house up for sale but has no contract of sale????
You should contact a real estate agent to make things easy for you :)
We used the floorplan too root out all but the most ideal places for us.
Decided we wanted a specific layout that suited our plans and lifestyle.
This dramatically reduced the number of places we would choose to Inspect.
You need to go out and see everything remotely close to your expectations and budget for at least the first month just to get a feel for the market and to normalise your expectations to your budget, including seeing those places sell, so you can verify the actual market price against the advertised "asking" prices.
Once you have that feel though, you probably ought to have seen enough places to pick the best bits and form them together into your ideal floorplan.
You can make compromises on that plan, but at least you don't get stuck as you feel in the endless Inspection Cycle that sucks all time out of your weekend and even weeknights!
This is probably a sign the housing market is still high in demand. Nothing much you can do for auction as long as demand is high. You can wait until no demand if you still want to go to auction. Or you can buy from seller without auction. Alternatively, you can buy new land without auction and build your dream home.
The whole idea of auction is to play the buyer emotion so the price can go as high as possible.
The auction culture is driving the property market crazy in this country.
You need to increase the budget and make the highest offer closest to asking price :P
People pay ridiculous amounts for a post code, suburb name or school zoning.
We bought literally 1KM down the road and saved ~$55k.
The worst example I've seen of this was a 3 bedroom single story townhouse that was zoned for a high ranked public school.
It was sold brand new off the plan for $409K in 2009. Used as a rental property for 7 years. It was in very average condition, needed about 10K-15K spent on renovations (paint, floors, kitchens and AC). Listed for $525-575K. It sold for $651K at auction. That's 8.7% growth pa. Insane!