Hi all,
i need advice on where to get the latest sales data for Point Cook (Melb). We are looking at buying an established house in the area. This will be our first purcahase and will be our PPOR until we have enough equity on it to borrow for IP.
Is residex or home price guide the best place to get the data of say the previous month?
Also, i would appreciate any info on the area, other’s opinion and or experiences.
thanks.
aafreen
Hi Aafreen,
Below are some links to a couple of sites that you may find useful,
IMHO, I have always felt Point cook should provide long term growth due to its close proximity to Melbourne’s CBD,http://reareports.realestate.com.au/cgi-bin/vgmsg/RP_Reports/rea/rpreahome.p?viewprice=1
http://www.homepriceguide.com.au/
Regards
Steven
Mortgage Broker
Mobile Mortgage Market[email protected]
http://www.mobilemortgagemarket.com.au
Ph:0402483216
Ph:1800 820 500
VICTORIAPLEASE note comments made should not be taken as specific taxation, financial, legal or investment advice.
Hi Steven,
thanks for your response. i will go for the rpdata. hoping it would help us decide as to what is the fair price to offer.
we’ve seen a few properties, the last one was reduced to $309K from $320K. And without any effort from our side, the agent simply said that the owners would consider $270K. The other property had an asking price of $290K and the agent said , they will take $265K. These are 2 different agents. This will be our first purchase so we are a bit nervous.
Any tips on negotiation will be very much appreciated
thanks again,
aafreenAafreen,
According to latest domain property review figures:
Median house price: 315k up 10.5% with a 23.3% upward trend.
Total clearance rate between 2003-4 = 75.4%
Hope this helps.[biggrin]
Cheers,
Jo
Hi Aafreen,
A couple of tips on negotiating,
Estate agents will often ask, how much deposit do you have? The amount you disclose is used by the agent to calculate your approx. price range, purchase budget, this gives the agent the edge when negotiating with you on price, its wise to never divulge such information to an agent/vendorDon’t be afraid or embarrassed to offer what you may think to be a low offer, sometimes referred to as Low Balling, you can always increase your offer if its rejected,
When negotiating on price, don’t round your figures to the nearest Thousand, counteract your rejected offer with increments of odd numbers such as $263.400, 2nd offer $264.100, 3rd offer $264.650 etc,
Ask the agent plenty of questions, such as, how long has the property been on the market, why is the vendor selling, what was the original list price, do they want a 30, 60 or 90-day settlement, has the vendor purchased elsewhere, Etc, some agents are forthcoming with this information while others may remain tight lipped,A lot of Estate Agents, but not all, practices a common technique known as conditioning the vendor,
Briefly, this technique involves the practice of loading the sale price in order for the agent to get the initial listing, then subsequently over time reducing the price and the owners expectations with such comments as, “the market has flattened out, the feed back were getting from prospective buyers is that the property is over priced in this current market, current conditions†etc etc, this conditioning technique usually takes place over a 2 or 3 month period in parallel with the agents listing agreement, and resulting in the vendor reducing the asking price in different stages over a period of time,Keeping the conditioning technique in mind and using the information gained from your Q&A with the agent, you should be able to establish if the seller is keen, keen motivated, or very keen motivated & desperate to sell,
BTW, I am not advocating taking advantage of others misfortune or being unscrupulous, but rather trying to avoid paying above market price.
As always do your due diligence & insure you have a building/pest and finance clause in place on any offer, If you need assistance I’m happy to help, cheers.Regards
Steven
Mortgage Broker
Mobile Mortgage Market[email protected]
http://www.mobilemortgagemarket.com.au
Ph:0402483216
Ph:1800 820 500
VICTORIAPLEASE note comments made should not be taken as specific taxation, financial, legal or investment advice.
Hi Aafreen,
Appologies for the length of the following but I wrote this for a friend when they bought their first house, I’m not intending to be patronising but some of the points may be helpful if you’re new to experience of buying real estate.
Disclaimer – I take no responsibility for the use of the below information.Never can be too careful
regards,
myoungLoans and other costs:
1. What is the interest rate? Can you split the loan amount between fixed and variable? Only fix the amount you think you have no chance in paying off within the fixed period (usually max of 5 yrs).
2. What is the application fees and stamp duty payable on mortgage registration? (You need to factor these into your loan and deposit)
3. What are the ongoing fees? (Keep these in mind as monthly fees effectively means you rate is higher than from an institution that doesn’t charge any – Wizard has a calculator that will show you this)
4. How much Stamp Duty do you need to pay on the property? (will be approx $8K to $10K for a house of $250K) Need to factor into loan. (You need to factor these into your loan and deposit) Aussie Mortgage Market has a good stamp duty calculator – search for at http://www.yahoo.com.au and select AU only on the search.
5. How much is mortgage insurance if financing above 80%?
(You need to factor these into your loan and deposit)6. What are the redraw facilities in the loan and how much is the fee (if any to redraw)? Useful if you wish to pay above minimum repayments (highly recommended to do so, prevents the bank being able to foreclose on you if you loose you job etc.) If there are no fees to redraw – put all your savings etc in the loan and redraw as needed.
7. What are the fees/penalties if you pay the loan out sooner than the term? (usually 25yrs, if you can get 30yrs do it and pay above minimum).
8. Are there offset account facilities? For Example – sit all your pay in your savings account and have this reduce the interest payable.
Loan Balance $100000
Savings account $5000
Interest calculated on $95000 rather than $100000
To earn a comparable interest rate on your savings account after tax you would need to be getting approx 10% by today’s rates.9. Do you get exceptions from any other bank fees and charges by taking out a loan with the particular institution?
10. Calculate what the minimum repayments will be at 10% and pay from day one if you can, while rates are low now – a loan goes for a long time and even since the “recession we had to have†rates have been at 10.5%. Making payments at 10% ahead of this will give you a buffer if rates spike above this.
11. Take note of when council/water rates on the house your buying fall due. At settlement, if the vendor has paid them in full from October2003 to September2004 and you buy in December and settle in February, you will have to pay them the amount of council/water rates left to go from Feb2004 till Sept 2004 on settlement day – could $500 or so you weren’t expecting.
12. Shop around for house and contents insurance – banks offer it but are rarely the cheapest. You will be required by the bank/lender to have this upon settlement.
13. Conveyancing costs anywhere from $300 to $500 dollars – this is the legal paperwork and searches on building permits for additions etc. One of Kell’s family friends is a conveyancer and has done all ours for good prices- can give you her number if you want. All Metro Conveyancing in Pascoe Vale – Joy Sanders.
Buying the House:
1. REMOVE EMOTION as best you can. Although buying your home is an emotional process, always set yourself a limit on what you will pay for a particular house and STICK to it.
2. NEVER offer what you are prepared to pay for a house FIRST TIME – the vendor will 99% of the time come back with a higher counter offer after your first offer – all part of the game.
3. NEVER let an estate agent know how high you are prepared to go on a house or he won’t take your early offers seriously – don’t forget he works for the vendor (not you) and will try to extract every last cent out of YOU. If he thinks he can get another $10K from you he will advise the vendor not to accept your offer. One EXCEPTION is if it is your absolute highest offer make sure he/she knows it. This will push the agent to try and close the sale – so they don’t have to find another buyer to make their commission.
4. Ask agents/vendors for a copy of rates notice (for council valuations). This won’t be in the section 32(only the annual rates payable is listed in this). This is a good conservative guide to the property value – replacement cost of house is easily calculated by size and quality ($4K per square for shitty building up to $10K per square for good.) If the agent is reluctant to give you this, chances are they are asking for a price well above valuation.
5. If price quoted as $XXXX Plus – assume the vendor wants somewhere between 10% to 20% more than the price quoted – agents do this just to get people from a lower price range interested in a more expensive property.
6. If a price range is quoted for a property for eg. $230K to $270K always start your offers at the low point – you can always go up, can’t go back down.
7. If it is a fixed price (ie $275,000) you could probably start your offers around 10% below unless the “long time on the market rule†applies.
8. If house is on a multiple listing and first agent won’t take your offer to the vendor because it is too low etc. Try one of the other agents the property is listed with.
9. LONG TIME ON THE MARKET RULE – If a house has been on the market for while – first offer should almost insult the vendor – very low probably 15% -20% below asking price. This will (a)give you plenty of room to move up if necessary and (b) hopefully lower the price expectations of the vendor – they should come back to you with a counter offer somewhere between your offer and what they were asking. If this goes to plan keep offering half way between what your first offer is and what they are asking – all going well you will meet in the middle.
10. Look at weekend auction results for houses sold and passed in where you want to buy. Sold houses give you a good indication of market prices. Passed in houses are opportunities to find a good deal – failed auctions make vendors nervous – especially if they have already bought somewhere else, opportunity for “long time on the market ruleâ€.
aafreen
Try the site below for trends , I am not too sure of how accurate & up to date the data is.
If someone else has some info regarding this site it would be appreciated. [smiling]Hi everyone,
once again, thank you for all your detailed responses. no doubt that these tips are going to save us a lot.
we’ve looked at a few more properties in the area yesterday and dealt with 3 different agents.
We’ve made the mistake of telling the agents how much is our maximum! and now when we ask them what will the vendor take, they would say, they might consider your maximum price. And one agent refuses to show us the properties that are listed 10-20K above what we told him our maximum budget.
while the other agent would show us properties 30K above our price range. We went home so confused not knowing how are we going to determine the fair price.Also, we’ve ask the agent how much was a certain property sold for and he would say, around the asking price. Is it okay to ask them for a copy of the list of properties sold say in the past 2 weeks or this is confidential ? Can we buy this list from the council or something? I think the rpdata would not have the latest sales.We’ll start asking for the copy of notice rates. that will help us.
we’ll keep you posted. this is all so exciting and nerve wrecking for us
aafreen
Originally posted by Aafreen:We’ve made the mistake of telling the agents how much is our maximum! and now when we ask them what will the vendor take, they would say, they might consider your maximum price.
Easy fixed, tell them you have re-calculated your budget, and the “sums” don’t stack up as they did, hence what was once a top purchase price of 315 is now 300, or 290 etc. YOU are in control of this, not the agent, and if you allow him/her to take the lead, then you do so as a result of your own weak will. Be firm, and say “no, this is my top dollar, anything above this figure, don’t even bother mentioning” and stand by this, otherwise if you say it, and then agree to look at a property above this quoted figure, the agent will see he/she can manipulate you, and will do so.
Also, we’ve ask the agent how much was a certain property sold for and he would say, around the asking price. So ask him “which was???”
As for prices acheived on recent sales, you can also try http://www.domain.com.au and see what the latest Auction results were and some properties in “Sold” section will nominate the actual price they were purchased for. And it is free!!
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