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

Thanks guys for the reply.

We are looking at buying our first property. we will be living in it for at least 6 months to qualify for the FHOG and then rent it out. But we would also like to buy in an area where there is reasonable CG in the next 2 years, as we plan to pay out the loan as quickly and as much as we can within this first 2 years, and then use the equity to purchase another IP. We’ve never owned any property before so Im not sure if this is the best way to do it. We are learning as much as we can, and also started visiting some places. We visited Frankston last weekend, and then Caroline Springs. So this coming weekend we plan to drive to Tarneit just to check it out. We have not learned to figure out whether it is better to buy in the established area or in these new development areas as yet. So at the moment we are just simply driving from one area to the other.
We have some friends who bought in Point Cook at the early stages of its development, and told us how much their property has increased in value. So we were wondering if that will be the case with Tarneit, although I have read somewhere that Hoppers Crossing is not a good area for CG, and since Tarneit is just next to it, does that mean Tarneit is not good for CG as well ? Meaning do i need to wait for like 7years or the next boom to see some increase in the property value?

Yorker, how did you do your feasibility study on Tarneit ? Could you please point me to a book or website or a course that will show me *step by step* how to compare suburbs. I know im suppose to be looking at what developments are going on in that area and stuff like that. But i would greatly appreciate some tips on what to look for when doing a research in a certain area. There’s just so much to learn and im so eager to do our first purchase but i don’t just wanna buy blindly.

Also, i’ve read some post saying this is not the time to enter the market ? why is that so ? We are planning to buy before december, is this not a good time ? should i wait for next year and use the time to learn more about property ?

Im sorry I have too many questions.

Aafreen

Exactly what im trying to figure out…should i buy in the established suburbs or in those new development estate ? I dont have a crystal ball, and I dont’ have enough knowledge, facts and experience YET to help me be confident in making my own decision and direction. Im trying to learn as much and quickly as i can, but im totally new to RE investing so my learning progrress is a bit slow. Your opinions are such big help to me, so keep on educating me [exhappy]

like Yack said, everything has gone up in the last 2-3 years. But if i buy in the next 6 months, I wouldnt be expecting my property value to increase that quickly now would i ? Unless i find the right property. But how ?

Anyway, yes the intention is to make it a PPOR for a max of 2 years and then rent it out. But if in my learning process i’ll find an area where the value will go up so much that i’ll make money in selling the place at the end of 2 years, then that would be even better. But the question now is, HOW do i find that area/property ? Frankston seems to be popular these days. When you guys talk about Franskton what do u see ? Do you see CG in the near future (1-3yrs time) or positive cashflow from day 1 or what ? More importantly, HOW did you come to SEE whatever is the golden thing that you are seeing in Franskton now ?
and I am not lazy. I am more than willing to do my due diligence. Just a bit lost in the process at the moment. And the more i sit down here and try to compose my post, the more i realize how little i know about property investing. So please bear with me.

thanks again for all the help/ opinions.

aafreen

Hi Jo,

Thanks so much for your reply! Your advice on the suburb snapshot has given me a really good starting point. I visit domain.com and other RE websites but i just click from 1 property picture to the next and never noticed the link on suburb snapshot.

we are more interested in areas like sunshine rather than Franston although i have read a few good things about Frankston, just too far for us. At this stage, we probably wont go farther than Dandenong.

you have not mentioned about Point Cook or Caroline Springs or Laverton. What is your opinion on these places ? I have seen some 3 bedroom houses (around 300K) in that area.

I definitely need to do my homework, and lots of it. !!

Again thanks, your reply has made me more confident, that eventually I will be able to understand how this property investing really works!

Aafreen

HI Mini,

im amazed to know you were clueless just “a year ago”. from your previous posts, i’ve always assumed you must have been in this real estate game for at least 8 years ( just the impression that i got). thanks for encouraging. btw, did you take any real estate courses, do you think it’s worth doing it ?

felicity, im based southeast melbourne. i’d be interested in any of these areas, caulfield, carnegie, murrumbeena, bentleigh or nearby areas.

if you have houses in these areas (or others, i might be interested) please email me at [email protected]

cheers,
aafreen

HI everyone,

thank you for all your responses and encouragement.now, i feel like a “real” member of the forum, rather than just a mere observer[:0)]

i went thru the papers but i didn’t notice any ads for wraps except for some country land. anybody in this forum offering wrap services ? or i’ll call the real estate agents and ask ?

steve, i appreciate that bit of economics “lecturing” u gave me:) i’m going to go grab an econ book from the library and try to dig it! it’s important for me to understand how EX , IR etc relate to each other, no matter how boring they are(for now). Hoping it will turn into an exciting area to study specially when i start making money[]

aiyaaz, tried St george but were told this 100% finance does not apply to self employed applicants.

im not saying im gonna go do wrap for sure. i just want study the option closely and see if it fits us best.

aww my 10month old is up again, gotta go !