Hi Kereno,

If you want to follow some of our property transactions along the way, go to the websites and Facebooks of both Great Property Deals (flipping property) and Boston West (renovating property). We do properties in a number of different ways and might give you some ideas on what you can do in the future.

Regards,

Jason Moore

Hi wombat,

Cherie Barber is a great product, has great experience, and provides a support network by forums dedicated to renovations. She also has a telephone support system to help you out with your renovations along the way.  Another person to check out is Dean Parker from Property Systems. There are not too many renovators at the moment on the market (Brisbane real estate market)who are trading stock. If you have a look at a bunch of renovations that we have done, go to our website listed below.  In the property acquisition aspect, our motto is 'we make our money when we buy.' In buying extremely well, we make up for any mistakes made along the way. In relation to the mechanics of the renovation, Dean Parker and Cherie Barber have excellent products to help you. We identify the top three selling agents in the area when we sell. We look at hard-core numbers and not what the agent says or promises. Typically, the top agent will sell 3 to 4 times as much, or faster than the average agent. Case in point, the other day the top agency in Deception Bay in Queensland sold 29 properties in a given period compared to a nearest rival who had sold 7 properties during that same period (that is a bit extreme).

Kind regards,

Jason Moore

Hi U36ma,

Depending on the extent of the renovation that you are doing, you might want to investigate via a valuer whether it is worth doing a "current valuation" and at the same time get an "on completion valuation" done. To do this you need to list the scope of works that you are going to do to the property because you will provide this to the valuer. My friend in the renovation game six years ago used to do this type of valuation on the properties that he was renovating. However, he was doing larger type renovation work to the properties. The terminology of use might not be correct but the process is.

Hope this helps.

Regards,

Jason Moore

Hi echelon6,

Unfortunately, that is one of the major challenges that I see in trying to buy houses via the auction process. We have purchased well over 100 houses in Queensland and always had a building and pest inspection done on the property every single time.  It is a bit of a gamble paying good money for building and pest inspection before the auction HOPING that you will be the winning bid.

In a perfect world, it would make sense to have a building and pest report completed prior to the property going to auction from a panel of inspectors. The report can be transferred over to the new purchaser and the new purchaser is required to pay for the building and pest report up and above the auction price received on the day.  For the potential buyer, it would give them the reassurance on what they are actually buying. For the seller, it would encourage a much more bigger pool of potential bidders at the auction.

Ah well, that is my 10 cents worth.

Regards,

Jason Moore

Hi mg310,

If you based in Queensland (or anywhere that matter of fact) and you are serious about a particular property you could ask the selling real estate agent to do an RP Data report on the mapping section. Through the report, you can select from the menu to highlight any easements on the block. However, I would still get the relevant searches done during the conveyancing process. If you are based in Queensland, just do a Google search using the term "PD Online" (PD stands for Planning and Development) and also tighten the relevant council. You should see a menu option that allows you to do a property enquiry where you type in the address of the property and that will indicate to you anything affecting the property in relation to zoning and constraints. It will also provide any applications on the property. And if you don't know anything in that report, we normally ring the council (Planning and Development) and ask them to clarify what things mean.

I hope that helps.

Regards,

Jason Moore

Hi Tictactoe,

I have had no experience in subdividing a block of land; however, I have had a couple of mates in Queensland who have done it previously. They wish they had done subdividing the block and just sold off the new parcel of land rather than going to the effort of making it a house and land package. 

Regards,

Jason Moore

Hi guys,

I actually use both resources. The http://www.onthehouse.com.au is a fantastic public resource if you just want to get a general idea of house prices in the area. It also gives details such as how long the property has been on the market and when it was last purchased. It is also a great tool because it also gives the medium price of properties that are
listed and the medium of properties sold.

RP Data is good if you are talking to vendors directly, as we do, as it gives a little more history in relation to the property. We tend to like it a lot more for in depth analysis. However, it does cost us $497 a month for just the Brisbane, Toowoomba, and Gold Coast areas so it is a pretty expensive subscription to have on an annual basis. 

With what is freely available out these days, RP Data might be pricing themselves out of the market.  They have had 3 aggressive price rises over the past 12 months or so … getting to the point that if it goes up anymore we would swap over to Price Finder as our main property information source which is significantly more cost effective for the
same information.

I hope that helped. Talk to you soon.

Jason Moore

Dear dbloomf,

Please feel free to send me a private message with your contact details and I’ll put you in touch with a qualified builder who has done work for us in the northern side of Brisbane. Once you’ve shared it with me, I’ll give you his details. Thank you very much and have a nice day.

Jason Moore

Hi Lora,

Just one comment I would make in relation to North Lakes as we just sold a house recently (as of last week) in that suburb.  The specifications of the house was a five bedroom, double lock-up garage, media room, formal dining, living room and three bathrooms on a 650 m² block was sold last week for $530,000.

At the moment in North Lakes there are enormous amount houses that are for sale and land size does matter. There is a glut of houses in the 450 m² land size range and if you thinking about spend on around the $530,000 mark you my will consider getting a larger block and high house specifications for the money.

If you are buying a house to personally live in, I have had a number of friends and family purchase properties at North Lakes and then have found travelling to work etc a major concern enough for them to sell up and move closer towards the city. The funny thing is three of them have repurchased a homes around the Albany Creek and Eatons Hill area.

I might be a little bit biased though as I do live in the Albany Creek area. I hope this helps answer a few questions.

I There,

We are based in Brisbane and have built a good trade team over time. Some helpful hints are as follows [1]  I normally stayed away from the local newspapers as that's where most of our horror stories have been sourced from.  [2]  what has worked best for us is finding a good tradesman in another area such as a plumber and asking whether he can recommend anybody that he has worked with recently. 

I hope this helps