I’m buying tomorrow – HELP!!

First, if you have been doing your due diligence you (should) know the values of the land/houses in your chosen area., so have confidence in your decisions. Fear will paralyse you.
Next, relax and have fun. You are not obliged to buy anything tomorrow (of course, the agent will tell you “there are multiple offers so don’t delay”; yeah, yeah, yeah, blah, blah, blah).
A good idea is to select maybe 10 possible properties, then try to look at maybe 4 or 5 on the day (that’s more than enough) plus, after this you will have trouble remembering details unless you take notes and photos of every one. Then select 2 or 3 as a shortlist, and go back for 2nd inspections another day. Don’t appear too eager to the agent, but be ready to buy. Have you arranged finance already? If not, at least get pre-approval from the bank asap.
With bathrooms, look for stains, watermarks and rot. Check all the taps for water quality/flow. Flush all the toilets.
Your building inspection should reveal other surprises you can’t see.
Bathroom renos can be very cheap – I did one in a unit I own for $500 and it looked great, but I did all the work myself, and it was a cheaper unit so I didn’t want to overcapitalise. As a guide, allow about $2-10k as you may want a totally new one and there will be plumbing & electrical as well. If it is a really nice area with quality properties you probably should spend more, not less. Most buyers/renters look at the bathrooms and kitchen as an important feature of the house.
Don’t forget to put in ‘subject to finance from XYZ Bank for XYZ dollars within 14 (or 21 days if you can) of the VENDOR signing the contract.
If you are trying to buy a ‘clunker’ look at land value first, then calculate what the house is worth on top of that to determine your offer. eg; If a brand new 25sq house in that area costs $12k p/sq to build ($300k), what would the 25 sq house you are buying be worth now – maybe $3k p/sq ($75k)?
The construction cost is usually closely linked to the quality of the area. New “Jennings” type estates have cheaper houses than architect designed purpose built in a high end suburb.
If the land is 1,000 sq/m and is $200 p/sq/m ($200k) then the offer is $275k.
Take your checkbook with you and see how low you can get the deposit to be – I try for $500. Agents laugh at this, but usually $1,000 will do it and add inyour written offer that the balance of deposit will be after all inspections have been to your satisfaction. Then, the property is basically off the market until you do all your research/inspections. If you offer a short settlement (30-40 days) it allows you to get to settlement without having to come up with a big deposit.
The agents will usually try hard to stop you from doing this as they want their commission asap, but it is your offer so do what you like. It is up to the Vendor to agree or not with these terms.
Once, I was due to pay the balance of the deposit 1 week before settlement. I rang the agent to tell him I was coming in with a cheque and was told “don’t worry about it now -settlement is next week”. So you can be lucky!
I find that if you are making a reasonable (dollars) offer with a short settlement the Vendors are very receptive. If you try to low-ball them, then offer low deposit with long settlement, they usually reject it. Generally the Vendors aren’t too concerned by the deposit – they are concerned with selling the house; the sooner the better. The agent is the only person concerned about the deposit.
Good luck,

Cheers,
Marc.
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