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The spring selling season is upon us!

Sep 26, 2017

Practical tips for inspecting and buying a home

It’s a popular time for those who have decided to sell to and it’s also a popular time for buyers who’ve decided to take the plunge to buy.
Before you set out on your search, make an appointment with a mortgage broker or your bank manager to do a pre-approval so that you can approach buying with a sense of confidence knowing how much you can afford to lend on your purchase. Then, it’s a good idea to make a list of the most important things you’re looking for. There will be some things you won’t compromise on and others you might consider but this process will have you making some important decisions.

Open Homes

Open house inspections are a great way for you to check out a number of properties on the one day. After planning your itinerary from property web sites, your Saturday is laid out to follow.

Show respect when you arrive at inspections. Take shoes off if asked.
Be prepared to provide your name, phone number and email address to the agent. I see some buyers who are reluctant to do this but if you are serious about buying, you want to hear back from the agent. Even if the property is not quite what you’re after, they may have another property or even one coming up that suits you perfectly.
Be confident when inspecting properties, if you’d like to take photos for reference ask if it’s OK to do this.
Take notice of the furniture dimensions. Have a tape measure with you so that you can be sure about measurements where it’s important.
Pay attention to detail. Sit down in the lounge room and look around. This will give you a practical sense of living in the space.
Ask questions of the agent. How long has the property been for sale? If it’s been on the market for an extended period without a price reduction, it may be overpriced.
With units and strata titled properties, ask to receive a body corporate disclosure, a copy of the last AGM and the bi-laws. This information identifies how much the body corporate levies are, how much is in the sinking fund, details about building insurance and any issues the body corporate are, or have been dealing with in relation to the property.
You should also ask if there is anything you, as the buyer should know about this property before buying. Agents have a duty of disclosure to the buyer.

Ready to make an offer?

Make sure you have done your research on comparable recent sales of similar homes in the area. At the open home, pay attention if you see the agent handing out offer documents. This may be a sign that someone has just or is about to make an offer. Don’t make offers in round figures (e.g.: $400,000). That’s what most people do. Go to odd numbers just higher (e.g.: $401,000). You want to be the best offer but only just. Remember, there is no set number of properties to see before you make an offer. If you’ve found the one and you’re ready to make an offer, do it with confidence. Be prepared at this point to be given a contract of sale to sign. A good agent will go through the document and answer any questions you have prior to signing. If you have any doubts, have your solicitor look over the contract before signing.

Negotiating

So you’ve made a written offer. The agent has re-contacted you to say that the seller was pleased to receive your offer but is not prepared to sell for that amount. The agent may have been able to get the seller to counter at an amount they will accept. You’ll now need to decide whether you’ll pay the extra amount or even counter there offer with an amount somewhere in between. It’s important that prior to this you have come to a decision as to how much more you might pay before the agent calls you. Negotiating is about compromise. It’s best approached with a sense of give and take. Ultimately, don’t miss out over a relatively small issue. I’ve seen too many buyers regret their decision after going back to the market comparing everything to the property they offered on to come up disappointed.   Inspecting property whether for investment or to live in can be both exciting and enlightening.

Be well prepared and take your time.

We hope to meet you at an open home soon.

Thanks to our agent Kerry Parkes for this great article.

Brisbane Market Set To Boom

Sep 18, 2017

I’m always being asked for an opinion on where I think the local market is headed. I keep a close eye on current research, statistics and what respected industry analysts have to say and I’d have to say that the future looks exciting. It’s clear that there has been a consistent undersupply of houses for sale in Brisbane’s inner and middle ring suburbs. Anyone who has been in the market to buy a house within ten kilometres of the CBD would testify to the level of competition to buy. As result there has been upward pressure on selling prices. CoreLogic RP Data has reported growth of 5 – 7% in most of these areas over the past year with more rapid growth to come.

Units, on the other hand, have been the poor performer due to a number of factors but most significantly, a large supply of new units that have come to market or about to hit the market are in some of the same areas. This has also helped create an oversupply of units to rent, affecting interest from investors. Inevitably, markets are about supply and demand and in the case of units, this is what’s happened. Unit prices have generally seen negative growth of 5 – 8% over the past year. There is a silver lining here and cause for real optimism moving forward. Domain Property Group recently published that new multi storey unit development applications in Brisbane have plummeted by 63% which may result in stock shortages within less than two years. Given the growing disparity between the price of a house and a unit, we are likely to see a significant lift in values for units in the medium term.

Confidence returns
John McGrath recently gave his overview of the Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne markets. To use his words, He’s “supremely confident” about the Brisbane and south east Queensland market. Mr McGrath used Brisbane and Sydney suburbs Paddington as a comparison to where the different capital city markets were. “They are quite comparable, the style and equidistance from the city, a similar demographic and so forth,” he said. “There was a time where you would get a bit of change if you sold in Paddington, Sydney and came here, but not a lot. Right now it is double, maybe more to buy a comparative property.
The market here is not expensive; I think the market here is value for money. Brisbane is obviously showing some signs of improvement, and southeast Queensland in general.” Mr McGrath said a rise in telecommuting would also benefit Southeast Queensland property markets, particularly the Gold Coast and Sunshine Coast, as more people sought to buy in lifestyle areas. “Right now we are selling one-bedroom units in Sydney for $850,000 to $900,000, you can go down to the beautiful Gold Coast and buy a house on the water on the canals there for that sort of money.”

He believed the property market would start to rebalance at some point, although wasn’t predicting great drops in Sydney or Melbourne values. “I see Sydney and Melbourne as close to their peak, I think Southeast Queensland has significant growth happening, not in the next 12 months, but over the next few years, which will really bridge that value gap.”

According to the latest CoreLogic home value index the median house price in Brisbane ($530,000) was almost half that of Sydney ($1.05 million).

It’s clear to me that all the signs are that the Brisbane and south east Queensland market is set for an exciting period of strong growth. Both home buyers and investors should approach the current market with a sense of confidence.

Information sources: Kerry Parkes- RE/MAX Colonial, Annerley, Domain Property Group, CoreLogic RP Data & John McGrath.