Most buyers are lulled into a false sense of security when dealing with an Agent representing  a Vendor.         
 
In most instances Agents are highly skilled negotiators trained to achieve the highest price for their client.Even if they are not, you can bet your bottom dollar that their Principal is.Therefore, it is necessary to acknowledge the fact and be careful in all dealings. A basic tactic is for the Agent to become a friend ,gain a Buyers confidence and then get the top price from YOU.                                
 
Therefore obtain expert advice from a number of sources to ensure you do not pay too much for a property.
 
Even at auctions we see Agents employing tactics to encourage a buyer to pay the highest price.They are doing their job and well, if they succeed.     
 
It is not all that easy when buying a property.
 
Call us if you need assistance.The cost  of a call could save you 000’s.

12-Jul-2008
Every week many families try to realise the dream of owning their first home and there are a number of suggestions from REIV that may help.

Firstly, familiarise yourself with the two main methods of selling a property, auction and private sale. A major difference is that in private sale you can make the sale conditional on obtaining finance and there is a three day cooling off period.

Decide on what you want in terms of size, location and price range. Register your name and requirements with agents who service the area you are interested in and ask them to let you know when suitable properties become available. Regularly check the newspapers and set up alerts on real estate internet sites such as realestateview.com.au.

If you are not buying a brand new home it is also a sensible idea to obtain a building inspection report before you make an offer or bid at auction, this will provide guidance on what needs to be repaired on the property and how much it may cost.

Organise your finances before making an offer or bidding at an auction. If you are bidding at auction you need to be able to provide a 10 per cent deposit, immediately following the auction, should your bid be successful.

When you organise your finances make sure that you take into account stamp duty, cost of conveyancing, possible moving expenses and the repayments allowing a bit of room for the fact that variable home loan interest rates can move up.

Finally, research the different levels of State Government financial assistance that may be available to you. Assistance is available for first home buyers and different stamp duty rates are applied differently for newly built homes in the city and in regional Victoria than established homes in the city.

Source: REIV

This term means two things:

1. The ability of buyers to afford, i.e. the percentage of salary they can afford to pay on a mortgage.

2. With all available resources where can they afford to buy?

No: 1

Is self-explanatory.

No: 2

Lots of buyers say they can’t “afford” a property because they are looking to live close to the CBD or in the area in which they grew up.

To get “into” the market buyers must compromise and broaden their horizons, put up with some inconvenience by living in another suburb they can afford.

For example, look further out.  If buyers are looking to buy in say Glen Waverley, it is very difficult to find a good house under $500,000, yet another 10 minutes along the Monash at say the Hampton Park area there are 72 houses for sale as of 9th July priced between $150,000 and $250,000.  All over the Melbourne metro area there are similar examples.

Buying in a non-preferred area will at least get your equity working and after a reasonably short time something in a preferred area may be “affordable” because your equity base is increasing.  This assumes capital gain which in the short term, one to two years, may not be great because of a quiet period of low activity but history tells us that capital gain in real estate is a given over time.

A typical problem is where a purchaser pays too much for a property.

Husband and wife find a house that they absolutely love.  Emotion takes over and they pay too much because they have not carried out research on sales in the area, nor have they checked any Planning matters (zoning, overlays, etc.) and as a consequence have paid the Vendors asking price – usually in excess of what the Vendor would be happy to take.

SKILLED NEGOTIATION WOULD HAVE PREVENTED THIS SITUATION OCCURRING.