Fellas, don’t let the women to do all the house hunting!

This is a common scenario we come across: two people are buying a property together and one does all the legwork while the other takes on the role of devil’s advocate. This is often, though not always, the woman in a heterosexual relationship - we have also come across other partnerships suffering from this same imbalance.

Does this sound familiar? After some lengthy research and time spent inspecting numerous properties, she has educated herself about the market – enough to identify a property that she thinks they should buy. Then he takes take a look, says he doesn’t like it, dismisses it quickly, showing no appreciation for all the hard work that has got her to that point. Then she has to go through the whole process again as he becomes educated about the market and what they can buy for their money. By that time, prices have gone up and they can no longer afford what they originally wanted!

If you aren’t going to engage a professional to do the work for you, you really need to spend equal time in the property hunt and have a clear idea of what you want and what compromises you are prepared to make.

For more information on getting help to buy property: www.gooddeeds.com.au

What type of property buyer are you?

A sellers market often polarizes buyers. We often come across those who are fixated on prices as they were 6 months ago and will never pay market value. And the market keeps moving and they keep getting left behind. The other end of the continuum is the buyer who panics and pays far too much for a property which is often not that great and doesn’t really suit their needs.

Both buyers miss out. Buyer A keeps missing out and ruing the “one that got away” instead of actually getting onto the property ladder. Buyer B gets stuck with an overpriced dud property and gets left behind when it comes to capital growth.

For more information on buying real estate in Sydney look at www.gooddeeds.com.au

A political writer gets it right about property.

It is very rare that a political reporter makes what I regard a valid and pragmatic point about the property market. However an article in last Sunday’s Sun-Herald by Lisa Carty about Sydney’s suburban dwellers complaining about lack of public transport sure made sense. Following are some of the points that I felt most relevant to buyers:

“The people who buy in the north-west [of Sydney], and the south-west for that matter, are able to buy a family home for far less than those who choose to live closer to the city.

“People who choose to live on the fringe pay much, much less for their homes than those who choose a smaller place – even a unit, God forbid – with better services, closer to the city.”

“The choice for Sydneysiders is stark – you can hold on to your suburban dream and the money you’ll save on real estate you’ll spend on transport.

“Or you can spend a lot more money to buy closer to the city but pay comparatively little for transport, and save yourself hours on the bus or in the car.”

“But the fact is no one made them move to the frontier – it was a choice they made. Sadly, it seems many of them underestimated the real costs, in time as well as money.

“In a perfect world, everyone would have access to great public transport but in our imperfect world, only the filthy rich live without compromise.”

Couldn’t have said it better myself.

Contact me at info@gooddeeds.com.au if you would like a copy of the whole article.

For more information on buying property in Sydney http://www.gooddeeds.com.au

Beware the friendly selling agent.

These guys are usually great at their job (these guys are usually, in fact, girls). They are great at lessening your pain threshold when it comes to parting with your money. After all, we buy from those we like.

These are the agents who return your calls, answer your questions with sensible answers, even follow you up after you have inspected a property. These are the agents who are very skilful at encouraging you to make offers, register and bid, even pay more than the asking price.

So here’s a thought, maybe you will save money by persisting with those agents that annoy you, irritate you and generally give agents a bad name. After all, there will be plenty of other buyers who will avoid dealing with them, so possibly you could avoid some competition.

For more information on buying property go to www.gooddeeds.com.au.

Home buyers - Do the opposite of what everybody else is doing.

Last year at this time the market was as flat as a pancake and we were recommending people BUY BUY BUY, but what did the vast majority of buyers do? Sit on their hands. Here are some quotes from our prospective clients at the time.

“It is such a transitional market right now, I think I’ll wait and see what happens”
“There is so much uncertainty in the market, I think I will leave it until early next year unless something changes dramatically.”
“I doubt the market will be rising quickly, and there will be more product next year than right now.”
“I've put my plans on hold for a bit because the market will probably drop even further.”

Do you think these people regret not taking advantage of a buyers’ market?

Now everybody seems to be buying and (maybe it is bad for business to say this but…) maybe we should now be sitting on our hands. Our goal at the moment is to purchase AT market value, not over it and we are advising clients to be very wary of paying over the odds at the moment.

For further information on buying property in Sydney go to www.gooddeeds.com.au