Browse Forums Real Estate 1 Jan 01, 2014 7:36 am We are looking at purchasing our first home since moving to melbourne from the uk, and have seen a house we like that is for sale by negotiation. We have bought houses in the uk before but the process seems to be slightly different here and we want to make sure we don't make any mistakes and end up legally committed to buying a place before we're ready! My understanding is that once we have negotiated a price, signed the sale contract and these have been exchanged (?) then the sale is legally binding, is that correct? What steps do we need to take for our own piece of mind to make sure we haven't overlooked anything before this point? Things I'm aware of include building/pest inspections, securing mortgage, FIRB approval and also instructing a solicitor/conveyancer to do the legal bits. Is there anything else? I've checked the local council website for planning applications in the area that may affect the house we're looking at, and assume the solicitor will do other searches too as part of the conveyancing process? I want to get a solicitor to look through the section 32 before we start any negotiations, but everyone seems to be on holiday until mid-January which might make things difficult! Plus the house has another open home this Saturday so I'm scared someone else will beat us to it if we're not on the ball! Eek! I'd like to get as many things sorted as possible before making an offer so we are in a stronger bargaining position and need to include less conditions in our offer, if that makes sense. We think the house is priced a little high compared to similar properties in the area and are hoping to negotiate a good price, so need to be as strong as possible I think! Thanks for any advice, and apologies for my lack of knowledge not he Aussie system, I'm getting there but still learning Re: Buying first home in Aus 2Jan 01, 2014 11:58 am So many answers ... Try using the search mechanism on here for your questions - you'll find lots of threads. Re contract - you may have a few "ifs and buts" - eg finance, pest, pool, etc. A good conveyancing person (ie solicitor) is essential ... BEFORE you sign anything !!!!!!! Re: Buying first home in Aus 3Jan 01, 2014 12:06 pm Thanks Saint Mike - I have enjoyed reading through the forum and have found quite a bit of useful information which is great, I'll keep looking so I can learn as much as possible. Agreed on the necessity of a good conveyancing professional, and would prefer a lawyer to a conveyancer - I'm currently looking for a solicitor who isn't away until the middle of January who can look over the Section32 - so if anyone has any recommendations for Melbourne-based property lawyers that would be great?! Regarding opening up negotiations on the price for the property, would you recommend getting legal advice first or is it OK to have a few verbal negotiations to see if we're anywhere near the vendors range at this stage? I'm a bit scared of getting in too deep without legal advice and obviously wouldn't sign anything although the agent is keen we put any offers in writing which I am not keen on just yet.... However I don't want to get financially and emotionally involved if the maximum price we would offer is still way below the price the vendor would accept. Does it just become legally binding when you sign the contracts or are you committing anything by offering verbally to agree on a price at this early stage? Thanks for your advice and patience Re: Buying first home in Aus 4Jan 01, 2014 2:30 pm sorry I have no experience buying in Victoria. assume you've read sites such as these ones? http://www.consumer.vic.gov.au/housing- ... g-property http://www.vic.gov.au/property-planning ... perty.html you might also consider engaging a buying agent to assist you? Recently moved to a 60's home in need of some improvement! http://s797.photobucket.com/user/leenii ... ch%20House Old house: http://s797.photobucket.com/albums/yy25 ... loo/House/ Re: Buying first home in Aus 5Jan 01, 2014 2:33 pm spamjam .... However I don't want to get financially and emotionally involved if the maximum price we would offer is still way below the price the vendor would accept. this is the million dollar question!! and one you won't know the answer to unless you make an offer! hehe it does happen. I've inspected dozens of houses where the vendor had an unrealistic idea of what their property was worth. I guess that is the other thing - how confident are you that you know the true value of the property? Recently moved to a 60's home in need of some improvement! http://s797.photobucket.com/user/leenii ... ch%20House Old house: http://s797.photobucket.com/albums/yy25 ... loo/House/ Re: Buying first home in Aus 6Jan 01, 2014 2:42 pm Thanks Leni, I'll take a look I did think about getting a buyers advocate but they seem to be pretty pricey, i think if we can get some legal advice on the contract and things to guide us through then hopefully we should be OK. Regarding knowing the true value that's a good point - we have been looking for comparable properties in the area that have sold but the houses are all quite different so it's hard to compare directly. I do think the asking price is a little high, but a property is only worth as much as someone is prepared to pay I think... we've also been considering building out own home and reckon we could probably do it for around the same as what we'd be thinking of offering (but you get what you want with a custom build). Therefore I think if the vendor was insistent on getting an offer higher near the asking price I'd like to think we would just walk away and either keep looking or commit to building our own home. Whether it would be that easy to walk away in practice is another question - my other half is much better at that than I am so I'm trying to be sensible! We haven't received a sale contract with the section 32 (we just have the vendors statement) so when the agent calls I'll be asking for that to get it checked over from a legal perspective before making any firm offers - would just be nice to know if there is any point from a price point of view though! Most of the houses we've looked at have been priced quite a lot above what we thought other similar houses in that area have sold for recently - not sure if it's us or if people are pricing houses too high though.... Thanks for your thoughts... Re: Buying first home in Aus 7Jan 01, 2014 3:23 pm spamjam Most of the houses we've looked at have been priced quite a lot above what we thought other similar houses in that area have sold for recently - not sure if it's us or if people are pricing houses too high though.... Houses are always priced higher than the expected sale price. Melbourne has also been in a mini price boom. Don't forget the old real estate axiom: "Land appreciates, houses depreciate." Always compare the land size when comparing houses. Also look in the general area to see if there is any past or ongoing redevelopment. If people are buying knock downs, then the axiom I posted is even more important. Also check the school zones; a house in a quality school zone will always have an inflated value. Also check the house's orientation. Very, very important, not only to living quality but also long term value. People are much more aware these days and you should always consider your best long term equity gain. 3in1 Supadiverta. Rainwater Harvesting Best Practice using syphonic drainage. Cleaner Neater Smarter Cheaper Supa Gutter Pumper. A low cost syphonic eaves gutter overflow solution. Re: Buying first home in Aus 8Jan 01, 2014 5:27 pm Thanks SaveH2O, I agree - in fact there are new houses being built just behind the house we like, doesn't really bother us as the orientation of the house is such that there aren't actually any windows on that side facing the new houses so they're not very noticeable. But we thought it might affect the house value...whether it pushes prices up or down I'm not sure - we thought maybe it would reduce the price of existing houses immediately adjacent to the new ones (overlooking into garden, loss of privacy, change of neighbourhood character etc) but I suppose it could also push prices up if people see the land as potential for redevelopment in the future? Schools was something I hadn't considered really, as we don't have kids (yet) and so don't know much about which schools are good or not. Might be worth looking into that one though, thanks The agent is going to call tomorrow I think to see whether we are considering putting in an offer... guess we'll have to decide what to do! I'm always tempted to go in lower with the idea that we could work upwards a little bit and hopefully negotiate something, but my other half is more keen to just put in a higher offer near or at our upper limit and stick with it. We won't make any offers until we've got some legal advice on the contracts etc and probably done building inspections to ease our minds - it's very tricky to organise these things when lots of people are not back in work yet (including us ) Re: Buying first home in Aus 9Jan 03, 2014 8:17 pm How did you go spam jam? By orientation we mean living areas facing north, minimal windows to the east and west. Makes a huge difference for heating and cooling. Recently moved to a 60's home in need of some improvement! http://s797.photobucket.com/user/leenii ... ch%20House Old house: http://s797.photobucket.com/albums/yy25 ... loo/House/ Re: Buying first home in Aus 10Jan 04, 2014 7:59 am Well we told the agent what our offer was (quite a bit below the asking price but what we think the property is actually worth) and he took it to the vendor and came back saying the vendor would like us to put it in writing. I guess that's promising? Since my last post we have also received our mortgage pre-approval (subject to valuation) and have also had our building and pest reports back. The building reports were better than I'd expected (prepared myself for the worst!) but there are a few maintenance jobs that need doing and the inspector couldn't get in to the roof void as there was no access hatch visible so we may need to ask the vendor if there is access up there. The roof is a very shallow pitch so there's not much room up there anyway, not sure how me much you could see even with access... We've also had the contract and section 32 checked which all seems to be ok. The only thing the solicitor queried was there appears to be a 5m wide strip of land at the front of the house that is separate from the block but isn't actually clear on the actual land, the house has no front fence (as most houses in that area don't) and so it's heard to see where the block ends as the garden kind of just extends down to the road - is there a way of finding out what this 5m strip of land is and who it belongs to? I don't think it makes much much difference to us as the dimensions of the block don't include this strip, but it would be good to get some clarification. Could it be just a nature strip? There are a couple of telephone poles dotted along the road on that side, so could it be something to do with those? If someone could give us an idea of how we can find out that would be great, although I'm not too concerned about it. So.... I think we might put in a written offer, subject to finance and try for a long settlement to allow us time to save a little more. Our only worry is the price, we think we've pitched it at a reasonable level but it's been so hard to find comparable properties as the other houses in the area are so different, in age, size, block size etc. we've got an rpdata report and I've checked onthe house.com.au and sold prices on realestate.com.au but very hard to find comparables! Ah well... Such is life Oh and the orientation of the house is that the main living areas are north facing, spare bedrooms and laundry etc on the back (south) corner and most windows facing north too. That's something I really I like about it, and it has quite large eaves so hopefully would get some shading in summer too. Thanks for your help and advice, fingers crossed for our offer if we do put one in (trying not to get my hopes up as there is an open home today so hoping no one else goes to see it!) Re: Buying first home in Aus 11Jan 04, 2014 8:03 am Sorry just another question I thought of - is there a way of finding out about good schools in the area? We don't have kids yet and don't really know anyone in the area, so not sure how to find out that information... Thanks Re: Buying first home in Aus 12Jan 04, 2014 9:34 am spamjam We've also had the contract and section 32 checked which all seems to be ok. The only thing the solicitor queried was there appears to be a 5m wide strip of land at the front of the house that is separate from the block but isn't actually clear on the actual land, the house has no front fence (as most houses in that area don't) and so it's heard to see where the block ends as the garden kind of just extends down to the road - is there a way of finding out what this 5m strip of land is and who it belongs to? I don't think it makes much much difference to us as the dimensions of the block don't include this strip, but it would be good to get some clarification. Could it be just a nature strip? There are a couple of telephone poles dotted along the road on that side, so could it be something to do with those? If someone could give us an idea of how we can find out that would be great, although I'm not too concerned about it. Sounds like the nature strip but you really need to look at the title plan. Here is a link that explains how to read a title plan. http://www.anewhouse.com.au/2012/01/und ... tle-plans/ The Harder You Try - the Luckier You Get ! Web site http://www.anewhouse.com.au Informative, Amusing, and Opinionated Blog - Over 600 posts on all aspects of building a new house. Re: Buying first home in Aus 13Jan 04, 2014 9:57 am Thanks bashworth, I'm hoping it is just the nature strip. The 5m is shown on the title plan, and says 'road' which doesn't seem to make any sense as the road there doesn't seem to get any wider at that point or anything. Could we query this with the title office or local council perhaps? As I said I don't think it should be a problem as it's not part of the land block dimensions, but just would be good to know what it is in case it could cause any problems in the future... Re: Buying first home in Aus 14Jan 04, 2014 10:25 am Re schools you could try googling and even looking at the school websites. There is some academic data online as well, but should be taken in consideration with other factors. Schools are basically categorised into: public/government, catholic (private but cheap less than $5000/year, and other private up to $25k per year. As a very general rule, higher socio economic areas have 'better' schools than lower socio economic areas. It is sometimes possible to get a public school enrollment out of that schools standard catchment area. The re agent should be able to give you a list of schools nearby. Do you know why they are selling? A long settlement may affect the final price. Good news about north facing!! Recently moved to a 60's home in need of some improvement! http://s797.photobucket.com/user/leenii ... ch%20House Old house: http://s797.photobucket.com/albums/yy25 ... loo/House/ Re: Buying first home in Aus 15Jan 04, 2014 10:34 am spamjam Thanks bashworth, I'm hoping it is just the nature strip. The 5m is shown on the title plan, and says 'road' which doesn't seem to make any sense as the road there doesn't seem to get any wider at that point or anything. Could we query this with the title office or local council perhaps? As I said I don't think it should be a problem as it's not part of the land block dimensions, but just would be good to know what it is in case it could cause any problems in the future... Road on title documents includes the total width of the road reserves (that is footpaths and nature strips) The Harder You Try - the Luckier You Get ! Web site http://www.anewhouse.com.au Informative, Amusing, and Opinionated Blog - Over 600 posts on all aspects of building a new house. Re: Buying first home in Aus 16Jan 05, 2014 7:20 am Hi leni, Yes I might check up on the schools, it seems like a good area and I've heard mention of local schools but not sure how good they are. As I said it doesn't apply to us at the moment, but may do in the future and for future buyers if we buy a house in that area! My understanding is that the house has been rented for a couple of years and has recently become vacant, the owners are retiring/already retired and want to sell to have the money for their retirement. The house is getting to the point of needing a little maintenance, nothing too major but some painting etc, so I suspect it's easier for them to sell it than have to bother with those jobs... Or maybe now the tenants have moved on it seems like a good time to sell. We'd be prepared to negotiate on settlement time, we're tied into a rental contract until may but for the right home we wouldn't mind having an overlap, and actually this would be good to allow us to get some jobs done before moving in. Thanks for the info on the title, bashworth, hopefully that's just what it is and nothing weird. We're going in to the agents on Monday to put in a written offer, trying to remain calm and objective about the whole thing and not expect our offer to be accepted. I've also got a back up list of a couple of other houses to try and view next weekend in case this one doesn't happen. So hard not to get over excited! Re: Buying first home in Aus 17Jan 06, 2014 6:33 am spamjam is there a way of finding out about good schools in the area? We don't have kids yet and don't really know anyone in the area, so not sure how to find out that information... Good schools buoy house prices in their 'catchment' zone. An annual list is published that lists the best performing schools and the top performers are not always private schools. The links below should be of interest. Primary schools. http://bettereducation.com.au/school/Pr ... hools.aspx Secondary schools. http://bettereducation.com.au/school/se ... hools.aspx School zones. http://forums.whirlpool.net.au/forum-re ... ?t=1898538 3in1 Supadiverta. Rainwater Harvesting Best Practice using syphonic drainage. Cleaner Neater Smarter Cheaper Supa Gutter Pumper. A low cost syphonic eaves gutter overflow solution. I believe this is correct. From the picture you can see the power was put in last so the electrician knew where the water was. Really it's a common sense issue more… 4 5176 Yeah I don't know why I came to a forum. Place is full of wierdos/pedos thought internet may help but I suppose I'll try my luck with someone in person. Cheers. I tried… 0 6491 So it looks like we finally have some movement on site! Definitely later than expected, but I'll take any progress at this point. I'll drop by over the weekend to get… 5 28350 |