Browse Forums Real Estate Re: Buying first home in Aus 4Jan 01, 2014 2:30 pm 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 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 7Jan 01, 2014 3:23 pm 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 5178 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 6506 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 28619 |