Hey Josh,
I bought a house pretty young as well and god damn it was stressful!
Offer what you think its worth, but have a building inspector look over it first, and see if you can get an apraisal from your bank / lender BEFORE making the offer. The last think you want if for the vendor to accept your offer and your lender turn around and not want to lend you enough becuase they value the property lower.
Take pictures, write everything down.. keep it all together and take it all with you. Its handy to be able to refer back to other places you have been to, liked didn't like etc.
Suburb trending etc is very useful but remember that most places will sell below their advertised price.. which skews the trending.
Gather up all your ammo and have it with you when you make the offer. Things like if your lender values the property 30k less than advertised is good for barganing - anyone who wants a loan will not be able to pay more than that. Get quotes for any repaires needed which come up in the building report, have them handy with you. Get the cost of termite treatments etc as well. Add it all up and compare.
When you go to make your offer you can say 'hey there are 2 places I'm looking at (you can even show them you folder ) your place would cost me X and Y, similar places have recently sold for N, so my offer is Z." If they don't accept, you can pull out your lender apprasal and say " well the bank values it as A, and won't lend above the market value."
Most vendors will be in tune with the market, but want to most money they can get. Real Estate agents want to sell the property in good time, but are paid with commission. If the propertly has just been placed on the market, 99% of the time will be for more than market value. The agent / vendor expects some barganing to go on. 6-12months on the market and they are most likely not accepting offers and want to wait 'untill someone wants to pay'. The amount of time I've heard people say 'Oh its worth X but there are no buyers wanting to pay that at the moment' hehe well yes, they either want to sell it or they don't.
If they don't accept the offer, just wait or move on The trick is not to get emotional and take your time. I looked for 2 years before I found the place that ticked all my boxes.. I had two building inspections done and still ended up with what was apparently and 'illegal' kitchen (the hutch was 50mm too close to the cooktop) so you can't rely on others to everything for you.
The only people that I found to be helpful throughout the process for me was my bank (well credit union - CUA). I was buying it by myself and was a bit terrified by it all. Realestate agents and everyone else just want your money now, CUA wanted to keep me as a customer long term.
Talk to a conveyancer or solicitor..What is the next step re contracts etc?
Building inspection, pest inspection.. Check its history for flood and fires etc. I assume its for a house and not an apartment?What sort of inspections should I be getting done?
it took a few months. It was 6 weeks between contracts exchanged to settlement. Expect to do some leg workWhat is a brief outline of the process, timeline of events etc?
oh, and good luck!
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