1. Set your goals – work out what you want to achieve from the purchase of the property. Do you want to live in it long term? Is it simply a roof over your head while you build or save for another property? Will you gain rental income from it? Knowing why and how you will use the property will determine the decisions you will have to make.

2. Seek independent financial advice – this should be your very next step. Many people decide to start looking around before analysing their own financial position which can result in frustration, anxiety and despair if you have your heart set on a certain property or certain attributes that may not be achievable.

3. Research – this is critical to any property purchase.  You can monitor property pages of your local and metro papers, subscribe to property and financial newsletters, and start visiting open home events to get an idea of the market. I strongly recommend the engagement of an appropriately qualified, licensed independent property valuer at this stage of the process. Expert advice can see sellers make thousands more and buyers save.

4. Be diligent – you’ve already got the big picture in mind from when you set goals but being successful in property means paying attention to the small details. Seek independent advice for the following when applicable – building and pest inspections, Strata searches, council compliance of extensions, flood and bushfire zone searches, zoning and site restrictions, heritage preservations, easements, encumbrances and covenants.

5. Negotiate – possibly my biggest tip: do not let emotion drive your purchase decision! Have an appropriate negotiation strategy in place including setting your price limit and having appropriate purchasing clauses written into the purchase contract. Don’t be afraid to walk away from negotiations if you feel that you won’t get the best outcome for you. Buyer’s and seller’s remorse is far too common. If you find this step daunting, I would recommend seeking the expertise of a Buyers Advocate (BA). BAs work on your behalf to research, negotiate and secure the property according to your goals and terms. They aren’t intimidated in negotiations and they know what’s fair.

Bonus!Tips for purchasing property with good long term capital growth prospects:

Think big – look for larger size blocks of land with development potential or future development potential.  Larger allotment sizes present with the best long term capital growth opportunity with constant rezoning allowing for smaller densities across some sections of the metropolitan area.

Think close - purchase property within 10-15km radius of the city. Properties located within this distance of the CBD traditionally present superior long term capital growth opportunities.

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How many times have you seen a property listing saying “Deceased Estate” in bold letters, as if it was a gigantic advantage? It draws attention on the spot, that’s right – but does it really mean this property is a bargain?

First, for people unfamiliar with the property jargon, let’s establish what a deceased estate is – it’s a house that was left as an inheritance, and is now being sold by the heirs.

To understand why buying a deceased estate may not be a good idea, let’s have a look at a couple of things.

Very often you will find that the previous owner has lived in the house for a long period of time, and being an elderly person couldn’t have looked after the maintenance well. This means that the ‘lucky’ buyer will have to invest a lot in getting that done. So in that respect, buying a deceased estate is like buying a property that was rented out for a long time – it may have been thoroughly neglected.

Another drawback of buying a deceased estate is that you, as a buyer, don’t have much power in negotiating the price down, and here is why. Deceased estate to the heirs is like winning the lottery. I am not implying they are happy about the original owner passing away, but the house itself is an asset that fell into their hands, just like that. This puts them in a totally different category of sellers.

Any home owners selling their primary residences, or any investors selling their investment properties have constraints. For home owners it’s the contract obligations related to their new house. For example, a home owner may have already bought a new house elsewhere and must sell his house within 2 months, to be able to get the money in time for his settlement date in the new home – so time is a constraint to him. An investor has holding costs, and every month that his property is spending unsold on the market means he loses money. This makes them more willing to negotiate.

Deceased property sellers have none of those time/money constraints; they can just sit there and wait for the highest bidder to come. This makes them tougher to negotiate with, and that’s why they are less likely to drop the house price.

Have you had an experience with purchasing a deceased estate? We want to hear about it!

Experts would offer you series of suggestions and recommendations should you ask how to sell any property quickly. In this article I would offer some odd tips that might work wonders if done properly. These tips are inspired by the famous Feng Shui way of improving lifestyle.

1. Turn the lights on at least one hour before the prospective buyers come for viewing. This way you can bring in more positive energy; the home will become a hot spot; natural lights are also good – you can keep the window blinds open so that natural light can come in.

2. Close the doors and windows in order to lock the energy inside; energy keeps flowing from one place to another and you have to lock it inside your home.

3. Do you have any unused room in your house? If yes make it a point to keep the lights on in the room for few hours in a day. Play music in the room; keep the window blinds open in the day time.

4. Use of colors makes lots of difference; keep some yellow flowers in the living room where you would meet the buyers and talk with them. Yellow flowers make it easy to communicate properly. If you have thought of greeting them at the garden, put some yellow flowers there.

5. Electronic equipments at your home often deviate the flow of positive energy as they generate static electricity. To avoid the conflict place amethyst crystals on the top of the computers, TV and other electronic equipments.

I am sure many people do not try these simple things; you won’t incur much to follow these steps. They don’t replace the need to renovate or clean your house. But the thing is many people fail to make a fast sale even after renovating their houses – these Feng Shui tips would make your efforts count. Prospective buyers will be impressed and you will crack a good deal.

You can contact agents, property advisers and cash buyers to know more on this. If they recommend a makeover for your house you can consult a home improvement expert or Feng Shui expert; they can offer custom solutions for your house. Even if you decide to sell the house for cash to the professional property buyers, a little bit of renovation would help you get better price.
 

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A home security system is designed to do two things: protect your home in the event that there’s an emergency, and give you peace of mind when there isn’t an emergency. Accordingly, you want to have a comprehensive home security system that covers the most likely contingencies. You want to have one that works, too, and that’s going to be there for you when you need it.

As you investigate home security system options, here are a few key factors you want to keep in mind:

1. Your first choice is going to be between a monitored system and an unmonitored system. An unmonitored system is going to be cheaper, and you’re probably going to have to install it yourself. A monitored system comes with a monthly fee, but you may be able to get your equipment at a reduced cost because of it. Which you choose depends on your budget and the level of security you want.

2. Your home security system needs to cover every point of entry to your home. That means you’re going to need sensors for every window and door. That includes the second-story bedroom windows, and the skylight – if you’re going to be thorough, that is. Don’t leave any point of entry unguarded.

3. A home security system is only effective if it’s properly used. If you have a system and don’t arm it when you leave the house, it won’t help you. There are some systems that come with built-in times to activate the system at specific times of day. Other systems come with remote access so you can arm your system or even monitor it from a smartphone.

4. There are other important home security steps you need to take, too. Simply installing a home security system isn’t always enough. For example, you need to make sure you have deadbolt locks on your exterior doors. You need to be certain that your landscaping doesn’t obscure entry points from the street. Don’t leave obvious invitations to burglars, such as leaving your garage door up.

5. Home security systems need regular testing, monitoring, and maintenance. Most systems today are wireless, which means they have batteries that need to be replaced from time to time. If you have a monitored home security system, your monitoring company is likely to keep an eye on these things, but if not you’ll need to regularly test your system.

6. Neighbors, if you have them, are one of your best home security assets. Neighborhood groups can have a significant impact on crime levels. If your neighborhood doesn’t have a group such as Neighborhood Watch, talk to someone in local law enforcement about getting a group started today.

Your home is only as safe as you’re willing to make it. Take some time to evaluate your situation, and implement a home security plan that works for you. Approach it from several levels, such as home alarm systems, landscaping, and neighborhood groups, for maximum protection.

Written by Madison Parker

Madison Parker is a security expert whose interest range from personal to home security systems. Get more tips and advice on the blog Home Security Systems!

As many of you know, yesterday the RBA cut the interest rate by half of one per cent. The motive was to ignite growth in the economy as a whole, and to try and reverse the downward trend in property prices, in particular.

Is there a reason why the RBA should be worried about the property market? Apparently so. According to Steve Keen, the professor of economics and finance at the University of Western Sydney, the Australian house prices have now fallen 6.1 per cent from their peak, and have been falling for 21 months, which is the longest downturn in nominal prices ever recorded by the Australian Bureau of Statistics.

Will this rate cut save the property market?

Good question, and I’d like to give the stage to Professor Steve Keen who does a great job answering it in his article below. Don’t be scared or deterred by all the charts – you only need to note the trends to understand everything you need to know.

Australian House Prices down 10% from Peak
By Steve Keen

There are several providers of statistics on Australian house prices, but only one that doesn’t have a vested interest in the direction house prices actually move in: the Australian Bureau of Statistics. So despite the criticisms of this series – that it’s based on detached dwellings only, based on median sales data, too infrequent, not adjusted for “hedonic” differences between houses, etc, it’s the only one I trust.

C. Vedelago wrote a very nice piece about how confusing the various commercial house price statistics are:

“The Real Estate Institute of Victoria said the city’s median house price rose 0.9 per cent in the March quarter. Except that, according to RP Data-Rismark, it fell 1 per cent. Australian Property Monitors, which is owned by Fairfax, believes prices rose 1.6 per cent in the three-month period. Residex, on the other hand, estimates values fell 1.9 per cent…”(“Confused about the market? We all are”, The Age, April 29)

I’m happy to ignore these numbers – and even more so the spin doctoring that goes with them. The ABS numbers are in, and they show a 1.1 per cent national fall over the March quarter. Sydney house prices fell 1.8 per cent according to the ABS, whereas Australian Property Monitor alleged they rose 1.4 per cent – the latter being the basis for Andrew ‘Always Look On the Bright Side” Wilson’s latest piece “Confidence rises as prices bounce back” (The Sydney Morning Herald, April 28). Yeah, right.

Figure 1: Nominal house prices have fallen 6.1 per cent since June 2010

I’m sure the usual spruikers will come out with why this is now the bottom, and it’s a good time to buy, and there wasn’t an Australian house price bubble, and the shortage will drive up prices, and…

So let’s put the current data in the context of the bursting of acknowledged overseas house price bubbles.

Firstly the inflation adjusted data: in real terms, house prices have now fallen 10 per cent from their June 2010 peak, and are back to a level they first reached in late 2007.

Figure 2: Real house prices have fallen 10 per cent since June 2010

Now let’s compare the Australian experience to date with the Japanese and US experiences – where no one, not even Alan Greenspan, denies that there was a housing bubble.

The Japanese bubble peaked in June 1991; the US bubble peaked in May 2006; and Australian house prices peaked in June 2010. Figure 3 shows the three declines from the peak, and while the Australian experience so far is clearly better than the US’s, it’s only a whisker better than the Japanese experience to the same date after the peak.

Figure 3: Comparing Japanese, US and Australian house prices from their peaks

Anyone who takes comfort from that should also consider the longer term perspective – see figure 4.

Figure 4: The long term picture for Japan and the USA

The motive force behind Australia’s bubble was the same as in the US and Japan: accelerating debt drove rising house prices during the boom. Now in both those countries, decelerating debt is driving house prices down. The same pattern applies in Australia – see figure 5.

Figure 5: Mortgage acceleration drives change in house prices

Don’t take heart from the uptick in acceleration at the end of the series there: for that to be sustained into the future, ultimately Australian mortgage debt would need to start rising (compared to GDP). But mortgage debt grew more rapidly here and reached a higher peak than in the US (see figure 6); the odds that it will rise again are slim.

Figure 6: Australian mortgage debt exceeded the US’s

And even though the actual level of mortgage debt is still rising, it’s doing so at the slowest rate ever recorded by the RBA (see figure 7).

Figure 7: Annual growth in mortgage debt (with series break in 1991)

The odds are that the rate of decline will accelerate in the next year – since as Leith van Onselen pointed out yesterday, many baby boomers are relying on rising house prices to secure their retirements. Now that house prices are falling, and have been doing so for almost two years, many of these boomers – 74 per cent of whom earn less than $80,000 a year, with the average investor losing over $9000 a year on these “investments” – could decide to get out rather than continue to absorb losses. The unwinding of their leveraged positions could push mortgage growth below zero, and of course accelerate the house price fall.

First appeared on Steve Keen’s Debtwatch. Reprinted with permission.

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Dear Readers,

So far our relationship was sort of one-sided, don’t you think? We write articles, put them out there for everyone to enjoy, and don’t ask for anything in return. Don’t get me wrong – this is absolutely fine, we are happy to be here. We exist to keep you updated, to get the latest property news out to you, to uncover all the pitfalls you want to watch out for, and to deliver the best tricks so you could buy, sell or rent houses and get the best results.

But, very rarely, we DO need something from you. Not in materialistic terms – but in terms of your support for our hard work. See, the thing is – we care a great deal about Homeiown, and it is important to us that you do, too.

So here is the deal – since we are very proud of Homeiown.com, and what it has become over the years, we entered the Best Australian Blogs 2012 Competition. We think that Homeiown is special, unique, and much loved, and with your support we believe we can win!

Vote for HomeiOwn – click here

How to vote: when you land on the voting page, click on Next to get to the list of all competing blogs, and then click Next again – to get to the second page, where Homeiown is listed. Tick our name, then click Next a few times till you get to the end of the list, enter your name and email address, click Next and – very important – click Done for your vote to count.

Thank you for your support – we count on your vote!

Just over a year ago, we decided that we had outgrown our current home and that it was time to find a home that better fit our growing family. Since our family has been happily settled in East Hampton for several years, we really wanted to stay in the area. Of course, even though we were in the desirable East Hampton real estate market, we were concerned about how long it would take to sell our home. We contacted a top real estate agent and began to ready our home for the market. When touring the home with the realtor, she suggested that we consider hiring a professional home stager, to prepare our home for the market. We thought we could do without a home stager, and decided to stage the home ourselves. What a mistake!

We have to admit that our idea of home staging was to shove everything into the closets, and pick up a few accessories and designer pillows at a home decor store. While our home looked better than usual, the photos that were taken for our listing were disappointing. The rooms looked cramped, dull and lifeless.

The first few weeks our home was on the market, we had just a handful of showings with potential buyers (no doubt because prospective homeowners were turned off by the lackluster photos on our listing). Managing all the kids’ clutter was a nightmare, and it seemed I was picking up furiously every time we received a call that someone wanted to tour the house. With such little activity and no offers coming in, we began to dread the idea that our home would linger on the market for months on end.

The turning point came one Sunday when we toured some East Hampton homes and found our dream home. We really wanted to put in an offer but were nervous at the thought that we might have to carry two mortgages. When we asked our realtor what we could do to speed the sale of our home, she said without hesitation, ‘Have your home professionally staged’. We made the call that very evening, and within a week we had our home professionally staged.

We can hardly describe the amazing transformation that professional staging made! Having a fresh set of eyes evaluating the home made a huge difference. Some changes were so simple, like rearranging furniture to improve traffic flow, and although the change was so easy it instantly transformed the room. Other changes were more dramatic; we even changed the color in our dining room when we realized the room needed brightening. The professional home stager conquered our clutter with clever storage, improved traffic flow, and enhanced the look in each and every room.

With the professional staging complete, our realtor appreciated the difference immediately and updated the photos on our listing. Within a day, we had new showings and within a few short weeks our first offer! We were able to sell the house in time to buy our dream home. For anyone considering selling his or her home, we highly recommend hiring a professional home stager. For us, it meant a quick sale and the ability to move into our dream home!

Written by Sam Marquit

Sam Marquit is a entrepreneur, home improvement specialist, and part time blogger. Feel free to visit Sam’s blog, and don’t forget to connect with him @fmarquitv