Melbourne Property Market

[Ian4]

my cousin opened his own real estate agency a few years ago and he's finding it pretty tough right now. its a really difficult time to establish yourself in this industry. he's doing a remarkable job considering. i also have a friend who has tried and failed to sell their house for 12 months and has come down 10's of thousands in their asking price. incompetent real esatate agents haven't helped. she's decided to rent it out now.

my 2 cents: i'm glad the market has dropped/plateaued. the melbourne market was/is ridiculously way overpriced and needed to correct itself at some stage. although i am a little bised as i do plan to buy an investment property in early 2012.

a change of goverment would certainly help though.

why?

The ideal outcome for this country will be a Liberal government in control.

why?

 

[ARCHYBOY]

my cousin opened his own real estate agency a few years ago and he's finding it pretty tough right now. its a really difficult time to establish yourself in this industry. he's doing a remarkable job considering. i also have a friend who has tried and failed to sell their house for 12 months and has come down 10's of thousands in their asking price. incompetent real esatate agents haven't helped. she's decided to rent it out now.

my 2 cents: i'm glad the market has dropped/plateaued. the melbourne market was/is ridiculously way overpriced and needed to correct itself at some stage. although i am a little bised as i do plan to buy an investment property in early 2012.

Good on your cousin Ian, I hope he makes it. Your other friend I do feel for, there are a lot of agents out there that will drop their pants to get a listing then hope the vendor will do the same when it comes to the crunch of a sold sticker.

On the change of goverment, its just my opinion from the homework ive done.

 

[BustinDustin]

On the change of goverment, its just my opinion from the homework ive done.

Phew and I thought I was the only one.

Ian my reason is because I have made more money under a Liberal government. Don't know why but maybe I was in the right place at the right time.

Tigersnake you have your views and I have mine on the CT etc. I doubt it we'll agree on any of them.

 

[martyshire]

Ian my reason is because I have made more money under a Liberal government. Don't know why but maybe I was in the right place at the right time.

...the initial question was intended as "What outcome for the property market (e.g. up/down/sideways) would be the ideal situation for society generally?"

Are you saying that property price increases (via a liberal government) is the ideal situation generally, or are you just saying you'd be better off under liberal so that's what you'd be hoping for?

 

[martyshire]

I guess that's a 'well done' do those who selected option 4! The official figure won't be reported until well into the new year but, unless there was a sharp difference in December, I think (based on quarterly and monthly reports to date) it was about a 3 or 4% drop for the year.

I'm now tipping the same again next year as banks ask FHBs for % bigger deposits.

 

[tigersnake]

Phew and I thought I was the only one.

Ian my reason is because I have made more money under a Liberal government. Don't know why but maybe I was in the right place at the right time.

Tigersnake you have your views and I have mine on the CT etc. I doubt it we'll agree on any of them.

Geez the CT has really laid waste to the property market.

Agents amaze me sometimes, just rang one to inspect a property, thinking about sticking my toe in again, she sounded drunk, she said 'um, um, Thursday?...or Wednesday afternoon?', I said, 'well today is monday, do you want to sell the joint or what?'.

 

[craig]

:hihi :hihi :hihi

 

[taztiger4]

Whats the difference between a Seagull & a Real Estate agent ??

A Seagull can still put a deposit on a BMW

 

[tigersnake]

Just went and checked it out. Wierd experience. She didn't say a word, just opened the front door. I asked her if she could tell me anything about the property. She replied 'I dunno, its an old house, like what?'.

Along with the crap single photo on the net, I suspect its the old 'keep-the-deceased-estate-bargain-out-of-the-limelight-so-your-son/ mate/ neice-can-snap-it-up' trick.

 

[tigertim]

Just went and checked it out. Wierd experience. She didn't say a word, just opened the front door. I asked her if she could tell me anything about the property. She replied 'I dunno, its an old house, like what?'.

Along with the crap single photo on the net, I suspect its the old 'keep-the-deceased-estate-bargain-out-of-the-limelight-so-your-son/ mate/ neice-can-snap-it-up' trick.

Its funny. I often whinge about the quality of estate agents. Most ( not all) are appalling. As you say they know nothing about the house ( how old? whats under the carpet? they often dont even know the size of the house!). They are simply doing nothing more than letting you through the house.

When I was looking earlier this year I got this text from an agent, verbatim: 'are you still interested in xxx Seaford rd?" No "hello" or "its John Smith from Real Estates R Us". Nuttin!

 

[craig]

They want commission but many dont go to the effort to gain it.

 

[tigersnake]

Back during the long boom times agents were mostly bad. Everything sold regardless. They didn't have to work that hard. I got used to hopeless agents and just worked with it. It was as if they were trying to p!ss you off back then, annoying, tardy, pimply spivs in BMWs who knew much less than I did about any aspect of the market. But over the last 4 years or so, generally I've found them to be pretty good, most of the duffers have left, and those remaining now have to work and pay attention to detail to make a living. Thats why this morning experience was very strange and suspicious.

 

[ARCHYBOY]

Don't paint us all with the same brush please guys............. :'(

 

[tigersnake]

Don't paint us all with the same brush please guys............. :'(

If you read my post Archy, I didn't. I've had some very good agents over the last few years. I'd be interested in your view on my suspicions though.

 

[ARCHYBOY]

If you read my post Archy, I didn't. I've had some very good agents over the last few years. I'd be interested in your view on my suspicions though.

If your suspicions are that some agents are juts plain shyt, they are not suspicions mate, they are 100% true and correct.

Reality is you only need to know how to use a key to open a door and how to answer a mobile phone to sell a home when the market is good, the hard times weed out all the useless ones. I run into them all the time and hear the same old stories from consumers all the time, all I can concentrate on is doing the right thing by my clients and if someone chooses to go through another agent because of fees / costs, there is not much I can do about it, you get what you pay for.

It might sound like an old bullshyt salesmen line but real estate agents dont sell homes, homes sell themselves. What we sell or a good agent sells is trust, if you can get someone to trust you or believe in the advice you give them, they will be a client for life, 90% of my work is repeat business and thats the way I like it.

Obviously you are looking at buying something, if you need a hand or I might have a couple of contacts in the area you are looking Tigersnake, send me through a PM and I'll see what I can do, might even be able to sell you one of mine......... :hihi

 

[thegdog]

As a complete novice thinking about getting an investment property what suburbs are my best chance at long term gain in the lower end market 360 k and under. I reckon Melton has bit to offer with nice cheap houses in ok streets

 

[jb03]

.

It might sound like an old bullshyt salesmen line but real estate agents dont sell homes, homes sell themselves. What we sell or a good agent sells is trust, if you can get someone to trust you or believe in the advice you give them, they will be a client for life, 90% of my work is repeat business and thats the way I like it.

It would though be easier for the home to sell itself if the agents actually new a bit about the house. Is there drainage behind this retaining wall, how/where does this paved area drain to, what sort of air conditioning does the house have, what does this electrical panel on the wall here do, does the garden have automatic spinkler/dripper systems, how do you get under the house, etc. The agents rarely know the answer to these or similar questions. They can however tell you the previous owners absolutely loved the house but have decided to move back to England.

 

[tigertim]

As a complete novice thinking about getting an investment property what suburbs are my best chance at long term gain in the lower end market 360 k and under. I reckon Melton has bit to offer with nice cheap houses in ok streets

One thing I have learned is that the low end of the market moves at the low end of the market! Yes, you can buy a house in Melton ( or Cranbourne or Frankston) for $350k and it will grow....very slowly.

I bought in Frankston in 2003 for $170k, sold it in 2010 for $300k, probably worth in 2013 $330k. So over 10 years it probably went up $170k less capital gains means I would have "made" $140k or $14k a year. Doesn't seem worth it does it?

 

[tigersnake]

Just went and checked it out. Wierd experience. She didn't say a word, just opened the front door. I asked her if she could tell me anything about the property. She replied 'I dunno, its an old house, like what?'.

Along with the crap single photo on the net, I suspect its the old 'keep-the-deceased-estate-bargain-out-of-the-limelight-so-your-son/ mate/ neice-can-snap-it-up' trick.

I wasn't talking about the property market in general Archy, I was talking about your thoughts on this particular house. I've seen it a few times now. When agents don't seem interested in selling what I consider to be a very good buy.

 

[ARCHYBOY]

I wasn't talking about the property market in general Archy, I was talking about your thoughts on this particular house. I've seen it a few times now. When agents don't seem interested in selling what I consider to be a very good buy.

I'll take a stab as I dont know the house, the agent or anything about it but this is what I have seen in my travels -

1 - Agent is no good, over the job or just started and has terrible leadership

2 - They are sick and tired of dealing with the vendor so they dont want to contact him about anything, even the chance to sell it as the vendor might be changing his story all the time

3 - Most companies that dont charge advertising will take the advertising out of the commision on sale. Hypothetically the agent charges 1% comm to get the business - if they sell the home for $350,000 they get $3500 comm - minus $1000 the office has spent on marketing leaves $2500 - there is bascially nothing in it for the individual agent to sell it so they dont give a hoot. If the property has been on the market a while, its a fair bet that this is the scenario.

There could be other reasons but they are the main 3 I can think of.