Suffering from HHB? You need our Spring Buying Survival Guide.
Do you find yourself searching for excuses not to search? Thinking OMG, not another OFI? Are you confused about what to proffer as your offer?
Don’t let HHB (House Hunter’s Burnout) jeopardise your chance of finding ‘the one’. We have the perfect therapy – a spring buying survival guide to help you successfully navigate the dark arts of the real estate world and emerge a happy new homeowner.
It can be a hard slog – months of searching online, weekend after weekend spent going to Open for Inspections (OFIs), constantly trying to get a handle on values.
House hunting is something you generally only do once in a blue moon. We at Dixon Family Estate Agents, on the other hand, live and breathe the process. So let us let you in on a few tips to relieve your HHB.
1. The search
Under Queensland legislation, agents cannot disclose a price guide for properties listed for auction. So, how do you know what to expect? Here are a few tricks.
> When an agent lists a property online at realestate.com.au or Domain, we indicate a price bracket at the ‘back end’ (server side). It’s invisible to the user, but it enables search results to come up with appropriate properties.
So, you can use your search parameters to discover what price range the property fits. For example, search at $100,000 increments – say $900,00, $1m, $1.1m and $1.2m. If the property appears in the $1m and $1.1m results, but not at the other price points, you know expectations must be well over $900,000 and well under $1.2m.
> While agents can’t disclose an indicative price range, we can provide details of similar sales. So ask the agent for their opinion of what would be the most comparable recent sale.
> You might also phrase the question of price differently. For example, ask ‘what would you recommend I offer?’
When you narrow down the likely price range, you can quickly decide if it is worth the emotional investment involved in pursuing the property, not to mention the cost of commissioning a valuation or building inspection.
2. Open for Inspections
Attending OFIs is a necessary evil, so here are some useful strategies.
Attend as many OFIs as you can to ensure you are well-informed on what is available in the market and where values sit. Then, when the right home presents, you are able to confidently assess its fair market value.
To avoid wasting time on a property, first ask the agent if it is under contract. Agents will often continue to conduct OFIs until a contract goes unconditional.
Accept the sign-in (registration) process. It is counterproductive to give a false name and email address. Good agents will keep you informed about properties of potential interest. In particular, if they know you are a qualified buyer, they’ll present off-market opportunities you would otherwise miss.
3. Offer and acceptance
Formal offers are quickly and easily submitted via email.
> Put every offer you want to make on a signed written contract. The agent is then legally required to present it to the seller. And it shows you are serious.
> Ask the agent to confirm to you in writing that your offer will remain confidential. This avoids your offer being shopped around and used to bait other buyers.
> Ask the agent what is a reasonable time to leave an offer open.
> Be prepared in advance with all the clauses and conditions you will want to include in any contract, checked by a solicitor, so you are ready to lodge offers on the spot. Be armed with the correct name of the purchasing entity, finance and building/pest inspection clauses, due diligence requirements and preferred settlement period/date.
So, put these tricks of the trade to good use and you will swap your HHB for an HHG (Happy Hunting Ground) this spring.
