Hi all I'm new to buying and owning homes in general, my entire family rents and I aim for something more secure. I can afford to rent as I am in the melb but I do want to buy a home to invest in to try and back-door into getting a home for myself.

I have found a home ill use as a reference for in this post and I just want others opinions on if doing this is a good idea to get into the housing market or not. My entire family except for 1 or 2 people have 0 knowledge on buying homes or current market stuff so advice is very limited. Any advice I've gotten is "you'll never own a home give up" basically. Or they give me incorrect information.

This home I've found is well maintained and contains a young family, they pay 200 a week in rent. The rural town is quite large and far enough from me to not regularly see it on my communte anywhere. About 200k in value so I plan to buy something under 300k with 10% so it's in my price range. Again, not 100% on buying it I have my eyes on a few homes that are similar just using it as an example for this post.

I see this as a very safe option as I have rented as a tenant my whole life and understand it fluently. I rent with family so I am more finacially free compared to others. I also do not plan to buy the home and raise the price and if possible to have the Tennant become a long-term occupant.

Can I get some advice on this? I worry I may not be fully ready education wise with this just yet but I've done some research I just need the advice to make sure I'm not going to make a mistake or anything like that.

Thank you.

I always see people talking about building regulations over East but what’s it like in WA? Is it the Wild West? Are there some good protections for buyers? Etc.

Has anyone had success offering lower than the vendors asking price on something that clearly needs to be gutted & fully renovated?

They seem to have unrealistic expectations when similar properties fully renovated are at the same asking price.

If yes, how much lower did you negotiate? (Please don’t be mean, first home buyer trying to crack into the market)

Asking for family looking at property purchase around Grantville - Coronet Bay area. what is the area like, general housing and community?

I’m looking to sell my block of land as I now can’t commit to building on it and I’m looking at other options. After looking at the fees for an agent I’m wondering if I can try selling it myself to reduce the financial pressure we have? It’s just a block of land in a growth area with no unusual characteristics. I’ve already got professional photos.

I’m thinking I put a sign up out the front and see where I can share it in the community. Perhaps pay to get it put up on the main real estate websites. I have a family friend who is a solicitor/conveyancer.

Is this worth doing or is it one of those situations where it’s worth paying the extra?

Hi all,

I’ve seen these posts numerous times and some will tell me that it sounds like I have made my mind up but this post is a case of, should this be treated on a case to case basis.

I am looking at a complex that ticks all the boxes. Quiet street overlooking residential houses, good location, nice aesthetic, terrace style etc. the development itself has only 1 basement level, sits 4 stories high with 40 units separated over 4 blocks. The complex consists mainly of brick structure with concrete walls. Out of all the developments I have inspected recently they all seem to have some level of defects which makes me wonder when and if it is acceptable. The complex is 7 years old but the developer went bust. It was designed by a well known architect but has had water leak issues the past 5 years through balconies and in through the sky bridge which connect on level 2. There has been patch fixing that was done in the meantime.

Now the good stuff… The Strata committee voted mid last year to hire a building consultancy to do a full defects inspection. This was every aspect of the building down to general repairs such as cracked tiles and rusted screws etc. An independent engineer was engaged and redesigned the waterproofing system and included cosmetic inclusions such as awnings for drainage, veneer brick etc (no structural defects found in the report). The whole scope of work was tendered out to reputable remediation builders and a contractor was chosen with insurance included into the tendered amount. The strata then agreed to a construction loan over 5 years with the unit levy being roughly 70k over 5 years.

If a full building report has been done, the works tendered and construction commenced with insurance then would you perceive it different?. For us it is a long term thing and the unit is being sold by an overseas investor who cannot afford the levies and new government land tax and just wants to get out.

Lastly I spoke with two committee members who are long term owner occupiers and they have assured me that all is good. This has been backed up by another owner who purchased in 2023 knowing of the defects before the full report was done. We put an offer in well below the guide and managed to get accepted at 200k below anything else remotely comparable due to the owner being gridlocked. The special levy is high but 35k each over 5 years is something we have banked already and additional for contingency such as variations.

Thoughts?

I'm interested to know how commercial property gained its status as a premier investment vehicle? Is it only because of the large sums of money changing hands? It seems to be the natural progression of wealth accumulation after 'exhausting' the residential real estate journey. We've all heard the stats about high percentage of businesses failing withing the first 5 years, and I know commercial yields are higher to compensate for this... But basically, how come commercial real-estate landlords aren't being emptied out (almost) as often as (the sometimes defaulting) businesses that lease the premises? Assuming their valuations and fortunes are tied to the success of the businesses

Teacher in Victoria, first home buyer. I’ve got a 20% deposit, are these repayments too high for me (single, no kids). Mortgage will be 42% of my post-tax income.

I’ve been offered the opportunity to move to Melbourne with my job

I really want to own my own place, I have no help from family and doing it all on my own. I’m looking for a 2 bedroom apartment in an inner city suburb/ the difference in price with what you can get Sydney vs Melbourne is crazy. In Melbourne I could afford inner north or Richmond, whereas in Sydney the only places that are affordable are Parramatta where I don’t know anyone

I’m not really looking for any huge investment opportunities or capital growth, I just want a my own place and slowly start paying off the mortgage.

I love Sydney and my life is here but it’s so damn expensive- moving away from friends etc is not ideal but I’m wondering if it’s the smartest option for me at this point. I do enjoy Melbourne as a city and have friends there so I wouldn’t be alone

Has anyone else faced a similar dilemma and what did you do?

Why are so many sales listed as ‘price withheld’? Is this chosen by the vendor or the purchaser? Why? What’s the benefit for them doing so?

Makes research so much harder..

Let's say you find an area in which there are apartments available for both sale or rent. You can buy the place for $650 000 or rent it for $600 per week.

Now let's look at this over 5 years.

Renting at $600 per week

• Annual Cost: $31,200
• 5-Year Cost: $156,000

Buying at $650,000 (Principal & Interest Loan at 6.4%)

• Annual Interest Paid: $41,600
• Other Costs (Rates, Insurance, Maintenance): ~$9,700 per year
• Total Annual Cost: $51,300
• 5-Year Cost: $256,500
• Capital Repaid in 5 Years: $35,947 (amount paid towards owning the property)

That saying, rent money is dead money... You are paying more in interest every year for a very long time. $10 000 more. You are only paying off $7000 in capital every year.

On top of that, there's an extra $10 000 per year of additional expenses such as strata, insurance and maintenance. There's people paying $6000 per year on strata alone .

If you were diligent enough to invest that saved $20 000 into ETFs, wouldn't you get further ahead? And those assets would be much more liquid compared to a whole apartment.

Let me put it this way. If I ended up investing in ETFs and put in everything I saved from not buying for 5 years, I'd have at least $100 000 in ETFs. Whereas if I bought the place, I'd only have $35 000 paid off and an enormous mortgage over my head.

Apartments don't appreciate at any decent rate especially nowadays so... why buy?

Hi everyone,

My partner and I have submitted an offer for a property and we have just had the building and pest inspection completed.

The report came back with 2 major defects.

Internal Walls - Bulging Bulging was observed on the wall surfaces, likely caused by inadequate adhesion to the framing—a common indication of substandard workmanship during installation.

and

Internal ceiling and cornices - Protrusions The ceiling and/or cornice exhibit noticeable protrusions or bulges, suggesting potential structural or settling issues.

Before we organize a structural engineer to come out and inspect the house. I was wondering if I could get any information from here. The main questions we have are below (We have no trade experience at all and no experience with at all with house structure).

If the bulges and protrusions are indeed major defects and are significant, what kind of costs would we be up for?

If the bulges and protrusions aren't significant, what kind of costs would we be up for if we wanted to address them anyway to avoid future issues?

What should we do or ask for regarding the contract now that major defects have been found?

Thanks in advance and apologies if this is not the right place to be asking these types of questions.

Photos will be in the comments if I am able to put them there, and the house is 14 years old.

https://mypolice.qld.gov.au/townsville/2025/02/01/emergency-alert-for-townsville-as-at-11-30am-saturday-february-1/

REAs seem to like to hide the price that properties have sold for - they’re so often now “undisclosed” which means a buyer can’t readily compare recent sales and work out if they’re being quoted a fair price.

Someone once posted a link to a Government register of sold prices in their State (Victoria from memory) that had all the prices - everyone had to list the actual price it sold for regardless of who or how it sold.

Do all States have this sort of thing? Trying to find one for the ACT is proving fruitless. Trying to estimate my own place is impossible when I can only see a very few sold prices.

Hi all,

I’m thinking of starting to use Zero accounting software to help be with my accounting.

I currently have 3 properties. 1 in my name only, 2 with my partner and I’m in the process of starting a trust and I’ll buy another property in there.

If I start up with zero will I need to have multiple subscription fees ie one for me then my partnership then one for the trust?

Can anyone share their experience using zero?

Thanks

Inspected a property I really liked today and keen to get my foot in the door just before the (likely soon) interest rate cut but in a bit of a complicated situation.

I have enough for a 20% deposit but according to online borrowing power calculators I'm a bit short in terms of what they're willing to give me on my current salary (also on a grad program and expect a pay rise in April but that will probably be too late for this one and understand they won't consider that until I have paychecks on the new salary).

I have a partner who's not quite ready for this step, however said they're willing to pay a sort of 'rent' to sometimes sleep over there etc. Was wondering if I'm able to have this formally considered as part of the loan application to increase my borrowing power? Will likely book an appointment to actually talk to a bank soon, but just wondering in people's experience if this would actually be possible. Thanks

PS. hopefully this is relevant here, tried Ausfinance for home loan questions but I don't have enough karma and can't figure out how to grow it enough so hopefully someone here can help 🤞

I've been trying to buy a small flat for a ridiculous amount of time.

How do you decide what faults are acceptable? Faults are everywhere, it seems I need to decide what faults I'm prepared to take on.

How the fuck am I supposed to do this with:

Minimal knowledge of building, plumbing, architecture and general construction?

Without the ability to get more information that what is provided in COS/S32

Building inspections basically seem pointless- they won't even move stuff to check behind. They can't get access to other units where problems are originating from.

How the fuck do people navigate this?

Some issues I've come across:

*Sinking floor

*Leak from other unit

*High moisture levels of unknown origin in walls

The advice on each of the above has been to move on and find a place without these issues - they don't seem to exist or an I just unlucky?

I’m buying a property for the first time and I’ve been very confused by the process.

I have a conveyancer. But the real estate agent and their contract administrator doesn’t include my conveyancer on any communication.

For example, when they send the revised contract of sale and the version signed by both parties, they only sent it to me.

Is it normal expectation for me to forward these documentations to the conveyancer myself? I find it odd because if that’s the case, why would they ask for the conveyancer’s detail at the beginning of the process (before issuing the contract of sale)?

I have a big void space in my apartment 4 x 4.5 approx.

Was hoping to wall it off and add a second bedroom.

What are the ins and outs of this? Would I have to take it down if I resell? Does strata ever inspect building works etc?

What should I be worried about?

Hi everyone, just wanted to ask your opinions/experience if banks do pass on the rates cut, and when, and if having 90%+ LVR loan makes you less likely to get the cuts since you don’t have much better or any options of refinancing with another bank?

Thanks!

Anyone can share some articles? We are planning on buying and wondering what’s the projection for the near future…

I can only look at individual houses using property.com…

Hi all, I am looking for some software that real estate investors use to track how their overall portfolio, as well as each individual IP is tracking over the years in terms of appreciation and positive / negative income earned. Could you please point me to some software that you’ve used or heard of?

I do not own real estate yet but am thinking of building a software that helps people track their IP performance better that existing tools.

https://www.news.com.au/finance/business/breaking-news/property-prices-continue-to-slide-but-it-could-be-short-lived/news-story/2726c9cb5bc43719c3e714ef9f9c4de7

I'm moving out of my apartment in the next two weeks and I got an email from my landlord saying that the apartment was up for rent and:

"The inspection times will be organized and notice provided to you prior to the inspections"

Needless to say, that hasn't happened and I happened to find out that there is an inspection scheduled for this afternoon.

I have emailed him and his company and sent him a text telling them that I have gotten no notice and telling them that the apartment is less than ideal to show, and asking them to move it back to tomorrow.

What is my recourse here? Can I deny them entry? Can I be petty, and be present for inspection and complain loudly about how awful they are, and all the things they haven't fixed?

I don't want to be too crazy because theres a chance that my new place will reach out to them for a reference?

TLDR- my landlord said he would give me notice for inspections for my place for people to come and see, didn't, now theres an inspection today, and I want to know what, if anything I can do about it