Swerv-o

Don't worry - I'm well ahead of the curve here - I have an offset account, and all of my pay goes straight in there, so any that is left over after my months outgoings and interest payments is automatically offsetting the interest on what remains of the balance.


S

Zen10

I'm going to set it up like this when I buy. It's a good idea.

Swerv-o

Particularly if you do all of your monthly transactions via credit card - you're effectively using the bank's money to live interest free month to month, while your money sits reducing your mortgage interest.


S

chris955

What is this 'mortgage' people keep talking about ? Sorry, couldnt resist.

Zen10

You never had a mortgage?

alipally

We just got our house that was advertised as "offers over $XXXXXX". We offered exactly that and it was accepted!
They just asked for the deposit to be released ahead of completion (Ermmm, no!) ... turns out that the vendor paid $1000 less than we paid for it 5 years ago!

This is Eastern Suburbs in Melbourne, not sure if this is true of other states.

Safin

Just given ours away as we fly back to live in UK in 10 days. We used the lowest of 5 agents figures to start with, dropped a total of nearly 5% on asking price then signed at 5% less than that figure. A loss on a 3yr old purchase which we bought at about 10% below asking price and both times it was well priced in the area. Buyers market.

carolinephillips

We have a Line Of Credit (LOC) from the CBA which works exactly like an offset account. The good thing about it is that if we need to borrow, for renovations, then there is no problem. All payments go into the account and knock the amount outstanding down, then we use credit card for everything, and always pay it off in full each month. We have a pretty good rate from them - well as far as Aussie rates go- and are looking forward to having the debt decrease much more quickly when DD no longer has school fees to pay.

Zen10

I've spoken with two or three estate agents here in Adelaide and they're telling me it's becoming a buyers' market. I'm waiting to see what happens. We're looking, but in no rush. An interesting observation we have made here (and we've looked at about five million houses) is that those "done up" go immediately, but those old places with the 50s to 70s decor, which are the majority, are up for months and are often reduced two or three times. One place we were watching was reduced from 450 to 420 and now 390 and is still not shifting. I would say it's worth 350 and the reason it's not selling is because everyone knows that and it's slowly becoming a buyers' market. With the recession next year I presume will happen, this will move things further in favour of the buyer, and about time too.

bcworld

I wouldn't say its a buyers market here, or in Sydney from what I hear...but maybe SA is in or heading for recession as you suggest?

http://news.ninemsn.com.au/national/...1pc-in-a-month

Zen10

I'm sure SA will go into recession, and the rest of country will not be far behind. I'm not convinced it's a serious buyers' market here yet though, just the beginning of one perhaps. Even if there is a recession I just can't see a wipeout on house prices. A few % off maybe, but no supermarket sweep.

Kim67

Yep, don't pay for someone else's dodgy renovation. Buy an old dump that you can rip out the dusty old carpet, polish the floor boards, throw a bit of paint on the walls and live quite comfortably.

carolinephillips

Trouble with old dumps is that quite often you need to rewire, re-roof, and fix a whole host of other problems. Most people round here just knock them down and then build a huge house to their own specs, quite often subdividing the blocks so they build two houses and use the profit on the one they are not occupying to pay for the build costs. (Round here the land value of the block often exceeds $1 million.)

Kim67

We were fortunate that our old place had been rewired and the kitchen wasn't original and there had been a few extensions on it over the years. The blocks in our suburb are mainly 809m2 and are on two plots, but because of the 15m frontage, are not allowed to be split. It's the reason we bought here because the large blocks are keeping the nice feel of the neighbourhood. Most of the houses are post war so are able to be removed and new ones put up. We have heaps of new places going up around us. We will probably do that too one day, but for now we live in a reasonable place in a nice suburb until we can afford to rebuild or do our own renovation. My point was to not over capitalise by paying for an already renovated place. Spend the money on a good suburb.

Zen10

Another problem in many areas, including mine, is that houses are now so unaffordable that you can't even afford a dump to do up. Dumps around here, as in total reno required inside and out, go up for around the half a million dollars mark. These are places that need 100k of work.

For this reason you see properties all over the place here in a dreadful condition - lovely old villas, but broken down with rusty verandas and overgrown yards, etc., because no young people can afford to buy them and do them up. SOP is wait until the owner dies, then the kids sell it to a developer who tears it down and puts up four units.

In my opinion, this is a very unhealthy and dangerous way to run a society.