How to buy a house
 

Hi all I am wanting to know how you go aout buying a house in Perth, I have the money from my house in the uk so when i sell up here i am able to buy my house outright. Do I just go into the realestate shop say i want that house & pay?

How does it all work & how long does it take

Thanx, Sarah.

Re: How to buy a house
 

Hi Sarah,

It's pretty simple to buy a house in perth. Once you have found the house you want to buy, go to the real estate agent, they will fill out a contract and get you to pay a deposit (usualy 10%) once signed by you and accepted/signed by the vendors you are legally bound to purchase this property. You can add conditions onto the contract like it must pass a white ant inspection before you complete on the sale and if the inspection fails then you can opt out of the contract.

Remember that as you are a cash buyer you can try negotiate the price down as you are in a good position to move forward quickly and hassle free.

Settlement (completion) can be as quick as a few weeks to a few months. It depends on you and the vendors situation.

Good luck

Maggie.

Re: How to buy a house
 

Sarah,

I forgot to mention that you will need to appoint a settlement agent who will be named on the contract to deal with the legalities, etc of the purchase. Shop around as some are way too expensive, especially for straight forward deals. I can recommend one if you don't have one.

maggie.

Re: How to buy a house
 

Good question!

Out of interest, are the majority of houses for sale set at a fixed price or do you have to outbid other buyers like in the UK? I have also heard of house auctions in Australia - they sound quite scary really.

Lynn

Re: How to buy a house
 

Houses in Perth are normally marketed with an asking price which you can negotiate on, a bit like the uk but if there is a lot of interest you may have to pay the asking price.

Some properties do go to auction but only a small percentage.
Not sure about the other states, perhaps someone else can comment.

Re: How to buy a house
 

Yep, pretty much the same in Qld, though it is legal to sell the house privately without the need for real estate agents. However both the buyer and the seller still have the legal side of the transaction to complete so a good solicitor is still needed.

Re: How to buy a house
 

Been to a few auctions and they aren't that bad. One thing you have to watch out for is "dummy bidders". They are people asked to the auction by either the agents or the vendor to bump up the price and then when it is high enough drop out. This is in the process of being dealt with by the govt but you'd have to be very experienced to spot them, I can't.

Also set a maximum price you are willing to pay and stick to it. Sometimes auctions can sell a house for more than it would have gone for normally.

Re: How to buy a house
 

Dear Sarah,

I have just returned from Australia with my husband we were looking at Perth in view of purchasing a property. I bought a guide to buying a home in Australia a small book costing 9 dollars which was really useful. basically all advise sent to you from your replies were quoted. It sounds very simular to Uk but it warns that if you go to auction you have to pay 10% immediatley to secure home and suggests you put a bid in before auction as these are usually considered and have inspections done before the bid.
Good luck.
Please can you suggest good areas in Perth to live as we would like to make another trip to find an area to look for property. We would like to be near all amenities and not too far from the coast but in a community setting. Any ideas welcome.

Thanks Pat

Re: How to buy a house
 

If going to auction, get a copy of the contract first and have your lawyer look over it. You can agree changes "subject to being successful at auction" - like a lower deposit or different settlement dates etc. Because, if successful, you are bound by the contract and the deposit therein; some people bid without even seeing the contract and it might be expensive!

In many parts of Oz the house market is still way too high because of all the speculative "investment" buying during the last few years, and amny sellers are finding they can't get anything like what they were expecting even six months ago.

The last auction we went to had six houses for sale - not a single one reached reserve.

Re: How to buy a house
 

Real Estate agents have a lot to answer for !

We placed one of ours for sale at $485k, it seemed like such a good profit that it made sense to sell, but within weeks the agent came back saying they had a buyer at $435k and that was a GOOD PRICE !!!

Maybe it was, and it did seem about right to us, but we hadn't been wanting to sell at THAT price. The Agent had convinced us to sell with the $485k figure !!

We took it off the market :)

Re: How to buy a house
 

Can you advise which area of Perth is a good place to live. Would like to be within shops, restarants and not too far from beach but in a community area that is not commercialised or over priced.
Thank you Patricia

Re: How to buy a house
 

if you go to domain.com.au you'll see a fair bit of stuff in there you can use.

1. The location guide tells you the ethnic make up of the area, the religous make up, median and avg house prices, ages of occupants, married single etc.

2. you can download a 'buying a house' guide from Westpac. Its a pdf doc with some basic tips

3. the mortgage calculator will give you repayment figures. I thin current rates are around 6.5%

Re: How to buy a house
 

Shame the search brings up stuff way out of the price bracket one enters. realestate is getting worse at that as well. Couldn't be dishonest estate agents.

Re: How to buy a house
 

I had a job with McGrath fora bit - massive esate agents, check out thier site.. auctions seem to be the most popular way of selling a house in Sydney by far.
I think for a average salary person like me and the lady; to buy where we'd want to in Syd I will need to rob a bank first not just work for one! - exactly the same as London though.

Re: How to buy a house
 

Good for the agent, bad for the buyer and seller in the current market. A lot of properties are getting sold prior to auction or passing in at auction. The clearance rate is still around the 40% mark. Personally I would observe an auction to work out the sellers price points.