jondon

Hi there,

We're renting a 2-bed house in Alexandria, Sydney at the moment and are looking to buy before the end of the year. We love being close to the city, so we wanna stay around (ish) that area.

We've been checking out areas - Marrickville, Lewisham, Dulwich Hill etc. I really like Summer Hill - anyone bought / live there? Can you fill me in on what it's like?

Also, any advice on auctions? I reckon the real estate agents give you a very low 'expected' price...just to get you through the door? For a 2 /3 bed house many have been saying they expect them to go for 550,000 in Summer Hill. This seems very low...Anyone experienced this 'under-estimating'?

Any thought much appreciated.

Jon

chels

Summer Hill a good area. Housing is still not that expensive, but goes for a bit more than you've been quoted. REAs tell you what they 'expect' it to go for, but experience has shown it's usually sensible to add 50-100k to get a better idea of what the vendor is actually expecting.

Domain and other housing websites can you tell you what houses have sold for recently, or check out the back issues of the SMH for the weekly auction / PT results.

The problem you may have with Summer Hill is one of supply and demand - a lot of people looking round there, not much on the market. Friends have been looking for about 6 months, and have been disappointed by the lack of houses that have been for sale.