Empower Blog Sellers Market

Bad Time for Property Investment?

Ben appears again in Money Magazine’s Special Edition issue, this time in a Q&A surrounding some hard questions about the current market climate for property investors. With the spotlight on changes to borrowing, Federal Budget restrictions and depreciation claims, a light shadow looms on certain investors. Is it a bad time for property inves...

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Seven Ways To Jeopardise A Deal

So one of the things that you should always consider when you are buying a property is that it really comes down to four parts when you are doing a deal. You got to Clarify what you are after; you got to go and Find the properties whether they are off-market or on-market; you got to Assess the property that you found against the criteria that you c...

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How to negotiate a great property deal out there?

Buying a property in a buyer’s market is a lot easier than buying in a seller’s market. With abundant properties, slow-moving sales, and low prices, you can snag a good deal even with rusty negotiation skills. Unfortunately, the Australian property market is not currently a buyer’s paradise. Across the country, prices have been steadily risin...

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What is Happening in the Melbourne Property Market this Winter?

I recall my reporting mid to late last year - around September/October, our difficult Melbourne market felt as though it had started to turn a corner for the better. I was too cautious to call it until November, when the race to finishing line for the year's auctions became quite apparent that it wasn't the only driver nudging buyer demand up in th...

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What makes a Buyer’s Market become a Seller’s market?

Without doubt, the defining aspect of 2011 for us was the rapid swing of the Melbourne Seller's market to a Buyer's market. To explain this, cast your mind back to 2009 when, after the full impact of the GFC first hit Australia, our government and RBA instigated some immediate moves to aid buoyancy in our market. We had one-off stimulus cheques ...

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Investors – Start your engines…

There is always a positive to any negative.  Talk of a housing market bubble, higher interest rates, softening demand for property, worsening affordability and value decreases are all playing on the psychology of those looking to get into the property market. It is fair to report that in most markets across the capitals that we are certainly in...

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Negotiation Tactics in a ‘Sellers’ Market – Part Two

3. Establish recent sales to justify your offer Recent sales of comparative properties can help in getting the estate agent to help support your price offer, but you must compare apples with apples, don’t compare weatherboard with Brick or vastly different land size blocks etc.   4.  Start with a long term settlement When you put your...

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Don’t Sell the Golden Egg Layer

Real estate agents across the land are complaining they don’t have enough stock to meet buyer demand at the moment. This limited supply is having a positive effect on property values growing quicker than usual. Agents are out there saying they have 10 buyers for every listing they get, especially in the established suburbs. So agents are going...

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Negotiation Tactics in a ‘Sellers’ Market – Part One

It’s an understatement to say that the residential property market is ‘hot’, as values in almost all major locations are up on this time last year. Sydney, Melbourne and Perth are leading the charge, as supply is outstripped by demand from a growing population. In real estate terms, we are currently in a sellers market, whereby in most loc...

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