We have arrived here in August last year, after a few weeks in furnished short term accommodation (in Norwood) managed to find a rental where we wanted (Kensington).
As per the best advice from this site we wanted to rent for a year to get a good feeling for the areas so we can consider buying.

Within few months we knew that we want to stay in the general area of eastern suburbs. I work up north but our daughter got accepted to a great school in the area and we wanted to find a place not too far away from school. Pretty much the whole area is what I would call nice, convenient and clean established suburbs.

Early this year it was time to start the hunt for a place of our own.
First few weekends we have spent visiting all the opens in a wider area and than just focusing on a number of selected suburbs.

This was taking a considerable amount of our time even after the narrowing of search criteria so later I would just speed from one place to another later taking the Minister of War and Finance only to places worth looking at.

And so it went on for a few months: visiting opens, going to auctions, searching the net and paper for the ads.

I would say time well spent as in the end I got a pretty good understanding of the market in the area.

The other important thing was that all these visits really changed our point of view on what we want the house to be. What we were looking for in May was very different from what we wanted in February when the whole hunt started.

There is a vast amount of houses changing hands, every weekend there would be more than 10 worth looking at (within our price range) and plenty of very nice houses but selling for more than we wanted to pay as well.
Most of the houses are offered for sale at auction (although a lot of them are sold prior), from time to time something offered for sale by negotiation.
Houses that are offered for sale at auction in vast majority of cases are advertised way below the price they reach at auction, this does attract a lot of attention and visitors both to opens and auctions but at the latter once the first bids start way above that price only few bidders are left standing.

One thing that has a very big influence on the above is interest in the area from business visa migrants from China. Saying that these people are loaded is a bit of understatement and at auctions they do bid to buy (buying SA property is a part of their visa condition).
Seeing their interest in the area only reconfirmed our choice.

By around May I was getting quite good at estimating of where the price of a house will go at auction. Not spot on but within a reasonable range.

About the same time a house just down the street from our rental came on market and this was the first one we have considered buying. Advertised at around 400, small solid brick on a long and narrow block (590sqm), very good location though. We got quite excited, I have sent wife away to the city and went to auction. Whole thing lasted maybe 10 minutes, first bid at 450, bids raising by 10k to reach 550. I did not think the place was worth more than 460 so did not bid even once. Almost everybody was shaking heads in disbelief.

So another rethink of the strategy and back to the hunt.

Reason behind large amount of homes selling before the auction got a bit more clear. They can reach a very high price at auction so offering a good price early helps avoid that risk (if you think the house is worth it). It is also important to offer just after first open so the REA does not have a big list of people to counteroffer.

By the middle of June one more house attracted our attention.
Just after first viewing we have offered verbally 18% more than the advertised price and started negotiating details. They were ready to accept our offer when something else attracted our attention and we have withdrawn the offer (this house latter sold over 30% above the advertised price).

The house that attracted our attention was a bit different than usual, very low profile advertising, no signs, no opens (we had to arrange one) so a situation where there was not too much competition.

We have offered our price, they asked a bit more, we have agreed and rushed the agent and vendor (done a house inspection next day) and they took it.

From next month we will live here:


http://www.domain.com.au/Public/PropertyDe...adid=2006444626

Thankyou for relating your experience. I found it most interesting.
Wattle Park is a good area and the home looks lovely.
We bought our home through an open inspection, after looking for only weeks in the area we had chosen.
I have always been afraid of the auction concept, only for this to be confirmed by the auction where my daughter bought her house, and paid, in my estimation, far too much for what they got.
My youngest daughter is now looking for her first home and it is very time consuming and hard to find a home that is within her mortgage range which does not need a lot of work.
There seem to be many places advertised each week, but still a shortage.

Well done, looks a great house and is a lovely area, and so handy for Penfolds....!!!!

Good luck in your new home

D

thank you for taking the time - valuable details!! makes it all much clearer now :)

and what a great house!
here's hoping for many happy years in there ;)

Lovely house - I bet you can't wait to move in. :D

On our reckie in March we looked around this general area and liked it very much!

Have to admit I'm a little envious!

Thanks for sharing your house buying experience - the Oz system sounds very different to the UK and I'm sure that many new immegrants have problems understanding how to play the game. So forewarned is forearmed!!

Nicola

JUST BEEN WORKING ROUND THE CORNER FOR THE LAST 6 MONTHS ON JOSEPH
AVENUE

AND I WOULD LIKE TO SAY

THEM BL**DY PEACOCKS MAKE A RIGHT RACKET

SAYING THAT IT IS A LOVELY PLACE AND AREA YOU HAVE CHOSEN

Congratulations
What a fantastic house , beautiful , spa and pool. Bet you cant wait to move in an settle down. Thanks for taking the time to post your experiences too. It looks to be in a lovely area on the satellite viewer.
One thing ,on the satellite picture , what,s the big brown off square thing , is it a park or a stadium?

congratulations on buying your first oz home - it looks gorgeous....really love the sound of the sauna and spa.

Well done

sarahx

I have a bit of time now so I can add a couple more observations/opinions that might relate only to the general area but to me they seem more general.

The popular idea of buying the worse house at the best street and fixing it up results in huge interest in this type of houses and the prices paid (regardless if sold at auction or by negotiation) end very high. When factoring in the cost of renovation (again regardless if done by a company or by individual) the final cost will be very often above what another house in the area but in much better condition would reach. I am an engineer so I have a reasonably good idea of construction/renovation costs.

Houses in a very poor condition but on a larger block of land in the area (in flatter part west of Penfold, St. Bernard roads) get bought mostly by developers looking to divide the block and build two or more new houses there. These are the same people you can see at all the opens and auctions in the area. They calculate selling new houses on 300-400 sqm blocks at over 500k (very realistic price) so this drives the paid price above what a single house on such block could be worth. Here again enter the Chinese immigrants on business visas who have company turnover as their visa condition and who are ready to lose a little on such deals just to meet this condition.
Admittedly some of these houses/blocks are bought by people looking to build

As I have written above vast majority of houses are offered for sale at auction. On the other side probably half of them are sold prior to auction. So if it fits the requirements it is a good idea to put in an offer or at least register your interest with REA during opens and request that you should be contacted if sale prior to auction is considered. One thing to keep in mind is that if a house is offered for sale at auction but is being sold prior to it is sold at auction conditions (no cooling off period, no subject to finance or house inspection etc). In such situation in my opinion it is worth putting in an offer (valid for just a few days) just after the first open before the list of people willing to give counteroffer grows.

Playing the REA game.
It is obvious that they are in reality interested mainly in a quick sale. Can’t blame them as why should they spend weeks to earn just a bit more when they can get contracts signed and commission paid on a quick sale and than move to the next one. From a buyer point of view this means that it is relatively easy to use them to put the pressure on the vendor for accepting your offer and not waiting long for better offers.

Can a bargain be found?
With the amount of people looking, checking the neighbourhoods and attending auctions I don’t think that a real bargain is possible in current market situation. It is still possible to get a good deal and not pay too much but this requires time, preparation and open mind. If you fix your requirements too rigidly it will either cost a lot or will take ages.


One of the most useful sites I have found with information on Australian Real Estate is this:

http://www.jenman.com.au/


On a lighter note and to answer a few questions.
Them peacocks are loud and a bit messy but they keep the population of snakes, spiders and other small animals well under control.

That big brown thing on satellite image is an empty water reservoir.

We still have the rental contract until the end of August and the new house will need a few touches so we will not move there immediately.

And some important pieces of advice:
Take the whole thing with a bit of distance and calm.
Emotions end up costing a lot of money.
If the house you like gets sold to somebody else another one will show up in close future. Having a secured rental gives you time to look and find what is best for you.
Have an open mind.
All this checking and looking is a hard work, time consuming and sometimes frustrating but I think that in the end worth it.
If you like something try to bounce the idea by somebody else, either here or back home (wonders of internet!!!), listening to another detached point of view can help a lot.

BTW
This will be the very first house we own, we have never owned a property due to rather nomadic lifestyle.