Many of us could spend hours (possibly weeks) pouring over pictures of hip homes in interiors magazines, and dreaming … If you’ve ever pondered the secrets of these pads’ photogenic success and wanted to emulate them, here are a couple of general tips:

Story time: Most photoshoots capture pictorial vignettes – the sofa, the casually draped throw, the lovely fluffy cushions, the pile of artistically arranged books … It’s not just about the furniture; it’s about what these items say and the story they tell about you and your home.

Go into detail:  A photographer’s nightmare is a room with no possessions on show. Editors love details – knick-knacks make a home a home.  We’re not thinking for a minute that you cover every space with your old telephone bills and children’s drawings – think knick-knacks, photos of loved ones and think about putting some of your children’s special pics in a frame – and put the bills and clutter out of sight!

Set great store: Good storage is vital – but it doesn’t need to be an expensive built-in: photographically that’s dull. Try a trendy glass cabinet, such as the eye-catching, Forma.

All the little things:  Bold doesn’t have to equal expensive. If you’re nervous, build on a neutral base – beige or brown lounge – then take risks with accessories: zingy cushions or throws, or a ceramic jar – much cheaper than getting the wrong lounge.

Screened off: Something you’ll never see in an interiors mag is the TV! They’re so huge now – and not pretty. Hide giants in a cupboard – and never hang one over a fireplace.

Personal appearance: Forget having the ‘right’ or fashionable thing. The best style is surrounding yourself with things that you love.

To create that beautifully designed magazine look, be sure to follow these tips.

Source: Nick Scali Reviews

It was a quick decision. One week we were contemplating the landlord saying he was selling up, the next we are working out our budget to pay the new mortgage. As a real estate writer I’m often saying to people “don’t be in a rush when you are buying, it’s a big decision”. But then reality strikes and you’ve got a landlord breathing down your neck keen for you to move on when your lease expires, and a family to house, including two small kids who thrive on certainty, and two little dogs who landlords never like. Nothing against the dogs personally, I think, just that they are the dreaded PETS and pretty much always, in the small type, at the bottom of the rental ads are those words. NO PETS.

So how do you buy a house in a week?

1. Save for a raining day. For some time now we have been slashing and burning our spending, knowing that we’d want to buy soon. And I mean slash – buying nothing new for a year, and sourcing toys and clothes from second-hand stalls and op shops. No pay TV, no holidays, most meals at home, and plenty of free entertainment at the park. Due to the landlord deciding to sell we didn’t amass quite the deposit we wanted but did cobble together enough to scrape in. Wary of changing incomes when you’ve got a young family, we didn’t want to mortgage ourselves up to the hilt. Hence the original plan of renting for a while, save up a decent amount and then buy a property in our new home state.

2. Take a hard look at your budget. Assess what you can afford and then find the suburbs that offer that. Looking at suburbs you think could suit and finding out their median price is a good starting point. Where we bought wasn’t necessarily the suburb of our first choice but in the end it’s what we could pay for. Rather than stretch ourselves, we went for a place that ticked many of the boxes where we knew the mortgage wouldn’t be a killer. Given it was such a rushed decision, it seemed like the safest strategy.

3. Research. Information is gold. For this purchase I trawled through houses on the market, and then looked at what had sold in the suburb over the last two years. As well as using the sold feature on Domain, I also looked at properties that have traded in the past using Australian Property Monitors’ Home Price Guide (owned by Fairfax). I compared block size, number of bedrooms and toilets, how much parking there was, and the condition of key features such as the kitchen and bathroom. I also looked at layouts using floor plans and assessed whether the living areas caught the northern sun or would need to be reconfigured. When there was no north drawn on a floor plan, I compared the property with a map to see which way the house faced.

4. Look see. Check out all the houses on the market. I tried to get around to see most things on the market in the suburbs we were looking in to get a feel for what the different price brackets buy you.

5. Building inspector. There are plenty of people who tell you that building inspections are not worth it, but I tracked down an inspector who was a star. I was on-site for the inspection so he could show me things as he went, and while he was crawling about in the roof space, it gave me time to more thoroughly investigate the house itself, and discover its charms – like the wide floorboards hidden under the carpet, and the fantastic ironing centre from the 1950s. There were also some nasties – a leaking shower that was damaging the wall, and asbestos eave linings that I would not have known about without the inspector. And because it was an auction and we were settling on how much we might bid, it was great to chew the inspector’s ear about what the property could sell for compared to others he had seen. The inspector cost $360 but was worth every cent.

6. Think outside the square. Many people want north-facing blocks but we’ve bought a south-facing one. The fantastic thing is that we happened on a house where back in the ’50s the designer knew how to chase the sun. All the living areas face north and the bedrooms south. The layout is perfect and, while the kitchen and bathroom need to be replaced, there is no major structural work needed. It’s got a biggish backyard so if we ever wanted to extend we could potentially build a separate, north-facing building out the back and link it with a hallway to the main home – a much cheaper option than having to pull off the back of the house to build onto it, and also a lot simpler renovation that would be easier to live with too.

7. Be weird and knock on the neighbours’ doors. I’m sure our new neighbour is scared about the odd busy body who has bought the place next door, but it doesn’t hurt to knock on the neighbours’ doors to ask them about the area. In the same vein, calling the local council is a good idea and they can often shed light on whether any of your immediate neighbours are planning a major renovation, and also any plans for the area in general. In this case, nothing jumped out and one neighbour was planning a deck – so it didn’t sound like they were going to knock their place down and start a rebuild anytime soon.

8. Auction strategy. With all our new knowledge about the area and its houses, it was fairly simple to settle on a price that we’d pay. There’s a school around the corner, so that added a bit more value for us than it might have done for people without children. There’s also a busy road a few hundred metres away – which could detract from the price but was far enough way not to be a factor for us. With a figure firmly in mind it made going to the auction a more straightforward process. But when it came down to bid, I realise I am easily swayed and sometimes get carried away, so my husband led the bidding. He was less emotionally attached to the home so would probably make a clearer decision about stopping at our pre-determined limit. It was a good result, we spent less than we had set as a maximum, and slightly more than our preferred price. But the vendor was 94, so it’s a nice feeling buying a well-loved home.

Story by Carolyn Boyd www.domain.com.au

View the original article here

DEVELOPERS and real-estate agents are divided on whether foreign investors are responsible for driving up house prices. But the two groups agree on one thing: the strong dollar has scared them away.

”A $1 million property is now … around 20-25 per cent dearer in round figures than it was a year ago in Singapore dollars, Chinese renminbi, Euros and especially in US dollars,” said the president of the Real Estate Institute, David Airey.

”It’s a good thing because the local market was getting overrun with foreign buyers, and that was putting unnecessary upward price pressure on properties, noticeably in Melbourne and Sydney … That price pressure was forcing local buyers to pay more or not buy at all.”

But Caryn Kakas of the Property Council, which represents developers, strongly disagreed that foreign buyers had any real effect on the market.

The number of foreign buyers was ”statistically insignificant”, she said, even before foreign-investment rules were tightened again in April. With foreign buyers already limited to buying off-the-plan apartments or new land releases, the changes mean that temporary residents now have to seek government approval to buy here.

”One-off purchases of large-scale multimillion-dollar homes seem to capture the imagination … but it’s actually a very small percentage,” Ms Kakas said. There are no centralised statistics on foreign buyers of Australian residential property, she said, and the lack of hard data had enabled a ”scare campaign”.

The developer Meriton said the strong dollar had clearly dampened the enthusiasm of Chinese buyers.

”The impact on other international buyers is harder to gauge,” said the Meriton sales manager James Sialepis. But he said the new rules had already reduced the share of foreign buyers.

Australian expatriates who had sent US dollars back when the Australian dollar was much weaker were ”taking great opportunities in this depressed market”, said the president of the Real Estate Buyers’ Agents Association, Byron Rose.

Story by Kelsey Munro www.smh.com.au

View the original article here

HOME buyers were spoilt for choice at the weekend but clearance rates held steady despite the bumper crop of auctions.

The number of homes scheduled to go under the hammer ramped up to more than 1000, making it the city’s biggest weekend for residential property in more than two years.

A total of 594 properties sold at auction, while 109 were sold before, three after and 325 were passed in.

Real Estate Institute of Victoria spokesman Robert Larocca said the 68 per cent clearance rate was “pretty much exactly where it’s been for the last 3 1/2 months”.

The fact the rate could stay steady when stock levels jumped “so substantially” pointed to the underlying health of the property market and the Victorian economy, Mr Larocca said.

Research by CommSec shows Victoria is surging ahead of the rest of the country in housing finance and construction, second only to the ACT.

Victoria posted record housing starts in the June quarter, up 38 per cent on the decade average, while the number of home loan approvals was 0.6 per cent above the average.

Commsec chief economist Craig James said Victoria’s strength was driven largely by strong population growth.

“In fact, in the year to June 2009, annual population growth of 2.3 per cent was the fastest since the early 1960s, although growth has eased more recently,” he said.

Mr James said home prices across Australia had eased in recent months with the supply of homes lifting and demand softening.

But Melbourne house prices were still 13.2 per cent above a year ago. Brisbane and Perth prices “are only a scant 0.8 per cent up on a year earlier”.

Expectations of further interest rate rises have been lurking in the minds of prospective home buyers for some months now.

The chances of a rate rise on Melbourne Cup day will be gauged when critical consumer price inflation data is released on Wednesday.

About 430 auctions are expected next weekend and 690 a week later.

Story by Rachel Hewitt www.hearaldsun.com.au

View the original article here

AUTHORITIES in Victoria aim to avoid house-hunters having their hopes for their dream home dashed because of lower-end price quotes in property ads.

Real estate agents in the state will be banned from using “price-plus” advertisements, to stamp out under-quoting.

The use of terms such as “$500,000-plus” will be outlawed and agents will instead have to publish an expected selling range, such as $500,000-$550,000.

The pledge follows complaints from heartbroken house hunters duped into visiting homes they cannot afford and wasting money on property inspections.

Authorities have also come under attack for prosecuting only a handful of agents despite hundreds of under-quoting claims in recent years, and the problem is not confined to Victoria.

An investigation by The Daily Telegraph in July this year revealed more real estate agents in NSW were underquoting property values to lure buyers to auctions.

A survey by the paper found nearly half of buyers were quoted a price guide more than $100,000 less than the reserve. Almost 90 per cent said they were given an estimated price guide at least $50,000 cheaper than what the house sold for.

The Sydney Morning Herald said underquoting complaints to NSW Fair Trading had surged earlier this year, but there were no prosecutions.

It is believed the NSW State Government will bring new laws to protect consumers to Parliament which would take effect in January and would aim to bring NSW into line with federal laws.
Victoria’s Consumer Affairs Minister Tony Robinson said new laws, to be introduced if the State Government is re-elected, would give more certainty over prices and property values.

An education campaign highlighting auction and sale practices and the need to research prices obtained for similar properties is also promised.

“Buying a home is the most important investment most Victorian families will ever make,” Mr Robinson said.
“By strengthening our existing real estate pricing laws that outlaw misleading advertising, we will create more confidence in the industry.”

Agents will still be able to publish a price range that is supposed to be based on recent sales in the area.

But home seekers know the ranges that many agents publish have little relevance to the actual sale price.

A Herald Sun investigation last year found only two properties from a sample of 74 sold within the price range quoted by agents.

Real Estate Institute of Victoria president John Grabyn said the ban would make it easier for consumers to compare properties for sale and help alleviate confusion.

“The banning of price-plus will not restrict the price a property will be sold for as the market will determine this, but it will make it simpler for consumers and bring some consistency into property advertising,” Mr Grabyn said.

Story by Karen Collier and Craig Binnie www.heraldsun.com.au

View the original article here

HOME buyers were spoilt for choice at the weekend but clearance rates held steady despite the bumper crop of auctions.

The number of homes scheduled to go under the hammer ramped up to more than 1000, making it the city’s biggest weekend for residential property in more than two years.

A total of 594 properties sold at auction, while 109 were sold before, three after and 325 were passed in.

Real Estate Institute of Victoria spokesman Robert Larocca said the 68 per cent clearance rate was “pretty much exactly where it’s been for the last 3 1/2 months”.

The fact the rate could stay steady when stock levels jumped “so substantially” pointed to the underlying health of the property market and the Victorian economy, Mr Larocca said.

Research by CommSec shows Victoria is surging ahead of the rest of the country in housing finance and construction, second only to the ACT.

Victoria posted record housing starts in the June quarter, up 38 per cent on the decade average, while the number of home loan approvals was 0.6 per cent above the average.

Commsec chief economist Craig James said Victoria’s strength was driven largely by strong population growth.

“In fact, in the year to June 2009, annual population growth of 2.3 per cent was the fastest since the early 1960s, although growth has eased more recently,” he said.

Mr James said home prices across Australia had eased in recent months with the supply of homes lifting and demand softening.

But Melbourne house prices were still 13.2 per cent above a year ago. Brisbane and Perth prices “are only a scant 0.8 per cent up on a year earlier”.

Expectations of further interest rate rises have been lurking in the minds of prospective home buyers for some months now.

The chances of a rate rise on Melbourne Cup day will be gauged when critical consumer price inflation data is released on Wednesday.

About 430 auctions are expected next weekend and 690 a week later.

Story by Rachel Hewitt www.hearaldsun.com.au

View the original article here

New research has revealed that Australians are willing to pay more for residential property, despite the likelihood of interest rates rising.

The realestate.com.au Consumer Insights Survey found that around one in six (16 per cent) (1) property seekers were willing to spend 10% or more above the asking price when looking to buy a home.

The findings come despite the fact that two out of three (66 per cent) (1) property seekers who took part in the survey believed interest rates were likely to rise in the next three months.

Realestate.com.au spokesperson Peter Wright said the survey findings reinforced the boom the property market had experienced recently and peoples’ willingness to achieve the great Australian dream of home ownership.

“The most common perceived reasons for growth include a shortage of properties for sale (54 per cent) that has driven up demand, a resurgence in a growing economy (40 per cent) and the fact that household incomes are rising (11 per cent) (1),” Mr Wright explained.

“While we are now starting to see some stability, the realestate.com.au Consumer Insights Report reinforces the buoyancy the property market experienced in the first half of 2010.

“The report also indicates that consumers expect the property market to remain strong (50 per cent) (1) well into the second half of this year,” he added.

The survey also saw a positive trend in the job market with confidence growing by 11 per cent from April 2009 from 45 per cent to 56 per cent (1) during the May-June 2010 period.

* (1) The realestate.com.au Consumer Insights Report is an online survey conducted on a regular basis to investigate the attitudes of buyers, renters and sellers. The survey ran from 31 May to 3 June 2010 with 4,082 Australian property buyers taking part.