The price of real estate in Australia is now beyond the reach of many young people looking to purchase their first house. This isn’t great for real estate for sale by owner or private house sales as first house owners make up a large portion of the buyers for real estate in Australia. However, there is hope as we are now seeing a trend emerge in real estate where young people are pooling their money together with friends and purchasing a property together to live in.

Young people are entering into what is know as a “tenants in common” contract, where they can divvy the mortgage and benefits of a property. They each have a certain share and when the property is sold each get their share of the sale price of the property.

Obviously this arrangement isn’t for everyone as not only are you making an investment with your friends but you are also living under the same roof as them on an ongoing basis. If things don’t work out then it isn’t a huge issue, as these contracts are designed so parties can leave the agreement without too much headache to all parties.

It is great to see that there are ways for young people to get a “foot in the door” in the real estate game in Australia.

If you are for sale by owner selling an apartment for private sale in a CBD location then don’t be surprised if you never get to meet the purchaser of your property. What is known as buying without viewing, is a trend which is starting to pick up speed in the way real estate is purchased across Australia. It refers to the situation where the property buyer of an investment property (usually units and apartments in the CBD) will search real estate across the internet and if a property ticks all the investment boxes they will purchase the property unseen and without ever meeting the real estate for sale by owner.

It is not a bad strategy as it saves a lot of time and means the property buyer’s judgement of the property can’t be clouded by any emotions they have when they inspect the property. It is simple in that the property buyer makes a decision to purchase the property from an investment/business point of view rather than looking at it from the prospective of a property owner / dweller.

Things a property buyer will use to assess whether a property is a good real estate investment include:
 - Number of bedrooms
 - Number of bathrooms
 - Secure Parking
 - Secure Storage
 - Floor the apartment is located on
 - Size of the apartment
 - Location of the apartment in regard to transport, shops, schools and CBD.
 - Views from the apartment
 - Strata and sinking fund fees

This is a good reason why real estate agents and a real estate for sale by owner need to make sure they create accurate property descriptions when preparing their property advertisement for the internet.

If you are conducting a no agent sale and selling your property privately then there is some hope that you will eventually succeed in your private real estate sale. The Housing Industry of Australia just released some findings that sales of new houses grew 6.7% in October, up on the previous months results.

Although, this doesn’t really help a for sale by owner (FSBO) who is most likely selling the home they have lived in it does shine a glimmer of light onto the property market and a recovery in the real estate market.

If you are conducting a private real estate sale as a for sale by owner (FSBO)then hold in there as things could get better in the property market.

It appears that executive rental apartments (real estate greater than around $800 pw) are increasingly becoming vacant and are sitting on the market vacant for extended periods of time. This isn’t good for real estate investors who have often paid premium dollar for these exclusive apartments in sort after suburbs of major cities across Australia.

To highlight this problem, I was down at a local real estate office yesterday in Bondi and noticed that 70% of their rental apartments displayed in their shop window were leased. Out of the 30% left, around 3/4 of the apartments available were priced over $800 pw. So cheaper apartments are moving quickly but expensive apartments are not.

Why is this? Because most of the tenants of these exclusive apartments are executives and obviously the economy is affecting the companies they work for and the salaries they are receiving. Is this a sign of a recession looming?

Our primary focus at Privatepoint is to make sure a property owner has their property listing in front of the greatest possible audience, improving their chances of finding a buyer. Traditional private real estate sales websites have a very limited audience affecting the success of for sale by owner sales. The reason is because property seekers are not aware of these private real estate sale websites and because these websites have a limited variety of real estate.

Privatepoint overcomes this hurdle by sending a property owner real estate listing to real estate websites with a minimum of 10,000 properties listed, from both for sale by owner and real estate agents.

Not only will a property owner advertisement appear on all of these websites but each property owner has the added benefit of being able to update, amend or delete their for sale by owner listing from their personal Dashboard. This means when a property owner updates their real estate listing on Privatepoint it will automatically update on all of the private property sale websites their property is listed with, eliminating the need for the property owner to log into every individual website.

The best thing about Privatepoint is that the property owner is undertaking a no agents sale meaning it is completely free with no fees or commission payable before or after your property is sold.

Petrol prices are now at a level which is impacting on a families everyday budget, especially those families who do not live in close proximity to their place of work. A solution might be to catch public transport. But often due to limited (or perhaps misused) state resources the availability of public transport decreases the further you move away from the CBD making it harder for these people to opt to public transport.

This is affecting property prices in these suburbs where prices are falling a lot quicker than other suburbs. Home owners no longer want to live in a place which is too far from their place of work or is not in proximity to public transport.

So next time you are looking to purchase a home or investment property take careful consideration about where the property is located in regard to transport and the CBD. This doesn’t mean you need to purchase a property in the CBD but look for properties which are located near where people work, this could be an industrial area, or a large metro area within a major city.

Sorry for any inconvenience,

Privatepoint Team.