First homebuyers caught in a bottleneck?

when we bought our house, we had access to the 1st home buyers grant. We weren’t aware that you were paid the grant after settlement, not before. There was a bit of juggling to ensure that the amount we paid was met by our own finances. We were a dual income at the time, and were able to save one wage for purchases.

Now, on a single income, we save exactly half my income, live frugally, and were able to save enough to buy our new house. The deposit came from savings, the mortgage will be exactly double our existing one, and we are v happy with the price we are paying. This isn’t to say that we don’t spend $2.50 at maccas for an icecream cone each, once a month. The kids look forward to this event. So do I.

My mother worked for many years as an agent. I got the chance to see the other side, and know that in canberra, if you find a decent agent, keep in touch with them. They will appreciate your business, and will be better motivated to help you out.

trevar said :

I don’t think you’re far wrong, although I doubt a crash is possible. Firstly, no one seems to even consider the effect of increasing demand on prices (thus it would take a coordinated boycott of the market to trigger a crash), and secondly, rentals are so overpriced, it’s barely possible. I can only think of two ways a crash could be triggered, which are for a large proportion of the populace to suddenly leave the country (which would require real estate to suddenly become much cheaper in New Zealand) or for a large proportion to give up, buy caravans and go squat in National Parks. I don’t think either possibility is likely in the next few decades.

Trevar, I think all it would take for a crash is for banks to be forced to tighten lending standards. At the moment buyers especially first home buyers are borrowing in excess of 90% of the value of the house. Most of that borrowed money comes from overseas. If that pipeline of money is shutoff and banks are forced to require deposits closer to 50% of the house value then you wouldn’t see nearly as many $500K homes being sold.

Good on you Peewee Slasher you did it the smart way by the sounds of things.

We were lucky, We actually had a family friend who was in real estate and he would look out for good deals for us. We ended up buying a house in Kambah in 1996 for very little (it was a shitbox too) and over the course of 5 years we slowly re-did everything inside and the yards.

When we sold it we made a really good profit and was able to buy a better house else where in 2002 just before prices went coo coo. We are now slowly doing things to this house to make it our own. I wouldn’t like having to buy a house these days, it’s too hard.

Good luck Angry, you have to be one step ahead of those agents.

miz. #30. for the sake of clarity, here is my experience.

Spent 12 years renting Housing Trust/commission homes. Got rejected by teh Housing Trust in Canberra becasue I earned $10 more than the cutoff, even though I had waited 3 years and earned less during that time. Fair enough. I then committed to buying a house. Spent 1 and 1/2 years being rejected by major banks. Entry level was $90k (perspective please). I approached a number of builders and asked what was the cheapest home they were building. Most laughed at me, when I said I could only afford $85k. Some were rude.

Finally one builder who saw an opportunity and asked me what I didn’t want in my house (work I could arrange privately, like painting or concreting of driveway, even a different clothes line or garden shed).

During the 1 & 1/2 years preceding I got a night job to save the deposit. Absolutely no extra spending than I needed. My kids were still fed and well dressed. They just didn’t get the usual takeaway food that many families buy.

I convinced the bank that the deposit was enough and the house value was right and got my first loan.

I didn’t feel like I was comfortable in the money until 10 years later.

Now 20 years later, I own the house and still live in it. It is top grade with love and care devoted to it. I didn’t run off and buy a McMansion when the money came good.

For me, it’s about values, a decent house which becomes a home and raising the kids with understanding. They didn’t go on the school trip to Japan, but they sure know about teh Canberra region and it’s bushwalking places. They’re grown up and left now. They say it was a good upbringing and understand the real value of money and what’s reasonable.

I do sympathise with your situation and can only say, make your plans and stick to them.

Good luck.

Australianliberalist said :

Growling Ferret…”Real estate agents are sh*tbags. Everyone knows that” is a ridiculous comment, especially in these circumstances becasue it is the agents job to work for the owner. The agent in this instance is doing exactly what he is paid to do.

Then he/she is being paid to be a sh*tbag Australian Liberalist. Some bags are just bigger than others.

Interesting, that quote was actually from JC…

Quite true, though someone needs to be careful if they buy something when the market is high and likley to drop. If prices drop then the person who brought the place could end up in a negative equity situation. The bank won’t care so long as you still make repayments, but if you stop and they sell the place than you will still owe the shortfall on price.

Very true, but provided my tenants are covering the cost of holding the property (maybe even with some $$ left over), does it really matter if the value fluctuates in the short to medium term.

As I said previously, I think the sub $500k market will soften later this year, and over the next few years won’t necessarily rise much.

Miz – I can understand how you seem to be stuck at the moment. However if you have 3 teens, then presumably within 5-10 years you won’t have any kids living at home to support, and as such will have more disposable income. Perhaps then you will be able to purchase a home (especially since you won’t need as much space). Best of luck.

SpellingAndGrammar said :

Australianliberalist, you must be a real estate agent! I’ve certainly yet to meet one who wasn’t a sh*tbag, including my father’s wife!

+1

gomer said :

I believe we have an Australian real estate ponzi scheme and if new generations decide they aren’t willing to pay as much it will trigger a crash.

I don’t think you’re far wrong, although I doubt a crash is possible. Firstly, no one seems to even consider the effect of increasing demand on prices (thus it would take a coordinated boycott of the market to trigger a crash), and secondly, rentals are so overpriced, it’s barely possible. I can only think of two ways a crash could be triggered, which are for a large proportion of the populace to suddenly leave the country (which would require real estate to suddenly become much cheaper in New Zealand) or for a large proportion to give up, buy caravans and go squat in National Parks. I don’t think either possibility is likely in the next few decades.

Real estate agents are no different to other salespeople in the techniques used to get better prices. Here are some good lines that may or may not be true.
– we have a better offer can you do better
– the vendor/my manager isn’t happy with this offer
– this is a unique property/car
– you might miss out if you leave it too long
It’s frightening to see your intelligent friends/relatives get suckered in by these techniques. They sure do work.

I believe we have an Australian real estate ponzi scheme and if new generations decide they aren’t willing to pay as much it will trigger a crash.

I loved the real estate agent who sold me this place. He told me my offer was the highest and he would reccommend the seller take it. A day later he called to say, the seller wants to know if you will offer more! Huh! Why would I based on what he had previously said? My original offer was accepted, so sometimes it is good to have a real estate agent that sucks- just not if you are selling.

Australianliberalist, you must be a real estate agent! I’ve certainly yet to meet one who wasn’t a sh*tbag, including my father’s wife!

Oh oh three post nutbag here.. But you try to obtain a bank loan or buy a unit while living in a govt home. Doesn’t happen legally.

Although I can see where you are coming from Sheepgroper. Does seem a sensible approach if you can manage it. Seems a lot of people I know missed it.

SheepGroper said :

Hells_Bells74 said :

You speak volumes for a whole generation of people squeezed out.

An entire generation ias unable to save up to buy a crappy one bedroom unit that they can pay off and sell to buy a house? What generation is that?

Sure if you don’t have a family to raise and house in a decent place while you save. Gov rents are huge if you work (enough to buy a home but not heaps to save) along with the bills to keep them up. Sorry though the generation word was a bit strong.

p1 said :

you can get a loan for more then 80% of value, but only with mortgage insurance. You have to have the money for the insurance though, and it only costs marginally less then the deposit. 20% of even the cheapest house is a lot of money.

I know it was 9 years ago now, but I borrowed 95% of the cost of my place (144,000 in 2000) WITHOUT any mortage insurance. The funny thing is I now have about 60% equity in the place due to the rising value. I have have even (stupuidly) borrowed against it so currently owe more than I actually borrowed. But all is good as the mortage is less than $500 p/f.

As I said in another thread though I am now screwed as to go up in house size means borrowing another $150-200k. But guess that is nothing to first home buyers who now need a small fortune in deposts and still have a mortage double to tripple what mine is.

Hells_Bells74 said :

You speak volumes for a whole generation of people squeezed out.

An entire generation ias unable to save up to buy a crappy one bedroom unit that they can pay off and sell to buy a house? What generation is that?

you can get a loan for more then 80% of value, but only with mortgage insurance. You have to have the money for the insurance though, and it only costs marginally less then the deposit. 20% of even the cheapest house is a lot of money.

MrPC said :

As a wannabee first home buyer, I’m basically committed to the following

* Save like mad (about $15k/yr on a gross income of $49k/yr) for about 5-6 years
* Hope that there are still houses in Goulburn or maybe Marulan for $140k (as there are today – if you don’t mind old, which I don’t)
* Commute to Canberra 5 days a week for one year, maybe two at the absolute maximum
* End up with such a tiny mortgage that I can drop the commuting to Canberra to maybe 2 days a week to pay for food and bills, or maybe get a local job if there are any up there

Mr PC why don’t you consider buying a unit in Queanbo and renting it out and doing the tax thing, then sell when you are in a position to live in a property you are buying? It doesn’t sound as though you’ve taken transport costs from Goulburn into account! If you’re happy to drive though, go west rather than Marulan? Harden is pretty cheap!

I’d like to make three points in the one post. So to any twitter-types who can’t cope with that, I’m sorry.

1: I agree with everyone who says the entry-level prices will go down after the first home buyer initiatives end. “Entry-level” houses are $36,000 more expensive across the board because the market has been skewed by house and land package purchasers.

2: You can still afford a house on $50,000 per annum. But it won’t be located “Inner South”.

3: Vendors PAY real estate agents to secure the best deal for their property. But that’s no excuse for them to be untruthful.

Growling Ferret…”Real estate agents are sh*tbags. Everyone knows that” is a ridiculous comment, especially in these circumstances becasue it is the agents job to work for the owner. The agent in this instance is doing exactly what he is paid to do.

As for the banks, yes…the banks will only lend usually 80% of the sale price or value, whichever is LOWER so that they have their bases covered.They will sometimes go higher with mortgage protection insurance but they have pretty well cut that back since the GFC.

Anyone buying a house using a first home buyers grant at the moment should be very careful because the government has artificially blown out the lower end of the market and it will collapse quickly once the grant ends. It is a classic example of what started the financial problems we have in the first place. The government should not be trying to stimulate any one specific part of the market…..it will bring nothing but tears in the end, especially when interest rates start rising.

The only rule I live by while I’ve been looking for a place to buy is: Don’t pay more than it’s worth. I’ve seen quite a few places around lately where the agent is gouging the price. Do the research of similar properties in a similar location and don’t pay more. If other people want to waste their money, let them. I told that to an agent from Elders Gungahlin who was gouging a place in that area, I’ve seen the same agents doing similar with other properties. I’m guessing there’s plenty of suckers out there willing to pay whatever.

They have to get the developers out of the bottom end of the market. Small blocks, modest homes, that people can afford. $350k is not “affordable”!

I remember back in ’92 when a 3 bedroom house in Kambah was $140k, and salaries have not trebled since then. How can ordinary people afford a home that’s not a tiny smelly bedsitter in Qbn?

The nexis between ordinary earnings and housing prices is just nuts, someone’s making a lot of money.

I-filed said :

Sit back and wait. Houses are going to fall in price.

and wait, and wait…

They’ve been saying this years. Even in the hard times they go up.

miz said :

Peewee, VY, I earn less than $50K and am renting a govie @ over $300 per week. With three teenagers, it is near impossible to save – and I never go out! (I even got ‘told off’ by my supervisor, at my annual review, about my rather worn work outfits – silly me, I thought work reviews are about quality of work, for which I got a big tick.)

The problem for me and others like me on one income I am sure, is that while I have been renting for a long time (privately for over a decade and now almost 10 years in public housing) I cannot save a nice lump sum. BUT I am reliable. If only this counted for something! If there was a scheme for low to mid income earners, such as the ones that were put in place post WWII (but subsequently dismantled in the 1980s and 90s in the name of economic rationalisation and competition), whereby a loan could be underwritten by govt to allow low to middle income earners to buy into home ownership, I’d jump at it. This is a genuine gap in the market place as financial institutions don’t care about people like me, reliable or no.

I missed the ‘ACT Housing Trust loan’ boat, (which my sister got and is now onto her third house) and now I cannot get financial institutions to look at me. SURELY something could be reintroduced?

I would absolutely JUMP at the chance to buy my govie house, which I have looked after and landscaped, but you must obtain the finance first. Sheesh. Lose, lose.

And it does the ACT Govt no good at all to chop parcels of land in half in order to label them ‘affordable’ (which they still are not).

You speak volumes for a whole generation of people squeezed out.

As a wannabee first home buyer, I’m basically committed to the following

* Save like mad (about $15k/yr on a gross income of $49k/yr) for about 5-6 years
* Hope that there are still houses in Goulburn or maybe Marulan for $140k (as there are today – if you don’t mind old, which I don’t)
* Commute to Canberra 5 days a week for one year, maybe two at the absolute maximum
* End up with such a tiny mortgage that I can drop the commuting to Canberra to maybe 2 days a week to pay for food and bills, or maybe get a local job if there are any up there

Go Gecko suck!

Sit back and wait. Houses are going to fall in price.

Henry, Ms 2604 and I are looking ourselves at the moment – for our second house, though – and so I tot understand what you’re feeling. A couple of tips:

– Looking at open homes every single weekend is an easy way to get pissed off, quickly. My suggestion is to keep an eye on allhomes, but only go and inspect every second weekend. The break will do you a world of good and help keep things in perspective.
– Kambah is very popular with first home owners, but Wanniassa is in almost the same location and tends to get overlooked by the FHOG crowd. The houses are 7-8 years newer, too.
– Agents from one part of town sometimes misprice houses in other parts of the city. For example, Belconnen or Inner North agents who are engaged to sell houses in Woden Valley, or Tuggeranong agents contracted to sell houses in Gungahlin. This situation doesn’t come up often, but in my experience that’s where houses can be undervalued and you can snaffle a bargain.

Otherwise, VY is on the money, there are a lot of FHOBs out there throwing money at anything that resembles a house. They’ve definitely inflated prices in the FHOB bracket by $40-50k, when the “boosted” grant is only an extra $7,000. If you wait until around November-December there should be far greater supply and fewer FHOBs looking – plus, your deposit will be bigger and you’ll have had more time to study the market and be able to spot a bargain.

Best of luck to you.

Peewee, VY, I earn less than $50K and am renting a govie @ over $300 per week. With three teenagers, it is near impossible to save – and I never go out! (I even got ‘told off’ by my supervisor, at my annual review, about my rather worn work outfits – silly me, I thought work reviews are about quality of work, for which I got a big tick.)

The problem for me and others like me on one income I am sure, is that while I have been renting for a long time (privately for over a decade and now almost 10 years in public housing) I cannot save a nice lump sum. BUT I am reliable. If only this counted for something! If there was a scheme for low to mid income earners, such as the ones that were put in place post WWII (but subsequently dismantled in the 1980s and 90s in the name of economic rationalisation and competition), whereby a loan could be underwritten by govt to allow low to middle income earners to buy into home ownership, I’d jump at it. This is a genuine gap in the market place as financial institutions don’t care about people like me, reliable or no. I missed the ‘ACT Housing Trust loan’ boat, (which my sister got and is now onto her third house) and now I cannot get financial institutions to look at me. SURELY something could be reintroduced? I would absolutely JUMP at the chance to buy my govie house, which I have looked after and landscaped, but you must obtain the finance first. Sheesh. Lose, lose.

And it does the ACT Govt no good at all to chop parcels of land in half in order to label them ‘affordable’ (which they still are not).

I bought my house off a friend no deal estate agents involved, happy times 🙂

VYBerlinaV8_the_one_they_all_copy said :

I suspect the local market for FHB’s will soften a bit at the end of the year. It might be worth saving between now and then and searching early next year. I’ll be out bargain hunting early next year for sure.

Banks valuations on new properties will usually come in at ‘sale price’ unless there is a dramatic variation from market (eg house being sold on the cheap to a family member).

Quite true, though someone needs to be careful if they buy something when the market is high and likley to drop. If prices drop then the person who brought the place could end up in a negative equity situation. The bank won’t care so long as you still make repayments, but if you stop and they sell the place than you will still owe the shortfall on price.

sepi said :

Sure, but if you’re the only buyer and you don’t bump up your offer, you will get the house. You only miss out if there really is someone else for the owners to sell it to for more money.

If the offer is less than the asking price, the owner can still refuse it and sit on the property.

And even if you are the only bidder, the real estate agent is hardly going to let you know.

We got really lucky with our place: the owners needed to sell quickly, the place was absolutely perfect for our needs, and we were the only bidders (the only reason we knew that is because everything had to occur so quickly, it was obvious what the situation was). Even then, we probably paid more than we had to – and we did this in order to ensure that we got the place.

Also – I eat really well. None of that rice and sausages crap. When I do eat sausages they’re really nice sausages from the Lyneham butchers: Hungarian Paprika or Lamb and Rosemary preferably. Mmmmmmm …

Thanks to a certain grant a lot of people are trying to punch well above their weight, so most houses are getting multiple offers.

I think you’ll find now is always a good time to sell for those distributing those leaflets, I don’t think it’s a seasonal thing…

Sure, but if you’re the only buyer and you don’t bump up your offer, you will get the house. You only miss out if there really is someone else for the owners to sell it to for more money.

Winter in Canberra always sees a lack of properties on the market and spring always sees a glut (or so the leaflets in my letterbox tell me ‘now is the time to sell in your suburb’ etc etc.

It is my personal opinion that the REIACT has the local government sewn up to the extent that there is such lax controls and protection for both the buyer and the seller, whilst allowing all the freedom in the world for the agent (eg. allowing these backdoor auctions, no anti-gazumping laws etc.). In WA I believe you have to fill out a contract on the spot to make an offer. I think in Vic you have 3 days to exchange contracts. All of course have anti-gazumping legislation. Except the ACT, of course.

Hang in there. The house will turn up and the circumstances will be right.

Not entirely true Sepi: if there’s only one person bidding on a house, and the owner decides not to accept the offer, then you don’t get the house. And Real Estate Agents will *always* try to bump up your offer, even if there are no other offers – they receive a commission and it’s in their interests to make it as big as possible.

But the basic fact is that if you are the only person offering on that house, you will get to buy it. So real estate agents can only try to bump up your offer if they actually have other buyers.

We bought with two incomes, and we’re still living on rice and sausages – where did we go wrong??

It’s interesting to hear positive stories about certain agents.

If I had my way I would be more picky with them but you go where the place you want is so for me the agent is just an obstacle in between the property and the truth that I need to get to to make an informed decision.

Another RE to be commended is the Real Estate Shop in Erindale. They’re also very strongly opposed to these dodgy ‘auctions’.

The Real Estate Shop had our details, as did every other agent south of the Molonglo, and called us the very day a house came up matching our needs. They were spot-on about what we needed (which was rather particular), and because the house was never advertised, we split the savings with the vendor (after having the price reduced).

For us, as a one-income family with five mouths to feed, the only way we could buy was to get an extra-large house with my (then) recently-widowed mother. She now has a self-contained granny flat, we have 3 bedrooms and two living areas, and we no longer have to move house every few months.

AngryHenry, it is possible to do on one income. I have a wife and 3 kids, and am the sole income earner. I have 1 income now, and we are surviving on food that we wouldn’t have in the past. the biggest saviour for us is Aldi. The food that we can buy there which is cheaper than the other stores reduces our outlay per week. having kids means that we don’t go out very often, I have curtailed my monday nights, and we are very frugal in our spending. We don’t eat at a takeaway or fast food place any more, and i am losing weight as a by-product of this healthy living.

we have a house and are selling, the mortgage we will have is more than the old one, but we will come out ok in about 3 years. It is worth it if you can get assistance from a real estate agent that wants to help you in your quest to buy a house.

We’ve finally exchanged today, I found if we put in an offer and it wasn’t accepted then I would ring and ask what I could do differently next time, this sort of made a little repour with the estate agent and I continued to do this, sending them an email beforehand so they could put a name to a face when I came in. Although this process took me a while and must have annoyed the hell out of so many of them, I don’t care it worked in the end.

I think all these are valid points and thanks to those who’ve given me some really constructive advice to work with. I think I probably will be hanging out until next year when things have hopefully settled down a bit.

The grant to me doesn’t even seem like a grant intended for homebuyers, if anything though I suppose it’s done what it was supposed to do and helped the real estate industry in this country. I think it’s actually done a lot less for the homebuyer (again I could be wrong but that’s how it seems from my perspective).

I couldn’t even imagine trying to do this on one income. It may be achievable but you wont be having much fun doing it.

Buying a home on one income is definitely tough, but possible. You need to be very realistic about how much you can afford, and try to buy something with some growth potential, so that in a few years you can upgrade to something ‘better’, without incurring massive cost.

Get ready to eat lots of potatoes and sausages, and forget about going out for a while.

As for the house going for more than the advertised price, it could be that the owners advertised it at a bait price to get buyers through the door, and then played the “we have had a higher offer” game with interested people, who end up interested in a house that normally they wouldn’t have looked at due to the higher price range.

The thinking being, that the hunter instinct and emotion lead people to then try to buy a house that costs more than they had planned to afford.

miz said :

Just wish it were possible to buy a home on one income.

Me too. I was watching a show where a home was described as “great first home, affordable” and it was just shy of half a million bucks! My god.

Miz, it is possible to buy a house on one income. Just depends how much you earn ;).
Putting that comment aside, I noticed the thread begins with someone buying thier first home, valued at $500K, in an area they denigrate afterwards. Beginner homes start at $350k.

I did buy my home on one income. It was tough. I didn’t go out to eat or to the cinema. Spent many years wanting to. It’s possible, but doesn’t suit everyone.

screaming banshee said :

Then the other problem here is having your offer accepted then being vulnerable to gazumping for a couple of weeks. Having purchased properties both here and in QLD I think QLD have a much better system whereby your offer on a property is a contract (usually subject to finance and pest/building) and once accepted the seller is bound by that contract. In saying that having the building reports provided by the seller down here is a fantastic idea.

It is possible to have a contract exchanged on the spot in the ACT as soon as your offer is accepted, however it is just not done that way 99.99% of the time.

At the end of the day a property is worth whatever someone is prepared to pay for it. But if someone has made an offer well over the ‘assessable’ value of the property for whatever reason they may find that they bank doesn’t value it as highly and they could be in a position where they are unable to obtain finance. If this is the case you might find that you receive a call from the agent in a couple of weeks asking you if you are still interested in the property.

Then the other problem here is having your offer accepted then being vulnerable to gazumping for a couple of weeks. Having purchased properties both here and in QLD I think QLD have a much better system whereby your offer on a property is a contract (usually subject to finance and pest/building) and once accepted the seller is bound by that contract. In saying that having the building reports provided by the seller down here is a fantastic idea.

What astrojack says applies whether it’s a legitimate auction or a ‘Clayton’s’ bidding war: bumping the price is the goal.

Both those agents you mention peterh are great! So +1

May I ask what part of Kambah this house was in? I know that my next door neighbour was going to have an Auction on 1 August, but the for sale sign now has a sold sticker on it. The street in question runs off Manheim Street KAMBAH.

astrojax – need to read more carefully. This was not an auction, just a normal listing where the agent decided to run a “clayton’s auction” pitting proposed purchasers against one another.

We have just exchanged on the sale of our house in kambah, and the new house in deeper tuggeranong. (woohoo!) We didn’t get more than the asking price, but we were comfortable with the offer. We had a look in kambah as well, to see if we wanted to stay in the area. It was cheaper to move away from kambah. The estate agent is the same guy who sold us the kambah house – he sold our house again. He has many, many properties on the books, and will take the time to help people find the house that they are after.

The property that we have purchased was from a relatively new estate agent in town, but there were a couple of things I noticed about him:

1. he wasn’t pushy for an offer
2. he let our kids play in the backyard, whilst we had a look at the house
3. once an offer was made, he was very accomodating to assist us with our specific requirements re exchange and settlement.
4. Every time we spoke to him, he was pleasant, and sounded happy to hear from us.

I know it doesn’t sound like a lot, but it speaks volumes when you are trying to sort out the tangled web that is real estate in canberra.

The gent that sold our house was Rob Matheson at LJ Hooker Tuggeranong. The gent that we bought our new house from is Col Macintyre, from colin macintyre Real estate.

Try speaking to these guys about a house. they may be able to assist you.

it was possibly $40 – $50k in excess of the price the property was advertised at. So why advertise it at that price in the first place? We are talking close to half a million dollars for a place…

while i don’t have any argument per se with your thesis, henry, there is always the perspective that an auction is designed to maximise an owner’s hope of selling for the highest price, so a 10% boon over the arbitrary r/e-priced reserve isn’t necessarily out of order.

but as i said, agree. c’est la vie eh? and agree generally with ferret on r/e’s as a species…

and it isn’t so much a first home buyer’s grant, as a first home owner’s bribe, innit?

I suspect the local market for FHB’s will soften a bit at the end of the year. It might be worth saving between now and then and searching early next year. I’ll be out bargain hunting early next year for sure.

Banks valuations on new properties will usually come in at ‘sale price’ unless there is a dramatic variation from market (eg house being sold on the cheap to a family member).

Just wish it were possible to buy a home on one income.

Get someone you know to go along and appear interested in the same block.
When a colleague recently put in an offer for a property, the agent later rang to say they were also considering another offer. My colleague found out this was bullsh*t after her Mum (different surname) inquired about the property and was told about the one and only offer – which was her daughter’s.

This was an agent in Sutton, but I expect they all play these games.

Real estate agents are sh*tbags. Everyone knows that.

As for affordable housing, our sub-prime crisis is coming

http://www.crikey.com.au/2009/07/13/are-we-paying-too-much-for-the-australian-dream/