Category: Buying
Should you buy a house or an apartment?
It seems to be a very common question when it comes to buying real estate, particularly for first and second-time buyers – will it be better decision to purchase a house or an apartment? As a starting point, the factors that go into making this decision are mostly personal preferences. These include whether the property is an investment or to be your residence, the location that you’d like to live in, how many people will be living in the property, what types of maintenance you are...Read complete post
Why it is important to attend an open house before buying a property
Although they can sometimes be a great deal of work, the open house is one of my favourite aspects of the real estate selling process. In most cases, much preparation will have gone in to ensuring that the property shines on the day, and owners are proud of what they are offering to the public. With property being one of the largest purchases that the average person will make over a lifetime, I am usually quite surprised to hear of situations where acquisitions are made by people...Read complete post
Home intelligence could add value to your property
It’s pretty hard to ignore the speeding train that is technology these days. And I’m the first to acknowledge the opportunities for business that technology offers – over the years CENTURY 21 Australia has been able to utilise and embrace various innovations to achieve considerable success in the Australian real estate market. Beyond the office though – what types of technology do people wish to incorporate into their homes? As real estate agents we definitely focus a lot on...Read complete post
Good news for the rural housing market
It is no secret that rural Australia has had a tough time of late. With the plethora of flash natural disasters experienced across the nation over the past few years, as well as extended periods of ongoing drought, it has been hard for our farmers to catch a break, as well as to encourage city-dwellers to consider a move inland. Australia is an incredibly urbanised country, with approximately 82% of the Australian population living in major metropolitan regions (Source:...Read complete post
Preparing to buy and sell Real Estate in Autumn
An RP Data study conducted in the middle of last year showed that autumn, followed by spring, is the busiest season for real estate, attracting the largest number of sales. As we are now heading into autumn, this means that there are is a large amount of people who are currently preparing to either buy or sell real estate, or both. For those selling, it is important to make sure that your property stands out amongst all the other listings on the market. Chris Gray, in...Read complete post
Things to keep in mind when purchasing property overseas
There seems to be an unprecedented number of Australians choosing to invest in property overseas at the moment. And who can blame these buyers? With the current strength of the Australian dollar, as well as the relatively low prices of some international real estate, I can definitely understand how offshore property may look attractive. Purchasing a property overseas however can definitely be a complex process and there are a few things that investors should keep in mind, in...Read complete post
Property Marketing - The different ways to find a new home
I often find that reading through the property lift out of a newspaper can be quite an enjoyable way to look at what properties are available for sale. The beautifully laid out advertisements take on an almost picture-book like feel and in combination with my morning coffee make a great way to start the day! However there is no doubt that my slow browsing is not the preferred method of the majority of home-hunters in the market. The advent of the internet has seen online real...Read complete post
Using Property Data to your Advantage
And we’re off! I hope everyone enjoyed their Christmas and New Years and for those people who took time off work – had a nice, relaxing break. 2010 has now officially passed, and the team at CENTURY 21 Australia are gearing up for what we believe will be a very busy year for real estate in 2011. For one reason or another, people often find themselves making ‘life’ decisions around New Years. I think it ties into the idea of resolution-making - the start of another year...Read complete post
Buying & Selling Property over the Christmas Holiday Period
As it seems to do every year, Christmas has once again snuck up on me. The years do not appear to be slowing down and it seems that everybody in CENTURY 21 offices around Australia are busier than ever. An enquiry I get from many people around this time of year surrounds buying and/or selling property in the lead-up to, during and directly after Christmas and whether or not they should do it. In my experience, Christmas can make things tricky, simply because you may not have as...Read complete post
Take advantage of current property buying conditions
The Australian residential property market is an interesting place at the moment. The release of a variety of different statistics in November has indicated that the Reserve Bank’s decision to increase interest rates this month (and the subsequent larger increases by the four major banks) may have translated to a behavioural change in the property market. From my position at CENTURY 21, I think that it can be reasonably assumed that buyers are eyeing the property market with...Read complete post