Australian Property Market Forecast 2011

By Rich Harvey

Australian Property Market Forecast 2011

Advantages in using a property finance broker

By Chris Gray

What are you waiting for? Buy Now!

Like any market, the property market is constantly changing. There is no guarantee that it will rise in the short term. On the other hand, long term trends are consistent and residential property almost always increases in value.

Another reason to buy now is to reduce the amount of tax you are liable for. If you are on a good salary you will be paying a high tax rate. The sooner you invest, the sooner you get your tax deductions and reduce your tax. The sooner you do it, the sooner you can get into your next property and the next one after that.

So what are you waiting for? If you’re in the position, buy now!

When is the right to buy?

Conducting Property Market Research

By Stephen McClatchie

Here are tips for conducting market research:
 
Develop your expertise

Read everything relating to investment and the property market.
Magazines like, Your Investment Property; Australian Property
Investor Magazine; Wealth Creator.  Newspapers such as the
Wednesday Age; Sunday Age; Saturday Sun, Australian Financial
Review.  Start to read wealth creation books so you can get a feel
for the different strategies that people purport.  Attend seminars
and be open minded but know that the data is presented in a way
that suits their strategy and confirms their point of view. 
 
Always do your own independent research
 
Useful reports and data (you will generally have to pay for these):
 
www.rpdata.com.au
www.residex.com.au
www.reia.com.au
 
Decide on the top 5 areas that you are interested in
 
Property investor magazines regularly suggest ‘hot’ suburbs.  What
you need to remember though is that when the magazines get hold of
a trend, that trend may be well and truly over. 
 
Many property investor magazines provide statistical information
regarding medium property prices for each suburb.  The medium price
range will give you an idea if you can afford the properties in
that suburb.  Companies like RP Data (RP Data.com.au) and Residex
(residex.com.au) may also be useful. 
 
Research the properties in your chosen area
 
Go to all the real estate agents in the area – never speak to one
agent only.  Here are some great questions to ask the real estate
agent…
 
How many properties are for sale in your price bracket? 
How long has the property been on the market?
How do they compare? 
What are the best streets in that suburb?
Why is the vendor selling?
Have any improvements been done to the property since they
purchased the property?
Who’s buying in this suburb?  Are they investors or owner-occupiers?
How many properties similar to this on their rental role?
Who are the typical tenants in this area?
What public transport is available?
Do they know of any new developments, road improvements or
infrastructure occurring in the area? 
What are the best streets in this suburb?
Where are the worst streets located?
 
Now contact the local council.  What can they tell you about any
potential developments or infrastructure occurring in the area? Are
there any land release initiatives.  Is there anything negative
that may impact the suburb such as banks closing down, pollution,
hazards etc.
 
The council can also provide recent property sales in the area you
are focusing on, giving you a good idea of the price point.
 
Create an excel spreadsheet or checklist so you can easily
compare properties and suburbs. 
 
Create a list of your best questions so that you have it ready each
time you go through this process.
 
Write down the answers.  You will be surprised at how quickly each
property and suburb or town starts to blend into the next.
 
Attend lots of auctions in your chosen area.  Get a feel for the
current supply and demand of property. How are people bidding? How
many people are turning up at auctions? This will give you a great
feeling about the market in your chosen area at any given time.
 
More people attending auctions = hot market.
Less people attending auctions = cooling market.
 
When you visit the property make a note of the following:
 
- The size of the property – how many square meters?
- How many bedrooms?
- Are there any special features such as two car garage,
air-conditioning, heating, alarm, granite benchtops, timber
floorboards, workshed.
 
Is there anything unique about the property such as pool, granny
flat, water saving garden, low maintenance garden.

About Stephen McClatchie….

Conducting Property Market Research

How Australians can SAFELY invest in the US Property Market

http://www.keystosuccessclub.com/property/usa-property

By Mark Taylor

There is alot of market interest around the US property market?  Why?

• Yields > 10%
• Historically high $Australian
• Low entry costs
• Potential capital growth

As you can imagine, there are some risks you need to mitigate and plenty of cowboys jumping on the bandwagon.

We have done out due diligence to source the end to end network of experts we need to be able to offer this to our community.  Don’t worry, they have all bought multiple properties themselves, travelled extensively to the US, and yes I am entering into the market myself in 2 states.  We estimate this to be a 3 year window….

http://www.keystosuccessclub.com/property/usa-property

About Mark Taylor….

How Australians can SAFELY invest in the US Property Market

What you should know about property seminars

By Stephen McClatchie

Don’t get me wrong.  I am a massive advocate of attending seminars.
They are a fantastic way to increase your depth of knowledge and
gather information in shortest possible space of time. 
 
Not only will you will learn different strategies and perspectives,
you will be taking time out to focus wholly and solely on yourself
and your future and you will have an opportunity to network with
like-minded individuals. 
 
I attend seminars not only for the information, but to take time
out to focus entirely on myself.  Time to spend thinking and
preparing for my future.  The time I wouldn’t normally take because
life gets in the way.
 
However, no matter how good the potential of the property strategy,
the speaker is presenting their agenda and their point of view. 
 
Always complete your own research. 
 
Seminars that claim that they will make you a fortune should make
you cautious. Many of them don’t add any value to you.
 
They push strategies that could be financially dangerous.
If you make investments based on only the information the seller or
an agent has given, you will be making a mistake.
 
You must make investments based on the information YOU have
gathered and based on INDEPENDENT sources of information.
 
Ask yourself the questions ‘What’s in it for them and what’s in it
for me?”
 
Always complete independent research and make the best decision for
you.
 
Here’s an insider’s tip: if the seminar is pushing a particular
development – find out how many properties are being sold to
investors and how many are being sold to owner-occupiers. If the
entire development is being sold to investors who intend to sell at
settlement that could mean many properties in the development being
sold at once which could lead to pushing the prices down (supply
being greater than demand).  This is not good for you, regardless
of whether you are also selling or holding.
 
If you are investing in an ‘off the plan’ strategy again find out
the proportion of owner-occupiers to investors.  ‘Off the plan’
developments can take anywhere from 6 months to 4 years to
complete.  If you or other investors circumstances have changed
over that time and you or they cannot settle, urgent sales can pull
down the price of the property – affecting your investment strategy
potential in the short to medium term.

About Stephen McClatchie….

Property Seminars