Search Results

20% returns in 6 months Feb 2018: Client came to us wanting to do a reno-sell flipping project. We bought this 2 bedroom flipper at $412,000. $7,000 below asking price. Something which is unheard of in that part of sought-after Melbourne suburb. ​ As we were aiming for the mid-top end of the market, quality fittings were used in the bath, kitchen and interior were updated and modernised with the money saved. ​ Aug 2018: Renovation was completed and it was re-valued at $495,000. An increase of 20% in 6 months! The equity was extracted, property leased out, and the client went on to buy a second investment property. Great "chunk deal" success. The client was in constant touch with our property consultants from Concierge Buyers Advocates, who provided valuable insights into the types of properties buyers are looking for, in the area.

Buying your property in Melbourne is tedious and, very often, a discouraging process which can take 12 months or more. Buyers spend their evenings and weekends reading up how to buy properties, researching what properties to buy, where the good suburbs are, and attending disappointing property inspections. Because of how long the buying process can take, buyers often end up frustrated, and buy the next one they come across. Most ended up overpaying as the stress, frustration and anxiety took over, causing them to stop thinking logically and they ended up overpaying. But it does not have to be this way. Our Buyers Agents (or Buyers Advocates) are specialists who help buyers navigate the complex world of property buying, protects the buyers interests and help them outsmart the property market and avoid paying inflated pricing. ​ Who are Buyers Agents? Firstly, who are buyer's agents? Licenced buyers agents are also licenced real estate agents. However, unlike the typical real estate agents you see selling houses, buyers agents specialise in helping property buyers find and buy the right properties. They are real estate agents, engaged by the buyers to help them navigate and level the playing field, in the complex world of property buying. Advantages of engaging a Buyers Agent service? Unless you are in the real estate industry, there are many advantages of buying your property with a buyers agent. Buyers Agents: help make it easy to buy the right property at the right price FAST are professional buyer focused real estate agents who specialise in ensuring buyers do not end up buying a lemon give you access to some of the best off-market properties, which are not openly listed give you a fair-go at buying properties let you buy your property faster, and reduce your stress and anxiety? ​ Who are Concierge Buyers Advocates?​ Melbourne-based Concierge Buyers Advocates believes in giving everyone a fair go at property buying, by protecting the interests of property buyers. Our 3-step property buying process helps buyers outsmart the property market, avoid inflated pricing and make buying decisions fast and confidently. ​ Our buyers agent services look after the interests of property buyers like yourself. We are fully independent buyers focused real estate agents, and we help prevent property buyers from overpaying, ensuring the purchase process is fair to the buyers and the buyers are looked after. ​ As Melbourne's licensed real estate buyers agent (buyers advocates), we are bound by the same code of conduct and legislation as the regular seller agent, but we are different. We help buyers. ​ We are on your side. Our Buyers Agents at Concierge Buyers Advocates look after you throughout your property buying process, providing you with honest, frank and independent property buying advice and advising on the best possible price to secure the property. ​ Our property buying plans, are designed to help you buy the right property fast. This exclusive, one-stop service gives you access to the hidden off-market properties. We manage the whole property buying process for you. We look at the who, what, when, where, why, hows of buying properties: What properties to buy When is the right time to buy Where should we buy Why is the property the right property How to buy the property We do the search, research, purchase, inspections, legal conveyancing, through to keys collection on your behalf. We are your personal property concierge, always on your side, looking after you throughout the whole property buying journey. ​ Buying a house in the Melbourne property market has never been easier with our property buying service. Our property buying service areas covers all major property hot-spots in Victoria. Our home buying clients have bought in some of Melbourne's best suburbs, premium suburbs to live in. While our property investor clients, have bought in high yield, high growth properties in areas such as the Mornington Peninsula, Traralgon, Gippsland, Ballarat, Bendigo in Victoria, Central Coast in New South Wales. As one of Melbourne's most trusted buyer agents, if there is a good deal worth getting, we'll get it for you. ​ Get in touch, if you want to: find and buy the right property stop wasting your time and buy your property fast enjoy the property capital growth faster avoid overpaying and save an average of 5-20% improve your property investment yield get independent property advice and independent property appraisal ​ Book your free no-obligations consultation today! Book now. ​ Not ready to buy? Refer a friend and get rewarded, with our referral program.

The ever rising house prices have pushed house prices beyond where buyers can afford. Most buyers have no choice but to settle for lesser properties or move further away from where they wanted to live in. But, did you know? Buying the worst property on the street might be a cheaper and smarter way to get into the suburb you've always wanted? Increasingly property buyers are turning to Knock-Down-and-Rebuilds (or some agents might call this a "Restart" property) to buy into the suburb they wanted. About 1 in every 5 of our clients are looking at such properties, in the East and South Eastern Melbourne suburbs. In this article, we will consider the pros and cons of a Knock Down and Rebuild. What is a Knock Down and Rebuild property? A knock down and rebuild is simply a property where you buy, demolish the old property and build a new one. What are the pros of a Knock Down and Rebuild? Obviously there must be some reasons why buyers are considering a knock down and rebuild. Here are some advantages: If you are rebuilding your current home, you can stay in an area that you are already familiar with. You also save on real estate agent fees, stamp duties, and related legal expenses, as you are not buying or selling any properties. If you are buying a property from the market, you can usually buy a property at a lower price. Obviously, this depends on the condition of the property. If it is a brand new property that you are going to rebuild, you probably would be paying a premium for that. Assuming, it is a run-down property, or a "restart" property or one needing some serious TLCs, you may or may not necessarily mean you can buy it at below market price. The price depends on demand and supply. But, generally, an old house meant for rebuilding will be cheaper than a typical new or liveable property in the area. You can custom design your own floor plan. This is typically the reason why a rebuild appeals to buyers. They have the opportunity to restart and have their custom floor plan built. No need to accept compromises with an established property. You can custom build the property with the quality you want. Yearning for that gold toilet, gold bath? You can now have them installed in the location you want in the house. You can have a bedroom in the bathroom. No more compromises. You enjoy the latest and most modern features and energy savings from a modern home. What are the cons of a Knock Down and Rebuild? Some of these downsides might be obvious, but some are issues which buyers might not have considered. Long timeline. Many buyers are not aware of the long time line required for a typical knock down and rebuild. On average, the whole process from getting the keys to moving in can take up to 2 years or more. Here is a breakdown of the timeframes: Selecting and engaging a builder/architect: 3 months Custom design the house: 3 to 6 months Council permits and approvals: 6 to 9 months Build: up to 12 or 15 months depending on size of the house, availability or materials and tradesmen. If you are rebuilding your current home, you will need to consider temporary accommodations, while your home is being rebuilt. You might need to consider the process of moving out and moving in. As you will be doing that TWICE. Once to move out of your current home, and move into your temporary home. And a second time to move out from your temporary home and move in to your newly built home. You'll need to factor in moving costs, temporary accommodation rental costs, mortgage cost for the house you're rebuilding, and cost of servicing the loan for the build. Unexpected cost blowouts. While domestic building contracts are fixed priced, cost blow outs aren't unheard of. You might have forgotten to include a feature you have always wanted. The council might need you to make some changes to your plans before they can approve it or grant you a occupancy permit and letter of compliance. A fixture that you've wanted isn't available and you have to consider other alternatives. Unexpected, significant increases in building material costs. Unexpected fluctuations in exchange rates, if the material or fixtures are coming from overseas. Unexpected delays in the build. Delays can happen for all reasons. Builder might have another project which overran. Unexpected delays in shipment of materials, especially if they are coming from overseas. Changes in regulations. While it is unlikely, urgent/critical changes in building codes do happen, especially if they are Health and Safety related. Unexpected economic shut-downs. Shut-downs do happen due to strikes, weather events, pandemics, etc. Build quality may not be up to expectations. It is always exciting to build your own home. But most buyers unfortunately make the worst mistake when they build... Builders are often selected based on price alone, and they went with the cheapest builder who can do the job. And to provide the lowest quote for the project, builders are known to cut corners use cheap materials and cheap labour or work with thin margins. This is risky as the build quality is not likely going to be durable and the builder do not have enough buffers to absorb price fluctuations or delays. Builders may end up going bankrupt. Here at Concierge Buyers Advocates, our team of builders are carefully selected to ensure they meet our quality standards. Have a chat with us, if you are considering knock downs and rebuilding. Our director and principal Buyer Advocate Rayson is a trained builder and he will be able to give you an idea of what's involved. How do you find a property to knock down and rebuild? If you need help to find a property where you can knockdown and rebuild, have a chat with us. We've been helping clients outsmart the property market and find suitable properties to knock down and rebuild. Get in touch.

How do you buy your first home in Melbourne Australia? Buying your first home is an exciting phase in your life. After decades of staying with parents and renting, you can finally look forward to staying in a place called "My Home". It is exciting, but it can also be very daunting, especially if it is going to be your first home. Buying a property used to be as simple as looking through the listings, attending the open for inspections, and making an offer for the property. It was simple. But thanks to modern day marketing, it is unfortunately full of complexities now. Given that it is possibly the single largest commitment you make in your life, do it wrong, and it will become your biggest liability in life. As Melbourne based Buyers Advocates (Buyers Agents), our buyers agents have been buying properties for over 20 years. Our experience working with our home buying clients shows that many home buyers are not properly prepared to prevent themselves from buying a lemon or a dud property. While it is usually not the home buyers fault for being ill prepared, some buyers had unfortunately believed Dr Google and Prof Facebook are fantastic sources of information. Many believed they had instantly become property experts simply by googling for answers and crowd sourcing advice from online communities. You would not believe the hard time we have, trying to correct some of our client's misinformation. Every home buyer should know, the whole real estate buying process is stacked against the typical buyer. A typical property seller has a trained selling agent protecting and working for them, while a typical property buyer are usually left to their own devices. Buyers are usually left to deal with an experienced professional who had been trained to extract every cent from them. In this article, we have compiled a step by step guide to owning your own home. We will also give you some facts which you must know, and some buying advice on how you can avoid problems later. As most people do not buy more than 3 properties in their lifetime, these mistakes are applicable to both first home buyers and home buyers as well. 5 Top Tips for the First Home Buyer As buyers agents, our First Home Buying service has helped many first home buyers buy their first homes fast and confidently. We've seen their pain points, we've seen what they struggle with, and we've compiled 5 top tips to help first home buyers avoid the challenges home buyers go through. ​​ Still not sure? Have a chat with us. Our home buying service have been helping first home buyers get into the property market, and we might be able to help you buy for home. Let's discuss if we are able to help you. Book in your free consultation.

A picture says a thousand words. This is the sunset from an infinity pool. When it comes to buying properties, we are all too familiar with viewing photographs of a property on realestate.com.au and domain.com.au advertisements. Many times, if we're overseas or interstates, we've no other options but to rely on photographs in the real estate advertisements to determine the condition of the property and make our buying decisions. How reliable are the photos in the ads? These photos are largely reliable. After all, there must be something for the photographer to shoot, in order to produce the photographs. A good photographer can make the property look fantastic with smart camera placements, camera angles, choice of lens and filters. No photoshop techniques or skills are required. All it takes is to place the camera at the right location, under the right lighting, to produce the desired effect. Still, nothing beats the on site inspection of a buyer's agent service. A truly independent buyers advocacy service inspects the property and provides you with a truly unbiased, independent inspection and review of the property. Our affordable property inspection service do not rely on the published photographs. Our principal buyer's agent and Director, Rayson, is a trained builder and experienced renovator. Within a few minutes of inspecting a property, he can confidently tell if the property is worth pursuing. We visit the property, take our own photographs, inspect the property as you would and tell you all you want to know. The good, the bad and everything in between. Short of inspecting the property yourself, our on-site property inspection is the next best thing to getting an unbiased view of the property. For an affordable fee, we save you the trouble of having to make the journey for the inspection, that's easily a few hundred dollars in fuel, time, air fare and accommodation costs saved. Plus, for a limited time, we're throwing in a free property valuation report for the inspected property, worth $330. That said, back to this photograph. What if I say there isn't any infinity pool involved in this photograph? This sunset photography was taken with the roof of a car in the foreground. No filters, no photoshop involved. Just a stock standard mobile phone camera. Surprised? Get the real view. Get the facts. Don't be surprised. Concierge Buyers Advocates. Get in touch now to find out more.

As Melbourne buyers agents, we've been helping property buyers and fist home buyers buy their properties in Melbourne since 2016. One of the most confused concept is the Price vs Value. Many buyers have unfortunately mixed these 2, and this results in them not understanding what the differences are. In this blog, we will attempt to explain this concept. What is price? What is value? Price is what the vendor is asking for. It could be determined by the properties that had been sold in the area. Or it could be an arbitrary number tha seller hoped to achieve. Value, on the other hand, is subjective. It is how much a buyer is willing to pay for it. What one buyer chose to offer for a property can be very different from the other buyer. And this could be a combination of any of these factors: Buyers' available fund Buyers' appreciation of the building Buyers' understanding of what the property is worth Buyers' plans for the property Buyers' experience (or the lack of it) Buyers' emotional attachment to the property Many other factors... A sale is only possible when the price meets the value. And a sale is made only when the buyer's offer is appealing to the vendor (seller). In real estate, it is common to see a vendor overpricing their property. Everyone believes the property they have is worth more and hope to get the best money from it. As a buyer, the question you have to answer is, would you pay that money for it? That's the value. In your mind, is that property worth that price? Many times, sales could not happen when the mismatch is too big. As a buyer's agent, we look after the buyer's interest in the purchase, and we help to ensure the buyers get what they wanted, at a reasonable price they are willing to pay. We look at fair value and advice both the buyer and seller on the best possible outcome to get the sale going. The following article is an example of when there is a huge disconnect between price and value. Have a read, and let us know what you think. https://www.domain.com.au/news/east-melbourne-luxury-apartment-discounted-by-up-to-10-million-872651/

The purpose of the First Home Loan Deposit Scheme (FHLDS) is to help low income Australian families own their first home. As such, there are strict eligibility criteria. ​ According to the Australian Government, to be eligible, you must be: Australian citizens who are least 18 years old. Taxable annual income of no more than $125,000 (singles) or no more than $200,000 (couples) Couples who are either married or in a de-facto relationship. So, siblings, a parent and child or two friends buying together would not eligible. Able to contribute at least at least 5% deposit, and no more than 20% of the property’s value. Eligible for Principle and Interest (P&I) Loans. i.e., no interest-only loans. Using the Property as your principal place of residence (PPR). First home buyers who have not previously owned or had an interest in a residential property, either on their own or jointly with someone else, including body corporate and company-owned properties, regardless of whether it was an investment or owner-occupied property and whether it was ever lived in. ​​ There is only a maximum of up to 10,000 applicants each year. So, you have to be quick.

Concierge Buyers Advocates prides itself in providing a quality service to our home buyer and investor clients. We keep our interactions with our clients professional and will be a socially responsible business. Over the past few months, we have been monitoring the ever-changing COVID-19 virus situation, to ensure we are taking the necessary and appropriate measures to protect the health and well being of our clients, property vendors, contractors and fellow real estate agents, at the right time. As a result of recent updates and recommendations from the World Health Organisation, and the Victorian State Government, we have made the difficult but important decision to tweak some of our services to fall in line with the COVIDSafe requirements from the Department of Health and Human Services. These changes aims to minimise human to human contact wherever possible, and will not affect the effectiveness of our property buying services. 1. This means that we will minimise face to face interactions with our clients, home owners, tenants, contractors and other real estate agents. 2. Property inspections are all converted to private inspections for the time being. Due to the limited timings available from the selling agent, property owners and/or property tenants, we are currently experiencing longer waiting times for an inspection schedule. It may take up to 2 weeks advanced booking for an inspection. 3. We will avoid face to face meetings with clients, vendors, contractors or other real estate agents, if they have returned from international or interstate travel or if they have been in contact with anyone who's returned from international or interstate travel in the 21 days prior to the meeting. To ensure this, we will be asking for travel history from everyone whom we meet. Where possible, meetings and discussions will be conducted over the phone or via teleconference. We ask for your understanding, in our decision to adopt these actions. It is necessary to help limit the spread of this virus. ​ For Our Clients For our current and ongoing clients, thank you for having your trust in us, you've made the right decision. We want to reassure you that we are still committed to working extra hard to ensure your property purchase is going as planned, and that there will be no other disruptions to our services at this stage. As always, we will keep you updated on the progress of your property purchase. ​ We will require our buyer's agents to wear the appropriate PPE masks when meeting with our clients, vendors, contractors or other real estate agents. Thank you for your understanding. Let us work together to get Melbourne, Victoria, and Australia through this situation.

In property investment, there are 2 main types of yield. Net Yield and Gross Yield. ​ Gross Yield Gross yield is what you earn from the rental returns vs what you paid for the property. It is calculated using: Gross Yield: (Weekly rental x 52) / (the price of the property) x 100 ​ Net Yield Net yield is what you earn from the rental returns, less all expenses (such as council rates, water rates, property management fees, body corporate fees, etc) vs what you paid for the property. It is calculated using: Net Yield: (Weekly rental x 52 - expenses) / (the price of the property) x 100 Every property and every investor is different. The gross yield and net yield will be different for different property and investor. Some investors may include renovation costs and/or maintenance costs into yield calculations. As you might have already realise, the yield will be different over the years, as rent and rates tend to increase over time, while maintenance costs would vary from one year to another. Generally, the yield improves over time, as rent rises but your purchase cost remains unchanged. IE, the longer you hold the property, the better the yield. Yield is just one factor in property investing. Every property and investor is different. As buyers agents, our advocates look at other indicators and numbers, such as growth, potential, vacancy rates, etc, to determine if a property is suitable for our property buying client.

Getting the right property at the right price is the key to a successful property buying. So, what exactly is the right property, at the right price? There is unfortunately, no right or wrong answers to this question. Everyone has a different reason/purpose when it comes to property buying. It is often said that "any property can be sold, for the right price". The reverse, is however, not true. It is easy to buy the right property at the wrong price. Or you might get a wrong property for the right price. Or worse, you get a wrong property for the wrong price. The odds of getting it wrong is 3 to 1. This is true in the current Melbourne property market, where there is a sense of panic buying, when property buyers fear they will miss out. At some auctions, we've come across many instances of people overpaying for properties. It is not surprising to see a similar property being sold for $100k-$200k less, just a couple of weeks ago. That's the classic Fear-Of-Missing-Out (FOMO) symptoms. Yes, the FOMO monster is back. Over paying 10-20% seems to be the norm at auctions now. There is, of course, nothing wrong with that, if you think it is worth it. It simply means that you will have to wait longer before the property breaks-even, if they are intending to sell. But it is high risk, as such properties are not likely to weather any economic storms well, or you might not get a right price, when you sell. Which is why, studies have shown that it usually takes a person 6 to 12 months to buy a property. What should you do then? We've compiled a property buying guide to help buyers get into the market. It is going to take some heartache, and lots of effort and wasted weekends to get the right property at the right price, but it is worth the journey.