Sunday Blog - Expert property investment insights

A delightful couple with a tight brief engaged us to assist them. They’d canvassed North Melbourne and they were keen on the ever-popular University High School Zone. Our first step was to print out the zoning boundaries. The A4 page is pinned on our wall and reminds us daily of the streets which are within…

Recently we had the pleasure of assisting a family with a very special purchase. Being investors themselves, they’d experienced first hand the benefit of capital growth over many years and found themselves seeking out the option of assisting their children into property investing too. They didn’t claim for one minute that they’d chosen perfect properties…

Almost a year ago I met a lovely family who were renting in Yarraville and saving hard for a deposit to buy their own home. Their challenge was to find a home for sub-$500,000. Our initial meeting was hard, because they realised that buying in their much-loved community would be limiting due to their budget affording…

A very special brief for us recently involved the shortlisting, selection and acquisition of a home for two young interstate-based professionals who are moving down to Melbourne in the new year. We enjoyed profiling suitable areas and arrived at Altona based on proximity to employers, value for money at a mid-fives budget,easy rentability for future…

A recent assignment with two fantastic investor clients ended last week with plenty of celebration. Our brief was sensible and with a desired spend range of $700K – $800K, and we felt that the targeted suburbs from the inner west to the northern suburbs of Coburg and Preston should have easily yielded us a quality…

What do you do when you are set to bid at auction on Saturday, but find a house on Tuesday which catches your interest? Easy – you just try your luck at auction and keep the house as your Plan B. But what do you do if the house has competing buyers who are also…

In our Seller’s market, and particularly over the winter months where supplies of properties for sale are low, many buyers come to me requesting that I help them secure an auction property before the auction. But it’s not always a good idea to pounce forward with an offer. There needs to be a sequence of good reasons…

When a brief requires the ‘out of pocket’ monthly costs to be close to zero for an investor, the implication is that they will need to consider a property which carries some downside. It could either a risky investment, a tough studio apartment or …. a regional investment. We don’t endorse risky strategies, mining towns, tiny…

Often investors will look to changes in an effort to find that special something, that little edge that can make the difference between a sound suburb and a suburb about to boom. From infrastructure changes to planning updates, new developments to exciting tourist magnets. A change of scene and the presence of new and cashed-up buyers can make…

Yesterday I bid for a very special repeat client, who this time had researched an exciting opportunity – a subdivision and large townhouse build behind a period property. Finding the right property was not easy; in fact we’d been working together for months. With a target price of sub-$700K, a need for train station to be…

Recently we had a fantastic brief to assist with for a very sensible first home buyer. Her target budget was low to mid fives, and her questions were fabulous. Should she be buying brand-new? Should she target the grant for those who buy new? Would it be better to buy in a well-established area close to the…

We recently bid on a cute three bedroom house in Watsonia and walked away without the sold sticker. The property sold for $600,000, but because of a large tree in the backyard and a Department of Housing tenant on a further eighteen month lease, our cap of $590,000 stood firm and that property just wasn’t…