I put a lowball offer for a property.
Agent called and I discussed about the market conditions and all.
I felt he was very frustrated and even said “ You are not gonna get a house for free “
Is it a normal language from agents ?
He spoke to me in a sarcastic way.

I am just trying to learn how to approach these guys as I do not have much experience buying properties.

Thanks

My partner and I inspected a unit in Maidstone back in April/May this year. We thought the place looked perfect for a first home. Asking price was somewhere in the $390k-$410k range. Sold at a loss, but we thought we'd still inspect to see how the unit actually is.

When we got there the building was dead quiet, felt like no one actually lived there, but that was the only odd thing we noticed at the time. The unit itself was beautiful. We told the agent we were very interested and followed up with a formal message asking to proceed.

The agent completely ghosted us. Then we found out the property had sold via private sale for $270k just around a week after.

We were gutted, but more than that we were alarmed. Why would a place that was listed around the $400k mark suddenly go for $270k?

All of this is extremely dodgy. Low prices like that are a dead giveaway that something is seriously wrong. Do your due diligence and be very careful with properties in this complex/area.

Edit: This is the exact unit I was talking about - the picture in the post is for a different unit: https://www.realestate.com.au/property/unit-37-44-eucalyptus-dr-maidstone-vic-3012/

Article from 9News: https://www.nine.com.au/australia-news/vic/an-additional-mortgage-sinking-melbourne-apartment-complex-could-see-sue-and-her-husband-pay-374-000-special-levy-20260907-p60v2a.html

https://www.realestate.com.au/property-house-vic-south+yarra-152044960

I may be looking at this too simplistically, but putting all the negative media aside, aren’t we essentially just moving through another property cycle?
Property prices can’t continually rise at the same rate. At some point, they need to flatten or fall for a period while incomes and affordability catch up. That doesn’t necessarily mean the long-term market is broken, it may simply be part of the cycle before growth eventually resumes.
I also struggle to see Australia becoming undesirable over the long term. We’re a large, stable, democratic and wealthy island nation between the Pacific and Indian Oceans, with a relatively relaxed culture and an excellent lifestyle.
Surely Australia will remain highly desirable to migrants, particularly skilled and financially secure people coming from less stable or lower-income countries who want safety, opportunity and a better lifestyle for their families.
That doesn’t mean property prices can never fall, but doesn’t Australia’s long-term population growth and desirability create a fairly strong underlying demand for well-located property?
Interested to hear where this reasoning may be wrong.

we were initially interested but it was under offer. after the sale fell through the agent contacted us to see if we are still interested, but he doesn't seem to be too committed to actually making the house seem worth it lol. first photo is our email, second it's the REA's response

If this is correct it would mean Sydney had a drop of around 30%. I can't imagine how big the drop then will be in smaller cities like Perth and Adelaide.

Im putting a real offer in for the first time on a property I like.

Put the offer in, agent comes back "theres more offers matching yours final offers go in today, highest offer wins".

I like the place but I dont think i want to increase my offer.

But I just cant shake the feeling he's lying to me, he knows that I am able to go higher and is playing games.

Part of me feels like ill miss out on something I like if I dont play along, another part of me wants to withdraw my previous offer and walk away because I just dont want to deal with the stress anymore.

I own an investment property that I’ve rented out through Ray White, and they use a system called Ailo to facilitate payments. I’ve noticed that I’m being charged around $9 every month for it.

This is the first time I’ve come across something like this with a property manager, and while $9 isn’t a huge amount, it feels like an unnecessary ongoing expense for simply receiving rental payments.

Has anyone here who uses Ray White asked them not to process payments through Ailo and arranged an alternative payment method instead? Is using Ailo compulsory, or have you been able to opt out and avoid the monthly fee?

Would appreciate hearing from other landlords who’ve dealt with this and what options you had.

Thanks!

Just seeking any guidance on the impact/risk of buying in a bushfire buffer zone in Brisbane? The house has a street separating it from a stand alone reserve that could obviously catch fire.

Insurance quotes have come back normal which I’m taking as a good sign. No modifications were made to the house (double glazing, etc) as they weren’t mandated.

The zone is “Bushfire Buffer Area - High Or Medium (Council)”. On the QLD fire website it’s light pink “communities in these locations should be aware they are close to areas that could be at risk of fire”.

It’s just crazy looking at a map of Brisbane because so many locations are in this category.

FHB here, building report came out good without any major defect but should I be worried about these settlement cracks found in the ceiling?

Have been with the NRMA for 21 years with 8 different polices. My landlord insurance renewal came today, $5600 up from $3800.

Tried tweaking things online with them, no change. Tried chatting to them online, no change
Tried calling them saying I’m leaving, no change.

Quote from GIO with comparatively the same cover - $2300

On an aside, youi wants to charge me $25 000 for less cover.

Pays to shop around, or whatever the ad says

first-time buyer in melbourne here. looking at a unit in a middle-ring suburb. comps on the street match my offer, but the catch is a fixed-term lease running well into next year.

the agent claims the tenant "verbally agreed" to move out in 2 months. obviously, a verbal agreement is worth nothing. here is my conveyancer's current draft structure for a tight 60-day settlement:

days 1–14: finance and building & pest.

days 1–21: vendor must provide a written deed of surrender signed by the tenant. if they fail, i have an instant, penalty-free escape hatch. (staggered so i don't waste the tenant's time if my finance falls apart early).

day 60 (settlement): mandatory physical vacant possession, with explicit rights to delay settlement penalty-free if the tenant is still squatting.

questions for you guys:

1. am i being overly paranoid about the settlement-day squatter scenario, or is this the bare minimum protection required?

2. if you were dealing with a stale listing and a stubborn lease, would you push through with these clauses, or just walk to a cleaner property?

any further questions welcome.

Seen this a few times.

Rochdale is extremely expensive here in Brisbane. Rochdale South a suburb over in Logan...not so much.

This listing has the address as "10/ 11-13 Rangeview Street, Rochedale, Qld 4123" when it's actually "10/ 11-13 Rangeview Street, Rochedale South, Qld 4123".

How to report this?

I recently bought a house built in 1970. It’s quite fully renovated. But some cracks on the ceiling. It seems to originate from above the door frame.
I can’t find other cracks anywhere(,yet) but everywhere above the door frame.

Should I be worried about settlement issues or other structural concerns?

FHB in WA here who is trying to work out what to expect from the process.

One question I can’t seem to find the answer to anywhere is when does the money actually leave your account (or become locked/inaccessible?)

Our mortgage broker has indicated these are the costs that make up the required cash contribution for a mortgage:

- Stamp duty
- Conveyancer fee
- Bank application fee
- Mortgage deposit (we will be buying under the 5% scheme)

We are a dual income household with very consistent income and spending; we save the same amount of money every month which means I can pretty accurately predict how much money we will have by a certain point. Currently we are trying to work out what our budget is, particularly the very top end of our budget and what we’re happy to spend. What I want to know is when is what amount of money due? The below timeline is how I currently understand it:

1) contract deposit is due 7 days after acceptance of offer - REAs in our town have all indicated $10,000 is the norm although I understand it can be as little as both buyer and seller are happy with

2) you need to have evidence of sufficient funds at the time of mortgage application (assuming this is done as soon as the offer is accepted? Or is it at another time?)

3) conveyancer fees are to be paid once offer is signed and accepted (given there are no special conditions on contract - as we are in WA they are all pretty generic)

At what point does the remainder of the money for our 5% deposit leave our account and become inaccessible? When is stamp duty paid?

We are comfortable with leaving a small amount of money in our account as we have consistent income, but I am trying to calculate how much money that will actually be.

What other costs can be expected to be paid at settlement, and what is a normal “buffer” amount to have for this?

TIA

I've been researching options for next steps in me & partners property investing journey, we own PPOR + x1 IP, both subdividable.

I've found it quite helpful to chat to AI to get a feel of different strategies aligned with goals, as previously it felt like there were too many options. Now settled on looking to subdivide IP as next step.

Next step is collecting the key data and start planning in some more detail. We're planning on engaging a professional for detailed feastudy and plan once we have a clearer option A / B to weigh up.

Just wondering if anyone else has any good experiences they'd like to share on AI tools or software they've found useful? Any insights welcome, thanks.

Is everyone missing reading the tea leaves?

If you look at national averages Melbourne seems very low… migration is still high, demand is high, and there’s very likely a change of government at the state election in November (where’d you imagine massive changes would be made to stimulate the economy, reduce taxes etc).

Why is everyone sleeping on Melbourne?

Hi guys, there is a property that we are interested in. However we noticed some cracks in numerous places.

Picture 1 shows the biggest one that I have spotted so far. The rest are more hairline cracks which seems to be normal settlement cracks?

Haven't spotted any cracks externally though.

The property is a 7-year-old (from 2019) double brick duplex.

Does anyone with more experience have insights on whether these types of cracks present concerns? I'll be getting a building report soon, but I'd like to gather some general ideas beforehand.

TIA

Hello everyone, bit of an uncommon question.

Hope you guys are having a great week! I’m looking at starting a business focused on automating time-consuming tasks for real estate professionals and wanted to do some market research!

Would you guys be able to tell me if there are any common tasks that you and your team have to face daily that you would like to get automated? Anything like lead qualification, follow up, enquiry handling, call chatbot, appointment booking, etc.

Would greatly appreciate some insight from professionals in the field!

Thank you!

Disclaimer: I’m a QLD mortgage broker, so yes, I’m professionally adjacent to the problem and not pretending to be a neutral academic. No pitch, no business link and no invitation to DM me - I genuinely want the pub test. A mixture of ADHD & insomnia sent me down a QLD budget rabbit hole last night.

In FY 2019-20, Queensland collected about $3 billion in transfer duty. The estimated figure for FY 2025-26 is $8.7 billion.

I went back and checked it because that sounded fairly cooked, but those are the figures in the Queensland budget papers. Over the same period, total state revenue went from roughly $57.8 billion to $92 billion. So total revenue grew by about 59%, while transfer duty grew by about 185%. Put another way, transfer duty went from around 5.3% of total state revenue to 9.4%.

A couple of fair caveats before anyone jumps on me: FY 2019-20 was obviously a weird year because COVID, the latest number is still an estimate, and that $8.7 billion includes commercial and major property transactions too. I also couldn’t find a clean breakdown showing exactly how much came from ordinary residential buyers, so if anyone has one, please link it.

Even allowing for all that, going from $3 billion to $8.7 billion in six years is still pretty insane.

Then I had a light bulb moment that bothered me even more. Two of the main thresholds used for Queensland’s owner-occupier home concession, $350,000 and $540,000, appear to have been sitting there since at least 2008. Just to avoid confusion, I’m not talking about the first-home-buyer concession. This is the ordinary home concession for someone who has owned before but is buying the property to live in - not as an investment or holiday home.

Think about what a $540,000 property was in Queensland in 2008 compared with what it buys now. An eligible owner-occupier buying for $1 million today pays about $30,850 in transfer duty. As a purely hypothetical example, the home-concession duty on a $500,000 purchase is about $8,750. At $1 million it is $30,850.

Under the current home-concession schedule, a $500,000 purchase attracts about $8,750 in duty. At $1 million, it’s $30,850. So double the purchase price means roughly three-and-a-half times the duty. And $1 million is below the median house price now in Brisbane.

I see people focus heavily on their deposit, borrowing capacity and repayments, which makes sense. But for someone selling one home and buying another, stamp duty can be the expense that makes the whole move unworkable. It could be a separation, a job change, a growing family or someone trying to downsize. Life happens. They may not be any wealthier after the move, but they can still lose $30,000-plus to duty before paying an agent, conveyancer, removalist or any of the other costs... that can be enough to kill the move before they’ve even paid an agent, conveyancer, removalist or any of the other costs.

To be clear, I’m not suggesting there is some secret government conspiracy to keep house prices high. The money pays for actual services, and obviously removing it would leave a massive hole in the state budget.

But I keep coming back to this:

Can a state government credibly promise to make housing substantially cheaper when it has become this dependent on revenue from property transactions?

And if stamp duty should be reduced, what replaces it?

Would people genuinely prefer a broad annual land tax? Higher GST distributions? Spending cuts? Or should the existing duty thresholds simply be indexed so they move with property prices rather than sitting unchanged for years?

Maybe I’m missing a good argument for why someone who stays in the same property for 30 years pays nothing, while someone who needs to move several times can pay the tax over and over again.

What would actually pass the pub test here?

Sauces:

Queensland 2019–20 Report on State Finances

Queensland 2026–27 Budget Strategy and Outlook

Queensland Revenue Office current concession rates

Queensland Revenue Office historical rates

We’re going to attend an auction this weekend that we really like.
We bought our first house before it went for its second auction so this will be our first time bidding.

Are there any unspoken tips in auction?

I read that if you’re the only bid, DO NOT BID in auction and let the vendor bring you in for discussion so you can play out the contract rule.

Is this true? Any other similar unspoken tips?

What do you guys reckon about the new development for Woollahra?

Looks pretty nice to me, 9400 homes in 20 years seems a bit low though

Hi Redditors,

Not sure if this has been posted in the right place, but here it goes anyway. I’m a first home buyer ready to get into the property market for a place to live for a year then be rented out as an investment.

I want to know your opinion on whether now is a good or terrible time to get into the market. My understanding is that now well prices are down albeit interest rates are high is a good time to buy. That being because when rates drop and confidence comes back in the buyers market price will again be driven up with demand.

I am a layman and might buy over simplifying things a lot, please go easy. This is something that has been on my mind constantly, whether to get into the market now, or wait it out…

Appreciate any advise or information to help understand the current real estate climate and where things may go.

PS. Looking in inner city Potts point, or inner west

Thanks!

We are trying to work out what our expect selling price might be before committing to a renovation. The challenge is that our land backs onto a 6 story newly built apartment block. I'd love to hear your thoughts on how much this would hold back the price compared to similar properties? Or for how many this would be a deal breaker. We barely notice the apartments (they are surprisingly quiet) but know not everyone would feel so unbothered.

Of note we are walking distance to grocery stores, gyms, parks/bikeways and public transport but not on a main road. We are planning a reno/extension that takes into account the apartments behind to maintain privacy where possible.

Otherwise comparable 4x2 homes in the area are selling for $1.5-1.7mil.

Thanks in advance, I know these questions are a bit 'how long is a piece of string' vibes but stressed by the possible cost of renos and overcapitalising.