If you’re looking to buy your dream home in Sydney but are finding it difficult due to lack of time, knowledge or experience, then you must continue reading this story to find out how it’s done.

Our Client’s Story
Neil & Tracey* are busy professionals living in Melbourne, but were looking to buy a home in the Eastern Suburbs of Sydney. With their lack of time, experience and distance from Sydney, they reached out to Aus Property Professionals for our help.

With their daughter currently living in Sydney and looking to move-in to this property for the short-term, it was crucial for us to find a property that would meet her immediate needs, whilst also looking at the long-term picture. The strategy here was to find an investment grade property, that would provide excellent returns and capital growth, so they can expand their property portfolio.

The Location
As Neil & Tracey’s daughter works in the CBD but enjoys the lifestyle the Eastern Suburbs of Sydney has to offer, this was our search area. It is within close proximity to the Sydney CBD, has plenty of cafes and restaurants to choose from and a relaxed lifestyle.

Within our search area, it was important for us to concentrate on the key factors that make the perfect investment. Quiet streets, close proximity to transport and amenities, schools and hospitals, small strata complexes etc.

Challenges
With the Sydney market’s momentum picking up strongly again and the lack of stock, it can be quite difficult for people to firstly find the RIGHT property, and secondly to secure that property for the RIGHT PRICE.

This is where our extensive knowledge of the Sydney market comes in to play. It was crucial for us to educate these clients and provide them with realistic expectations. Not relying on advertised ‘price guides’ as this will only lead to disappointment, as well as them wasting time and money on travels to Sydney.

The property we narrowed it down to was a stunning 3 bedroom townhouse in the heart of Randwick. Within walking distance to the light rail station, Prince of Wales Hospital, ‘The Spot’ (cafes/restaurants), Royal Randwick Shopping Centre, schools and Coogee Beach – this really was the perfect location.

With an auction price guide of $1.6m, we knew that this was too low based on recent comparable sales in the area and the level of activity in the market. We were able to educate our clients that they’ll need a realistic budget of around $1.85m to have a good chance of securing this deal.

Acquisition/Auction
With all the due diligence out of the way, it was time for auction. Neil & Tracey travelled up to Sydney that Saturday morning to inspect the property and fell in-love with it the moment they stepped in.

“This is a property that I could really see myself living in and I can now understand everything you talked about in terms of layout, size, aspect etc” were Neil’s words as he walked through.

With the auction about to start, there were 6 registered bidders with many more watching on. The auctioneer now looking for an opening bid of no less than $1.7m really showed Neil & Tracey that the price guide was quite off. They were pleased that we had prepared them for this, considering they had flown up from Melbourne for this auction and would’ve been left disappointed had they believed they would get the property for around that price guide of $1.6m.

With some strong bidding under way, with $20k increments from the $1.7m price point, we knew this was going to be a very competitive auction. With our bid now sitting at $1.8m, a new bidder emerges from the back but we quickly get back on top of the board.

Things have now stopped. The agent goes out the back to have a chat with his vendors to seek further instructions. Coming back to us, we are told that the reserve price was set at $1.85m (we were right on the money) but they’re willing to sell it to us today for $1.83m – property secured!!

Moral of the story, it’s important to not only believe what you see online or what others tell you, but to do your own extensive research and be well prepared with realistic expectations. This will save you a lot of time and money, and help you avoid disappointment.

* Their Real Names Have Not Been Used Due To Privacy.

Not many people realise the results a small duplex project can deliver. We share with you another duplex project success story where our clients achieved over $220,000 in instant equity, where the total project cost was under $785,000.

Their Story
George & Sarah (not their real names) were both working full-time to make ends meet, earning enough money to just cover the bills and pay off their own home. With some equity built-up in their home, it was time to get smart and use this to create some further income.

They’ve been dreaming of having some extra cash to relax and go on a few holidays, as well as buying a few investment properties for their future – it was time for us to make their dreams come true.

When they came to us, we discussed a few different strategies and together decided that a duplex project will be the right strategy moving forward to help them achieve their goals. This will give them the quickest and largest return on their investment, in the shortest period of time.

By refinancing on their family home, George & Sarah were able to extract enough money to fund their duplex project which has been a life changing investment. Working closely with our client and their mortgage broker, we were able to ascertain their true borrowing capacity and this was crucial so that we could identify the most profitable duplex project within their budget.

The Location
Knowing the Newcastle property investment market very well, with some excellent results from our other duplex projects meant that we had real results to work with. The market was strong and growing, so we knew that it was the right time to continue building in this area.

We educated both George & Sarah on the Newcastle market and why we would choose this region for their duplex project. The educational facilities, planned infrastructure, rapidly growing market, low vacancy rates, population growth and so on, made this the ideal location to do a duplex project.

With high rental yields and the instant equity we knew this duplex project would create, meant that George & Sarah could hold on to these properties for the long-term as it would be positively geared.

Negotiations/Acquisition
Locating a suitable vacant block in the area was becoming more difficult to find. Property prices were rapidly increasing which meant vendors were either holding-off on selling their land or they were asking too much for them.

Not only did we have to find a vacant block, but we had to ensure a duplex project would be approved on it. After weeks of searching, we were able to locate an off-market parcel of land through a real estate agent we’ve previously worked with.

We were able to negotiate a reduced price on the land to save the vendor marketing fees. We then tendered out the build project to a few builders that have done work for us before (knowing their quality of work) and were able to get a great price with high quality inclusions.

The total project cost was under $785,000 including the land, build, subdivision/strata titling etc. The result was just over $220,000 instant equity in less than 12 months. With each unit returning $475 per week, meant that it was providing positive cash flow too. George & Sarah were able to book their holiday shortly after to enjoy some quality time together, before they started on their next duplex project with Aus Property Professionals.

Imagine buying a property in a high growth suburb close to the CBD, which is ready to be rented out from day 1 and has the potential to create OVER $200k development profit through a subdivision….well that’s exactly what we helped our client purchase!

Our Client’s Story
A lovely young couple in their 20’s, Jane & Dave* came to us looking to buy an investment property in Newcastle. As they were both working interstate in the mines, they were quite limited with time and restricted to inspecting properties on their days off when they could fly-in. This was costing them a lot of money on airfares, as well as using up all their free-time. They soon realised that engaging in Aus Property Professionals services was the best decision they would make.

Jane & Dave had a much larger long-term goal in mind than just buying one property though. They wanted to build up a property portfolio so that they can enjoy life early-on and not have to wait until retirement age to do so.

After travelling up to meet them in-person and discuss their strategy, it was decided that we would search for a property in a high growth area which was also going to offer them value-adding opportunity or future development potential to allow them to create ‘instant equity’ and move quicker towards their goal.

The Location
Jane & Dave came to us with the Newcastle market already in mind, as they knew the area quite well (family living there) and had done quite a bit of research on it too. We were able to work with their preference on this one. We were also very familiar with this market, having had many successful clients recently purchase here and build duplexes too.

The goal here was to focus on high growth suburbs, within close proximity to the CBD, transport links, shopping centres, schools and other amenities. We also had to make sure it was in an area with high rental demand and low vacancy rates (the suburb purchased in currently sits at 0.7% vacancy rate – accurate at the time of publishing).

Due Diligence
After a number of weeks searching and inspecting properties, we had found the perfect one that ticked all the boxes, so it was time to do further due diligence. The property was well presented already, so the strategy here was to look at future subdivision/development potential and being in R3 zoning, it provided further scope to add-value.

After meeting up with Newcastle Council’s town planner to discuss what options we had with this block, we then spoke with a Surveyor to calculate the costs involved in doing a subdivision and a builder to determine the approximate building costs. With our in-house development experts, we were able to prepare a feasibility around all the numbers which indicated a potential development profit of $200k+.

Not only will Jane & Dave have the opportunity to create this instant equity when they’re ready in the short-term, but they will also be capitalising on the existing dwelling in this high growth suburb. This is going to allow them to build-up their property portfolio much quicker than your regular ‘buy & hold’ buyers.

Negotiations/Acquisition
Being well prepared is they key to negotiating successfully. This property was set to go to auction in a week from when we commenced our negotiations, so it was important to make sure we had everything ready.

From doing all of our above due diligence, to organising the building & pest report, getting the solicitor to review the reports and contract, and requesting any necessary amendments, time was getting close with only a few days out from auction day.

While all of this was happening, the agent called to advise that they had received a slightly higher offer than ours but the vendors were happy to proceed with our offer as we had already prepared everything and were ready to exchange – see, it pays to be organised!!

We can’t wait to see how Jane & Dave’s future subdivision and development goes as they continue to build their property portfolio…..we’ll keep you posted!!

* Their Real Names Have Not Been Used Due To Privacy.