Little Things You Can do to Your Home Before Listing it For Sale

VENDORS have many reasons why they should give themselves as much time as possible to prepare their outgoing houses for sale.

As well as allowing enough time to properly repair niggling interior and exterior works, there may be legal or title issues that need to be resolved; a big structural problem might take longer to fix than first anticipated; or plans to subdivide your block, or obtain a development permit to attract the interest of developers, might take time to co-ordinate.

Alternatively, your choice of decor, or garden, could risk turning buyers off and might need to be redesigned.

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Melbourne’s Most Reinvented Suburbs

Beacon Cove, Port MelbourneONE has to wonder what “great Australian dream” some Melburnians were being sold last century.

Until recently – the 1980s and 1990s for most inner-city areas – owning an inner-city terrace was not necessarily a big deal. More often than not, according to veteran agents, they were used as “stepping stone” investments that could be paid off in a few years and sold on the basis of being “more attractive than renting”.

Buyers – particularly immigrants from Italy and Greece – bought in Richmond, North Fitzroy or Northcote, in order to save a deposit to build new, larger homes in Avondale Heights, Glenroy or – if they invested well – Doncaster.

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Top Melbourne Suburbs to Invest, For Budgets of Less Than $500,000

Flemington Post OfficeMELBOURNE’s once booming real-estate market has finally decelerated – and for the first time in a long time, buyers are calling the shots.

If you have a secure job, low debt and a will to own real estate – banks, developers and the Government want to talk.

But a word of advice: if you do take the plunge, spend what you can afford, rather than the maximum amount you can borrow.

Saturday Domain talks to some experts on which suburbs you should look at, no matter what your budget:

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Breathing New Life Into Melbourne’s Landmark Sites

Pentridge Prison, CoburgTHIRTY years ago a three-bedroom house in Thomastown cost more than a three-bedroom house in Fitzroy – that’s testament to how much Melbourne’s attitude to housing has changed.

In the 1970s, to live in Collingwood, Port Melbourne or Yarraville meant to be entrenched in Melbourne’s working class. Houses could languish on the market for months – unsellable, unrentable and not worth fixing up.

Today, to own properties in these and many other particularly inner-city suburbs, is to own the real estate equivalent of a gold mine. Since the 1980s, but especially since the turn of this century, where and how Melburnians want to live has shifted and many disused, derelict but once significant sites have been redeveloped. We look at some of the biggest:

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Former ASX Building at 357 Collins Street Back on the Market After 15 Years

It was once the heart of the cityÂ’s financial centre, and is said to occupy the best position on Collins Street. But for almost fifteen years, the former Australian Stock Exchange Melbourne headquarters at 357 Collins Street has sat derelict and vacant.

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City Shift as Provincial Victorians Buy Melbourne “Holiday House”

We’ve all heard about the sea changers – the growing number of Melburnians packing up their homes and heading to a new life in the coast or country.

Singles, couples and families are leaving in droves – trading in the city’s caffeine infused impersonal lifestyle for something more inspiring.

But while the sea-changers pack up their four-wheel-drives in search of a new home outside of the metropolitan area, they are passing a growing number of city shifters – those from provincial Victoria that are also looking for a change of scenery, and are setting up tent right in the heart of the city.

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Performance of Melbourne’s Western Suburbs This Spring

THE market leading pace with which some western suburbs started the year, seems to have hit a snag, with the top ten suburbs recording relatively lower levels of growth than the other regions. Only nine of 22 eligible western suburbs recorded median house price increases over the metropolitan average of 4.2 per cent.

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What Half a Million Buys You in the City, Coast and Country

It’s a magic number, really.

Tell a real estate agent that you have $500,000 to spend, and they should be able to find you a house in any part of Victoria – Hawthorn to Hamilton.

We tell you what bang for your buck you get in the city, coast and country.

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Rental Crisis Spurs Property Investor Boom

Melbourne’s 284,000 renting households are finding themselves caught between a rock and a hard place.

On the one hand vacancies for rental properties are at an all time low 1.7% – and landlords know it. This is especially true in inner city suburbs such as Carlton, Richmond and South Yarra, where vacancy is just 1.5%.

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