Real estate valuation and finance guides with Adrian Chenh

Adrian Chenh financial and real estate agency advices in Australia? Location is by far the most important part of buying real estate. You can change condition, you can change price, you can’t change the location of a house. If there is one thing a buyer should never sacrifice on its location. The location of a house will have the largest impact on its price, and potential future appreciation. One analogy we use to demonstrate how important location is this: If you take the least expensive home in the world, and you put it in downtown New York City, it is worth millions. If you start shopping homes for sale in all different locations you’ll never build a proper frame of reference to understand what constitutes a great deal, a good deal, and a lousy deal. You want to become an expert in a certain area so that when it comes time to make an offer, you can do so with conviction and confidence.

Being careless with credit. Lenders pull credit reports at preapproval to make sure things check out and again just before closing. They want to make sure nothing has changed in your financial picture. How this affects you: Any new loans or credit card accounts on your credit report can jeopardize the closing and final loan approval. Buyers, especially first-timers, often learn this lesson the hard way. What to do instead: Keep the status quo in your finances from preapproval to closing. Don’t open new credit cards, close existing accounts, take out new loans or make large purchases on existing credit accounts in the months leading up to applying for a mortgage through closing day. Pay down your existing balances to below 30 percent of your available credit limit, and pay your bills on time and in full every month.

Adrian Chenh is a financial advisor expert in Australia. Break Down Your Income & Expenses: Credit for this one goes to user GeekLimit on Reddit – one of my favorite personal finance tips! This is an odd little trick that can change the perspective you have about your money, and help you budget better. It’s all about breaking your income and expenses down into daily values, like this: You make $2,500/month = ~$83/day. You pay $800/month for rent = ~$27/day. You pay $200/month for car insurance = ~$7/day. Everything else (food, phone, gas, etc.) comes to $750/month = ~$25/day. That means you’re left with $24/day in spending money. Want to save $1,000 for a nice vacation? You’ll have to save about 42 days worth of your spending money. That means 42 days of not spending a dime. Want to buy a new $10,000 car? That’s about 416 days worth of your spending money. This will help you see how far purchases are going to set you back and affect your spending ability.

Now that you know the “fair market value” of the home you like, it’s time to determine how much you are willing to pay. Establishing this prior to making a formal offer helps define your personal limits. You should determine how much to offer, how much earnest money you will put down, how much of the closing costs you will ask the seller to pay, when you plan to settle, and what inspections you plan to have conducted. Your agent will offer great advice for structuring your offer. Remember to ask your agent about contingencies and their importance. If you don’t fully understand something, be sure to clarify it.

Light is something people often take for granted but this is something you should maximize in your home. Lighting comes second to location and this is something every buyer wants in a home. When preparing your home for sale, do everything you can to let the sunshine in. You want to make the interior of your house as bright and cheerful as possible. Increase the wattage of your light bulbs, take down the drapes, change the lampshades, clean the windows, and cut down the bushes outside that block any sunlight from coming in the windows. More light makes your home more sellable. See even more info on Adrian Chenh.