How do I investigate a property?

[Mrman]

A friend of mine was approached by a man in his street and told him he was selling one of his rental properties privately. Its a 3 bedroom house in the western suburbs of Adelaide on a corner block and looks to be atleast 50 years old. Now the funny thing is my friend bought a 3 br house on the same street 6 months ago for 275K. This guy is asking 330K which is a good price for this suburb (Fulham Gardens) but I don't think it is worth that much. Its 650sq m but being on a corner might not make it subdividable. The owner says it can be but I can't be sure. It's safe to say its on the lower end of the scale for this suburb.

Anyway I wanted to know who I could talk to or where could I go to find information like:

1. When it was built

2. Average house prices for that area and in particular streets surrounding the house.

3. What it would be worth?

4. Is it subdividable?

5. Any other information that would help me make an offer to the seller and back it up with statistics.

Also if anyone has any ideas/suggestions on how I should approach this please let me know.

Thanks
George

 

[lizzie]

1. When it was built

2. Average house prices for that area and in particular streets surrounding the house.

3. What it would be worth?

4. Is it subdividable?

1. why do you want to know the age? as it would be to old for building depreciation if over 40yrs old. perhaps council might know

2. rp data, local real estate agent, valuer

3. as above - and your gut feeling

4. ask council the zoning for that specific property, what the minimum block size for that zoning is and does being on a corner mean the block size can be reduced.

 

[steveadl]

Lizzie has it spot on! Call the council's planning dept. and they can look up the property on their computer and tell you what you can or can't do on the property. This is what I did before my last purchase - very handy

 

[Beef_Hooked]

Corner blocks always seem to be the first to be subdivided when an area is redeveloping. It is because there is more land made available for building as there is no long battleaxe handle required for the driveway. One short driveway from each of the 2 streets.

Cheers,
Beef.