Adam Empringham,
Director of Sales at Image Property.
How to find out what a property sold for?
[lwptoc]Research is vital for anyone keen to purchase a home or an investment property – regardless of the market conditions at the time.
Technological advances mean it is easier to do this than every before with plenty of property data and statistics available online these days.
It is during the research part of your property buying journey that you are probably wondering how to find out what a property sold for.
Well, there are a number of ways that you can discover this information, but there are a couple of things to keep in mind, too.
Selling timeframes
Major online listing portals, such as realestate.com.au and domain.com.au, also feature sold sections.
This is the section where the sold price of properties is listed, if available, usually on the date that it has legally changed ownership, which is called settlement day in Queensland.
Now, that is important distinction to make, because if a property has a sold date of, say, 10 July 2022, that is usually settlement day and not the actual date that a contract was signed, which could have been a few months before, depending on the terms and conditions of the contract.
This means that the sold prices are not necessarily reflective of what is happening in the market right now.
Depending on market conditions, sold prices might seem higher than they actually are, or they could seem lower than what is being achieved at the current time.
Now, this isn’t to say that the sold prices online aren’t useful in your research, it’s just that you need to keep in mind that they may not be overly current.
One thing you can do to ensure you are considering recent sold data or to learn the price points of properties currently for sale is to attend open homes and talk to the sales agents.
As long as the property is not being sold by auction in Queensland, the sales agent should be able to provide you with insights about the potential price point for that property, as well as others they may be selling, or have recently sold, at the same time.
Attending auctions of properties that are similar to the type you are interested in buying, as well as being in the same area, is also an excellent opportunity to learn more about the current market as well as hear the actual sold price of the property when it sells under the hammer on the day.
Current market insights
When researching online, you will notice that not all properties will feature a sold price.
Sometimes this is because the owner has specifically asked for the price not to be disclosed publicly, or it could be because the sales agency hasn’t provided this information to that specific property portal.
Generally speaking, the sold prices of properties will be made available online in various places once the official paperwork has been completed, such as the transfer of title, etc.
When you are working out how to find out what a property sold for, but can’t find it online, you can also speak to the sales agent who may be open to revealing this information to you for your research purposes only.
The main piece of advice I have for anyone who is researching the sales market to determine which properties are in their buying budgets is to make sure that you are always using as up-to-date results as possible.
This way you will be in the best position to submit a realistic offer on a property for sale, which will greatly improve your chances of becoming its new owner.
