Until now, it’s been hard to find these properties: the bank has an obligation to make sure the property is sold at a fair price, and so there is not much publicity around the listing of these sales as “foreclosure sales”.

At findmeahome.com.au, we’ve taken the database of properties that are listed for sale, and combined it with the Residex database of price estimates for properties. What happens when you combine those two? You get the Best Bargains Report.

When the database tells us that a property might be a bargain, we call the real estate agent and confirm. If it passes that test, it’s a candidate for inclusion in the Best Bargain Report.

The properties in the bargain report might be sold quickly, and so instead of selling a single issue we sell a 4-week subscription to the report.

Find out more.

Choose a state, postcode, then suburb, and find out how many properties we have listed, and our estimated price range.

There are lots of properties listed for sale on the findmeahome.com.au website. So many, that you might not think to look in all the suburbs where you might be able to afford property.

We’re working on a new feature that will let you browse through states, postcodes, and suburbs, and find out how many properties are listed for sale in a suburb, and what kind of price range you might expect to pay.

Try it out: it’s at findmeahome.com.au/suburbs/.

1. Choose a state or territory
2. Choose a postcode
3. Choose a suburb

Is there other information that you might expect to see on this kind of page? Or another way of finding the information? Let us know in the comments below.

1. Read and agree to the conditions. 2. Click "agree".

As you can see, we’ve moved things around a bit. We’ve also added a table so that you can see how many properties we have listed on the site.

Once you’ve agreed to the conditions, you have two options.

Get a price estimate for any property, or search for a listed property

Instead of having to look around on the search results page for the “price estimate” tool, we’ve put it front-and-centre on the homepage. Also new, you can look up a price estimate for any listed property.

What do you think of the new homepage? Do you have any comments or suggestions? Let us know.

What are we working on?

The old splash page allowed you to search on a suburb. What we’re working on is the ability to search on a property address. Once you type in an address, you’ll be able to either see the listing for that address (if we think it’s currently listed for sale), or to get a free price estimate of the address (once you log in).

We’re hoping that this search tool will make the site even better, but we need a little while longer before it’s ready. Please bear with us!

If you want to include a lot of extra properties, you can use “show partial matches”.

You can use "show partial matches" to include the properties where the address couldn't be found on the map.

If you want to look outside the boundaries of the suburb that you’ve entered in, use “surrounding suburbs”.

You can use "surrounding suburbs" to expand your search, though you will only see those properties where they could be found on the map.

To narrow your search, you can either use the map, or you can specify details of the property.

You can narrow your search by specifying dwelling type, bedroom count, bathroom count, or the number of garages.

Note that the number of search results won’t update until you click “find”.

Sure, you could go to something like Google Maps and use street view to have a look at the property, but if you want to know what the different types of houses are, you could have a look at Home I Own’s list of house types, and the Aussie Real Estate Blog’s list with pictures of the houses.

Even more useful, these lists will allow you to develop your ability to look at a house, and have an understanding of how old the building is. This can save you some valuable time if you’re only interested in buying property up to a certain age.

A few other ideas that don’t involve costly renovations:

1. mow the lawn; tidy the outside of the house – in times of mortgage stress, a photo of a house where the backyard is untidy suggests that the vendor is desperate to sell, and that they would take a lower price.
2. clean and tidy the bathroom – it’s a room where someone who is inspecting the house will quickly sense how well the rest of the house has been looked after.
3. remove clutter: rent some storage if you need to – a house that is full to the rafters gives a sense of being smaller than it actually is: if you clear out some of your belongings, you will instantly create more space.
4. clean the house thoroughly – in keeping with tip number 1, this will present your house in the best possible light.
5. air any rooms that need airing – though it won’t come up in the online listings, someone who inspects your house in person will be able to tell that some rooms have a musty odour. This is especially worthwhile if you have pets.
6. add some energy-efficient light globes – with so many people looking to save the planet, it doesn’t hurt to send the message to potential buyers that you are interested in doing your part.

If you’re trying to work out a fair price for your property, you can use the price estimation tool at findmeahome.com.au.

The first step is to click on the “Price Estimations” tab on the findmeahome site.

step 1 - enter the address you are interested in

Once you’ve clicked “property search”, you’ll see a list of possible matching properties – click “Select” to make sure that you’re looking at the correct one (this saves any problems that might come up with typos).

step 2 - select your property from the list of matching addresses

At this point, if you’re not logged in to the site, you’ll need to sign up or log in.

step 3 - enter in your email address and password for the site.

To make sure that people have a “fair go”, we also require a valid mobile number to access this service (not just an email address). This isn’t so that we can sell your mobile number to people, or send you random text messages – it’s just to ensure that we can avoid people abusing the service by trying to generate any number of valuations for free.

If you haven’t yet confirmed your mobile number, you can do this now. Enter your mobile number, and we’ll send you a text message with a confirmation code in it.

step 4 - validate your mobile number (if you haven't already)

Type the confirmation code into the box, and click “validate”.

step 5 - enter the SMS confirmation code.

Now you’re in the home stretch, so to speak. Enter in as many details about the property as you can – you might even like to upload a photo of the property, if you’re so inclined. The more detail we have, the more accurate the estimate we can make. Click “get estimate”

step 6 - enter in as many details about the property as you can

And that’s it! Your browser will think for a moment, and then show the estimated price, your rating of the property, and – for good measure – the median value of houses and units in the suburb.

step 7 - view the results

Now that you’ve seen how easy it is, why not try it now?

Obviously, the wealthy purchaser had his reasons for paying this much for a property, but for regular investors, this would be a terrible mistake to make.

Let’s say you buy a property that’s worth $500,000, but you pay $550,000 for it. In a year’s time, if that property has increased in value by 5%, it will now be worth $525,000 – and you won’t have seen any capital gains – you’ll actually still be behind in what you paid for the property!

When buying a property, if you’re hoping to make any capital gains from your purchase, it’s critical to pay the right price. This is where a website like findmeahome can help. For every property that’s listed for sale (on the internet) in Australia, you can look up a price estimate for that property, straight away, for free.

Even if you disagree with the price, just to have done some research on what the right price may be will put you ahead of other potential buyers.

The first thing to understand is that the price is not determined from the information on the listing site. The listing has been examined to see that the property is for sale, and the FindMeaHome.com.au site directs people to the listing. If it took information from that listing site, it could be argued that it was breaching that site’s copyright.

FindMeaHome.com.au via Residex has a database of all properties in Australia, and it uses that database to generate prices for properties and provide details of the properties listed for sale.

You will agree that it is an impossible job to ensure that the database is absolutely up to date constantly. Some examples which could impact on the FindMeaHome.com.au price estimate are:

- The property contains a granny flat
- The property is new;
- There are more Bedrooms, Bathrooms and Garages than we know about; and
- The Land content is significantly higher than we have.

The site is about providing all a “fair go” and providing a level of transparency which is not always available in the industry.

For the site to be a “fair go”, it must provide you and your agent with the right to correct incorrect information and have your say and it must provide this for free. And indeed it does.

If this information is corrected, our pricing will change. Please ask your agent to make contact with us and we will give them a login code and password so they can immediately update the site. They can do this free. When they update, they can improve the chances of making a sale by changing the way the property is displayed on the site. They can even generate leads of potential buyers of the property.

In the meantime you may like to click on have your say and indicate why you believe it is worth more.