You can't get a 3BR house in Lynwood for under 400k anymore. There's a block of land across the road just about to release new 3BR builds. The area is slowly coming up, with flow-on effects from neighbourhoods like Willetton and Parkwood. Pretty sure crime is still an issue, but maybe with more houses being sold and renoed, this might change in the near future.
Don't really want to extend ourselves to buying a house - higher mortgage, more interest, higher risk if no tenants. A unit seems like a good little investment option, I would have thought there's always a market for units (lower rent, no maintenance, singles/couples renting).
Also thought the market has been flat for last 6+ months, and if it's supposedly a buyers market then we could have perhaps gone in with a 5-10% discount.
Neutral/negative gearing would only look good to us if we can get it at lower than 250k, which is still a 25% increase in value from 202k, over the 6 years since 2009 is 4% growth a year.
Would have offered just under 240k but REA has already said owners wants pretty close to asking price of 260k, so if that's the case then I will just save my money and not buy.