When searching for a property on findmeahome.com.au, you can, in the one place, search many property sites. You already know how to search for a particular suburb, but there are other ways to search more broadly, or more narrowly.

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”.

Though Australia is only a relatively young country, there are already a number of different housing styles out there. Reading a real estate agent’s description of a property, seeing a house described as “Federation style”, you might not immediately know what they mean.

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 recent Sydney Morning Herald article points to this recent report from Archicentre - the results from a poll of over 800 architects to see what the trends were in renovations. A look at this report could help you decide which home improvements will increase the value of your home, and which will not necessarily break even.

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.

Probably the most exciting feature of the findmeahome website is the ability to get a free price estimate on any property that’s not already listed for sale on the site. Let’s walk through how this works.

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?

You might have heard the news of the most expensive home ever purchased - $750 million. Everyone who was asked suggested that this was well above the asking price.

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.

Sometimes, when you see a price on FindMeaHome.com.au, that price will be incorrect. It’s worth remembering - there is always a logical reason for this.

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.

One of the most important things to understand when using the findmeahome website is the idea of a street rating. Put simply, this is a number from 1 to 10 that best describes how a property compares to others on the street.

The best property on the street would be a 10/10 property - it doesn’t have to be a mansion. The worst property on the street - even if it’s in quite good condition - would be a 1/10 property.

On the findmeahome website, you can be even more specific. If you’re looking at a 2 bedroom unit on a particular street, you can pick your number out of 10 based on the other units on the street: you don’t have to worry that the 5 bedroom house down the road might be better.

Before you can explore the features of the findmeahome site, you need to agree to the terms and conditions: we’ve made this as easy as possible:

All you have to do is agree to the terms and conditions, then start typing the name of the suburb you’re interested in.

Read, and agree to the terms and conditions.

With the Olympics already underway, let’s search for Homebush Bay. Start typing Homebush, and you’ll see a series of choices.

Start typing the name of the suburb, and we'll help.

Click find, and you’re ready to start looking at properties.

Here is the main screen of the site. You can further refine your search, look through the list of properties, or look at the details of a single property.

Once you’ve chosen “Homebush Bay”, and clicked “find”, you’ll see this screen appear. Most of the screen is taken up by the map, where you can see the properties in their surroundings. Click on an icon on the map, or on the list on the left hand side to see the details of a single property.

If you want to look at a more specific search, you can use the options in the “refine your search” area of the screen.

On this blog, you’ll be able to learn about new features, and how to get the most out of the findmeahome.com.au website. The site is dedicated to providing information about Australian residential property. It has a great many features that you can use for free, to find out what a fair price would be for a property that you’re interested in, or even the one where you already live!