If you found out one of your friends had a deceased estate for sale would you
1) Check it out to see if you could make a $$$$$ out of it?
2) Offer to help them market the property for a good price?
3) Tell someone else so they can make a quick $$$$ out of it?
4) ????? Your suggestion.
Russ.Is that what happened to you?
Jo
I mean, is this question a hypothetical one just to satisfy your curiousity or are you trying to sus out the crowd here, as to whether you should act in a moral or business capacity?
Jo
Hi Russ,
To me friendship comes above any possibility that I could make something out of their situation so to me this is a no brainer scenario.
After commiserating with them and offering my apologies I would also tell them not to do anything with the house until they had spoken to me.
After talking to them when they are ready I would talk to them about the two options which basically could be classified as ‘sell’ or ‘keep’ it.
Plan 1.
Help them to use the property as a part of their investment portfolio – or how to start one if they hadn’t previously considered RE.Plan 2.
Ensure they do not make a hasty decision and ‘give away’ the property to someone trawling deceased estate sales.Derek
[email protected]Property Investment Support Available. Ongoing and never stopping. PM welcome.
If they were looking to sell the property I would consider taking it off their hands if there was value in it for me. If there wasn’t value for me I’d let them know so they were aware that there probably won’t be value in it for other investors either, cuts down their market for potential sales.
One of the rules of real estate – always leave a little in the property price for the next guy….it gives them the reason to buy.
Otherwise I’d be happy to advice them on who to talk to about structuring their property portfolio.
Not everyone wants to keep a property after a death – for financial or personal reasons. And no-one I know would give away a property below a reasonable price, guess I don’t mingle in those circles.
Cheers,
Aceyducey
Thanks for the replies.The reason I posted this question is because I do have friends who have property for sale and it got me to thinking it might make a good post on the forum.The property happens to be in a town that I am interested in investing in.Thats how I found out about it.I was talking about this particular town with my friend and he happened to mention the house.I asked what they were going to do and he said the family just want to get rid of it and because they live the closest(about 100km,s)from the town they were asked if they would handle the deal.My friend gave me the address and I checked it out on my last trip south.From the outside it looked pretty much the same as others in the area for the same price so I figured what they were asking was reasonable.When I spoke with them again they offered to let me look at the property inside.
I did this yesterday and found the place to be fairly good except for some white ant damage in the bathroom.The house is nothing brilliant but wouldnt expect to much for the price.
Anyway it has a great shed out the back and this has attracted my interest.
I am going to put an offer on the property in line with what is in the area but a little better because of the shed.The other houses dont have a shed.
Anyway while I was sitting here last night going through the topics on here I thought it would make an interesting post.Hence my reason for the topic.
Russ.>>………… as to whether you should act in a moral or business capacity?<<
Jo, what are you saying there ?
The two aren’t mutually exclusive. It isn’t a case of one or the other.
One can look at something in a business manner and it doesn’t have to be necessarily immoral.
Pisces
Russ,
I think the issue is more on the human(e) side….
If you feel your offer is fair, and your friends are happy with it, then, great….
Obviously most of us ( I guess ) would look at this situation, and, would make sure we aren’t lowballing……
Cheers
Scott
Pelican Investments
http://www.pelican-invest.comOriginally posted by Pisces:>>………… as to whether you should act in a moral or business capacity?<<
Jo, what are you saying there ?
The two aren’t mutually exclusive. It isn’t a case of one or the other.
One can look at something in a business manner and it doesn’t have to be necessarily immoral.
Pisces
True Pisces,
but the question was to RussH, I wanted to know if he was more concerned with the business or the moral aspect of the situation. That is not to say the two (business and morality) couldn’t or had to go hand in hand.
I just felt like asking for clarification…is that a sin??? If so, guess I will burn in hell, hey??? LOL
Jo
Originally posted by Pisces:>>………… as to whether you should act in a moral or business capacity?<<
Jo, what are you saying there ?
The two aren’t mutually exclusive. It isn’t a case of one or the other.
One can look at something in a business manner and it doesn’t have to be necessarily immoral.
Pisces
True Pisces,
but the question was to RussH, I wanted to know if he was more concerned with the business or the moral aspect of the situation. That is not to say the two (business and morality) couldn’t or had to go hand in hand.
I just felt like asking for clarification…is that a sin??? If so, guess I will burn in hell, hey??? LOL
Jo
If it was a situation where the people had seriously undervalued the property and you were deciding to take advantage of them or not then a moral dilemma would occur. This sounds a little bit more straight-forward than that though.
They have an outside source from your control asking them to control the sale, you are going to offer them a price that ultimately can be shown to be reasonable. There is nothing wrong with this and can be chalked up as luck in coming accross that particular house.
It is not the first time that an apparent conflict between ethics and business is posted here to promote discussion.
The problem as I see it is that most of the time the person posing the question does so because deep down, he/she need reassurance that he is not really hurting anyone by making a profit.This is a very common bias. We make money at the expense of others, rich takes away from the poor; you grow by stepping on other peoples head.
It is only when we understand how money is made, that we can let go of this limiting beliefs.
What is money? Money is a reward we receive for service rendered, money comes from creating value for others. The more valuable the service, the greater the reward.Not too long ago a relative approached me to offer me a house he had to put on the market because he could not afford its negative cash flow.
It was at the time (2 1/2 years ago) worth some 230k according to the market, yet his commitments were 260k. I did some research and even considering that the property had a granny flat, I could not justify paying more than 10% over the market price. I suggested for them to hold on to the property because it was in their interest.To appease my conscience I did some work for them for free, I divided the 2 car garage in half with an internal wall and some fencing to make their granny flat rentable on its own, they relocated in a farm were they had cheap accommodation in exchange for some minor farming work, and they were lucky to find soon two tenants and keep the house.
Today the house is on the market again but for 450k.
So… I should have paid the 30k over the price no questions asked? He would have solved his immediate problem and I would feel so good that I gifted him 30K . . . . Yet today I would feel guilty that I have taken away from them the chance of owning about 200K, sum they would never be able to earn not in the next 100 years.
When we mix business with fuzzy feelings of charity, we are guaranteed to mess things up. The English have a say for this cases: “Business is business”.
May God bless you
and prosper you.
MarcWell guys time for an update.I put an offer to our friends for the property and definately kept it within reason.I certainly wasnt embarrassed about the offer and I didnt get any sour looks.So for now things look good.They will now relay the offer to the rest of the family I guess for consideration.I felt good ,they looked happy,so fingers crossed for now.
Russ.
You must be logged in to reply to this topic. If you don't have an account, you can register here.
