I too have goals involving investment in nz and other countries. However, ive got one thing playing on my mind…
If you have a engineers report completed on a property and all comes back ok with no major changes needed, the figures look great on paper, do you think of putting in a offer without actually inspecting yourself??
Ive come across a few great deals online through real estate web sites that ive hestitated in putting in a offer for due to this reason. I cant physically be there to walk through myself due to distance between myself and this property and the finances wont allow me to just take a weekend away trip to inspect.Do many of you out there purchase off the figures only and not get to see the property beforehand?
Hi,
in my opinion you should physically check out a property. Even with all inspection reports coming back as OK, and even with complete photos (inside and outside) — walking through a property gives you a different perspective and highlights potential problems. eg. sufficient storage space.[blink]Also you need to check out the surrounding area. eg Is the property located on a busy road (consider noise, pollution). An agent is not going to tell you any negatives.[comp]
If you absolutely can’t make the journey, then see if you can secure the services of a buyers agent to provide a report for you — this should be a fraction of the cost of a buyer’s agent sourcing a property for you.
It seems to me that if you are going to spend quite a sum of money on an investment, then perhaps a few hundred dollars to make an on site inspection might be money well spent. Anyway, I know there will be opposing views on this forum.
Hope this helps.[cap]
Helen
I often pay professionals to view my properties i,e builders, trusted agents, property managers etc.
Originally posted by elika7264:Hi,
in my opinion you should physically check out a property.Hi Helen,
I tend to disagree. My first purchse in NZ was through Westan and I’d never seen the property till day except through photos. Personally, I dnt think you need to see the properties for the following reasons:
1. You have someone as honest as Westan helping you out
2. I couldn’t tell if a house was about to fall down – that’s why I do my due diligence and get Builder to inspect
3. It’s the same as shares. You invest thousands of dollars – yet you never go and meet the Director and ask him/her how their managing your investment. It’s the same with property – just get a Property Manager
4. Put an offer with clauses to keep you on the safe side. If its a good deal, you dnt want the property to escape your hands. Opportunity waits for no man – first to grab it.
5. I once saw a property in NZ, and loved it. I put an offer on it and the builders report came back saying that it needed an extra $30k of work – something I couldn’t tell by looking at it.
Hope this helps
Kind Regards,
George.I’ve found a way to help you save and earn whilst not selling or delivering any product. If interested, drop me an email or PM me to find out how
If you have a good team, you don’t need to physically inspect th house. But saying that it’s always a good idea to have a look at the area the property is in, etc.
Rgds.
Lucifer_auI’ve purchased 7 properties without ever seeing them. All went OK, but now these days, I probably wouldn’t do it again. It is good to get a look at the neighbourhood too -which is something you can’t see from a report.
Terryw
Discover Home Loans
North Sydney
[email protected]Terryw | Structuring Lawyers Pty Ltd / Loan Structuring Pty Ltd
http://www.Structuring.com.au
Email MeLawyer, Mortgage Broker and Tax Advisor (Sydney based but advising Aust wide) http://www.Structuring.com.au
I reckon you should view the property. I am an investor not a gambler.
Hi Guys,
this is a debatable arguement, (have purchased properties unsighted unseen and 2 of them, never even seen there pictures yet or before, and honestly dont ever plan too.), it depends on the individual, some might say its risky and others might think your crazy, but you would be surprised by the amount of unsighted unseen properties that are bought… this goes for share trading too, many times im purchasing shares/options of a particular company, i dont even have any clue what the company does, its all about analysis and figures, and then getting a third person opinion like a broker or a builer, pest report.
Cheers,
sisWe, my wife and I, usually wait for a while to see some of our properties we have bought off the net. Always get building and pest reports and then you are less likely to just base the purchase on the emotional, “ooh isnt this colour nice”, dreadful type of purchasing I have seen.
One we have in Tassie we still havent seen, had a tenant in place who wore a $25/wk rent hike and signed a 12 month contract straight away. But we have a few so yes for the first 7 we took the time to see all first. Costs for this cannot be offset then until you sell where if it has been tenanted for a while you are just reviewing your existing properties so tax man happier to write off visit that tax year.
Just a thought for you. Same with renos, if you improve a property when you buy it you have to offset at sale time even if you incur the costs now, wait 6 months and it can usually be classed as repairs instead of capital improvements. Helps if you stage or stagger each improvement too. Say paint after 6 months and carpet after 12 etc. Very hard to achieve if you have good tenants that want to stay.
Co-ordinating these upgrades with the times of rent hikes usually makes the process smoother too.
Good Luck.
DD
Don’t sweat the small stuff,and it’s all small stuff!!
Hi Geo,
originally posted by GeoI tend to disagree. My first purchse in NZ was through Westan and I’d never seen the property till day except through photos.
In reality we do tend to agree. In my post I noted:
If you absolutely can’t make the journey, then see if you can secure the services of a buyers agent to provide a report for you — this should be a fraction of the cost of a buyer’s agent sourcing a property for you.Geo, you were fortunate to secure the services of Westan (either as a friend or buyers agent). The key issue is — simply to get someone you trust on the ground to inspect the property for you.[angel]
Otherwise you are taking a risk.[blink]
Regards,
HelenHi there!
Get a builder’s report and photos, and research (or have someone do it for you i,e, a bird dog) the context of the house in regards to area, demand, neighbours, price, etc etc – there are a lot of other important things that need to be in place to make a purchase a ‘good investment’, apart from the quality of the structure itself.
Steve says ‘money follows management’, and I have to agree. I now realise that the investments I bought in NZ weren’t necessarily good because of the purchase itself, but because of how I managed the investment. Because of the questions I asked, because of the phone-calls I made, because of the discounts I negotiated, because of the relationships I made. Because of the things I fixed and the things I left for later.
It’s the decisions and the way you handle things that make the difference between things going great for someone and badly for someone else – even someone who might even have got a ‘better property at a better price’ could end up buggering up an otherwise perfectly good investment.
Another person could have bought the same properties I did and had a nightmare with them. It’s not the properties! It’s how you solve problems.!!!
If you don’t solve the problems, your investment will go wrong, but it won’t be the house’s fault, it will be your fault!
It is my humble opinion that we are personally responsible for our investments, they are not things that ‘happen to hapless victims’. Forewarned is forearmed, and all that!
cheers-
Minijoy to the world
I have at least a half dozen ip’s which I have never physically been to see, myself.
Before purchasing, I did my research on the area and most importantly, shopped around and lined up a property manager to manage any properties which I may purchase in the future.
As well as a pest/building inspectionk, I would classify an inspection by my pm to be of utmost importance. It is the pm who has to find a decent tenant for you, achieve a good rental return, and also come begging to you for repairs and maintenance to be approved.
Sometimes, my pm will honestly tell me NOT to buy a certain house in a certain area, as it is she who is going to be landed with the headaches if I purchase a ‘dog’ of a place.
If you want to get out of a hole, first stop digging.
Hello!
We went and selected our first two houses as we built them. But our financial advisor has a plan where the house and area has too meet a criteria of 44 points and if it doesn’t then he wont go ahead with it. And these last two houses are doing fantastic!Our next house we didn’t go and select it as he has checked it all out and done all that for us. There was one house before this that he was looking at and we were sure it was the one but it didn’t meet his requirements so he found us a better one.
We are very confident with our decisions and our financial advisor.
Good Luck! [thumbsupanim]
Not sure this is exactly the same as not looking at it before you buy…
I once went to an auction (in a hotel) and bid on a property only to secure it for about $70,000 less than what I thought it was worth.
Of course 5 properties later the actual property that I wanted to buy (in the same building) actually went up!
Imagine my surprise when I discovered my new apartment was missing a whole bedroom. [blush2]
Lucky I have a few! LOLG’day Peter,
It’s good to see you’re human after all.[biggrin]
regards,
Rod.
Hey Peter,
You need to find yourself a wealthy friend to guide you around these pitfalls [exhappy]
Derek
[email protected]Property Investment Support Available. Ongoing and never stopping. PM welcome.
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