Thanks for the replies, and I see there is more to this than first meets the eye. Please bear with me, with the following idea's, I'm pretty much just trying to find out what I can or can't do legally, and the implications.

The idea is to find a "distressed" property, and get it under contract (me as the buyer and/or assignee) with a deposit only payable when the contract goes unconditional (Terry, I guess this is what you referred to as a "legal Interest"?).

Next find a buyer(investor) for the property – someone who has the funds to buy it and do a reno and hold/rent it (possibly)

I'd be assigning the Sale & Purchase contract over to them (they would be the Assignee).

My fee would be shown in an "assignment" contract, which the buyer would sign (or maybe it would be referred to as a "Finder's Fee").

I'd get paid when the contract goes unconditional and a deposit has to be paid by the buyer – so it would be the investors funds which pay the deposit.

1. Is this scenario possible in Australia?

2. Great point about stamp duty Terry – is it applicable in this situation?

3. Also good point about CGT – would it be applicable to any fee payable to me by the investor/buyer?

The idea of putting an option in place has crossed my mind, but again I'm unsure how this would work with regard to Stamp Duty and CGT?

I'm trying to find out if:

a. There's a way to circumnavigate the stamp duty aspect – legally (ie: if I'm not owning the property at any stage, but only controlling it, would I be liable to pay SD/CGT?)

b. I'm able to charge a fee for simply finding and assigning a property to a buyer without the requirement to hold a Real Estate Agent license?

Thanks

Probably one of the following:

Victoria, NSW or ACT.

Thanks

Hi Jay,

Thanks for your response & for the excellent info regarding DD, unfortunately the reason I'm looking to do wholesale deals is because I have very little funds available. I'm hoping to get started by locating property deals, assigning them to an investor or retail buyer, and taking a fee for finding the deal – as the guys in the USA do.

At this stage, I'm hoping to find out if this is a legal activity in Australia.

In New Zealand, property finders are no longer able to assign properties without having a Realtor license (which also comes with its own problems – ie: they also need to find a licensee to work under), this new legislation came in about 2 years ago, and effectively stopped the finders from "assigning" property. So, as far as I'm aware, there's no way to Wholesale property in NZ at this time. Hence my question to the Australia community.

Thanks, and any further info is very much appreciated regarding this subject.