Hi there,

Firstly, the profession in question, is the oldest profession in the world! While the very thought might turn people’s faces into prunes, it’s a service that is very well utilised, and there is a lot of money in that industry. It is a risk buying the property for that purpose (5 bedrooms?) if the council does a backflip. I remember when the Daily Planet opened up in Elsternwick (Melb), it caused an uproar, but now it still operates and is a thriving business. How many of these establishments go broke? Not many I would think. I reckon the person you know Otto, is laughing all the way to the bank. Money is money, to some at least! At least the person was upfront about what they were going to do with the property.

Anyway, I was very amused reading this post []
Cheers

Sooshie []

There are no problems, only solutions

Hi,

Glad to hear you’ve found yourself a gem Andrew [].
Recent experience with a realator was interesting. It went something like this. Date: 24th April ’03 (remember Anzac day all is closed).
Realtor :”Out of interest is this property for onselling”
Moi: “Yes, it is, why do you ask?”
Realtor: “Because we’ve had bad experiences and most of the time I don’t want to touch it, it’s not worth the hassle to us.”
Moi: “Look, were genuinely looking to buy this property, this is why I’ve called to put your mind at ease that your vendor is going to get the money (note* the offer was put in by someone other than myself), I don’t expect you to leave a verbal offer open indefinitely, the vendors accepted our offer, so at least give me a couple of days to organize legals and finance, before you show other people through”.
Realtor:”I’ll give you till monday 5th May, to get finance approved”
Moi: Basically I replied something in this line, I understand you’ve got your vendor’s best interest at heart and that’s great, but ultimately he loses if by 5th May, you have to put it onto the market again, as he has to wait another week or two before getting finance approved by the new buyer. We lose too, as we have to start looking again. The standard practice is to allow 2 working weeks from the time we get the contracts and sign them. I just received them in the mail this arvo, how about giving me a chance to look them over and sign them. This way both the vendor, and both of us win. Why would you start showing around other people when your vendor’s already agreed to sell to us? Isn’t that a lot more work for you?

Okay, so it wasn’t word for word, but this was the first house we’ve bought in that area. I organized to go down to visit the house on the weekend. He was okay with this.
When we got there, he said “I’ve only got 10 minutes to show you around”, I said “Can you leave the keys with us, or what about if I lock up for you?” (property is vacant)
Realator: “I’ll get my **** kicked if I leave you with the keys, I can organize for you to come back on Monday (April 28th)”.
I said “It’s a 2 hour drive, it’s cool, 10 minutes will be okay”.

We got to the property and there was newspapers from at least a week, plus junk mail, strewn all over the front garden. Great maintenance! The upside was I didn’t have to go looking for a local paper as I could pick it up from the garden.
He let us in and I took my checklist with and I went through methodically. The realator was getting antzy, TOUGH! [}] He went and sat in his car. []
Anyway, I completed my list and went outside. Hmmm…where did the paper go? Would you believe I was even looking foward to reading the junk mail!!! I inspected the outside of the house, once he locked up and left. On leaving the property, I checked the letter box. Low and behold was all the mail, junk mail, newspapers, stuffed into this little box []

Anyway, His attitude was lapsidasical. Now, I can understand that he’s probably been burnt before by people putting in verbal offers, being accepted and then renegging, but hey, that’s life! That’s why I rang, to ensure he realised we weren’t just having him on.
He’s been putting the pressure on me (this week) and I just said to him ‘I’m making the contract subject to financial approval by the 14th May” He ooed and aahed, but I said, “Your choice, put the house back on the market if you want, but your vendor may have to wait for the contracts to be sent out and then the new buyers to get financial approval aswell’. Mind you the building inspection was already done.

I recount this for your entertainment if nothing else. Oh, and if you were wondering, the checklist coincided with the building report almost identically. [:0)]

Soosh’s Thought Of The Day
A fisherman who’s caught his catch and eaten his fill, isn’t likely to be interested in his goldfish!

The area we buying into has had such a glut of investors in the last 2 years, that the real estate agents are belching from the commissions. What’s the big deal in buying one house?

Cheers

Sooshie []

There are no problems, only solutions

Hi All,

I just want to clarify to everyone here, that I don’t know every company on the market, but I have had dealings with more than a dozen. Still, this does not qualify me as a maven on PI companies [].
I did however meet with a financial planner who was a lovely lady [:X] who’d went from rags to riches in the last 10 years using negative gearing (remember the property climate of the last 5-10 years, anyone who’d bought in the right area, could have made money). She told us up front her comission on the property would be $1500 (I think) and she took us around to her list of developers (we walked to them in St Kilda Rd – Kings Way) and that’s when we got the tour.
Her way of doing things was open, but I know that she takes her cut, then the developer takes their cut, then she has another cut from rubbing shoulders with the developer. As the song goes..“here-we-go-loop-de-loop”.
At the same time, we (okay I was) were looking for a new accountant, she suggested one, so I called him and he wanted to meet with us at the grand sum of ($**** []****), so I went on to look for someone else. When I came back to her and told her my accountant doesn’t like property investments… she was gobsmacked. She promptly rang her accountant from the other room to ask why he’d charged to see us on our first meeting. I wasn’t evesdropping, the walls were paper thin. She was not happy….JAN… [] with her accountant, who’d lost her potential customers.

Nevertheless, she is still a lovely lady and I like her very much. I still see her (she’s my neighbours sister-in-law) and talk to her, but I politely tell her each time we talk that it is not the right time for us. Perplexed, but also understanding it’s a gentle brushoff, she tells me she’ll just check with me now and then to see if we are still interested. I’m okay with that, at least it’s honest work chasing up your client base.

If you find a good company with low profit margin, no or little comission and has honest salesman, properties that give positive cash flow (and are not overpriced) and that are good quality workmanship, not shoddy renos. Could you please let me know? I’m serious by the way. If you can find one for me, I’d be very interested to hear what they have to offer.

Pretty much, I recount these experiences with the intention to educate rather than chastise PI companies. However, since we have lost money in these schemes, I cannot say that I’m entirely impartial to the subject. It abhorrs me that so many of them prey on the desperation of people who work good jobs but are struggling to make ends meet.

My offer still stands, find me the company and I’ll show you the money! []

Cheers
Sooshie []

There are no problems, only solutions

Hi,

I was looking into the same thing, but I’ve discovered that some of the units are only bought for a 50 year period, then become property of the establishment again.

What have you found?

Cheers
Soosh []

There are no problems, only solutions

Hi,

I was offered an off the plan, 1 bd flat in Sydney, for $315K approx 9 months ago. It was called ‘The Waterfront’ Homebush bay. I reckon it was a good buy, but too risky financially for us at the time.

There are still places in Victoria you can buy near water, that is still undervalued in my opinion.

Cheers
Sooshie []

There are no problems, only solutions

Hi there,

I also use a digital camera to take photo’s of the property. If anything is missing at time of settlement, it’s just a handy thing to have for records, legals, insurance purposes aswell.
This does not however have anything to do with signing the contract. This is just something I do.
Can I add, fullout, make sure you’ve got finance, I also would check easements (if any), our first house had holes in the ground where the easements were, but because the grass was up to our ..thights, we couldn’t see it. You can do this inspection yourself.
Any fences, make sure are within specified area. Our first house we were missing 1.6 metres of land and boy were our neighbours annoyed when we got the fences done and asked for their tomato and vegie patch to be reinstated onto our land [}] ? What’s fair is fair.
Check the levels of the property. Our current house has an uneven surface, so when it rains we get pooling to under the house. []
If you are at the stage of signing, well just make sure the contract states that it’s subject to a satisfactory building inspection…
Get a quote for insurance (cover note)aswell. As soon as you sign the documents, you are liable for any damage that happens, so protect yourself.

I’m tired, so I’m off to sleepy land..

Good Luck

Sooshie []

There are no problems, only solutions

Hi there,

From my research when doing some links, you can find the data, but on a ‘user pays’ system. Or you could do it the hard way, like I used to do, which is to get a copy of the newspaper after auction and private sales and do a list of prices for a certain suburb and then do an average, median sum. It’s hard work and not as accurate.

Just a suggestion albeit an archaic one.

Cheers
Sooshie []

There are no problems, only solutions

Hi Gary,

Welcome to the PI forum. Sounds like you’re sitting on the right side of the fence. If people don’t qualify for a bank loan, you can do it through vendor finance, and if they do qualify for a bank loan, through normal channels, you get commission on the loan. Either way you can’t loose. Sounds good to me…

Cheers
Sooshie []

There are no problems, only solutions