How does one clear one's cache please?

I don't really understand why you want these figures so you can adjust the purchase price. Either the purchase price on the house is appropriate for the house as it is now, with all the work done, or it is too high and you want to buy it cheaper.

I thought maybe there are other houses you are looking at that are similar to this one before all this work was done and you want to know whether it is worth paying the bigger amount to get the house that has been renovated as opposed to buying a house that needs all this done.

Is this what you are getting at? Or have I got it wrong?

Wylie

I can also confirm the same thing in the Coorparoo, Holland Park, Greenslopes area where I live. Things are moving along nicely, but for how long, who knows?

Wylie

Initially I nearly gave up on the new look forum because I couldn't easily see what posts had been added to since my last visit and I was not prepared to search each section looking.

But I now log in and go to "Forums – Active Topics" on the top left of the page and can see what has been added. I still don't think it is as easy as it was, but I have gotten used to it.

Perhaps others didn't have the patience to do that and have simply left.

Wylie

I am a bit confused about what you mean by "exchanged". A purchaser asks an agent to write up a contract, they take it to the vendor. If the vendor signs the contract it becomes a binding contract, signed by both parties. If the purchaser has added say a  finance clause, then the only way the contract can be voided is by using that finance clause, or the cooling off clause. My understanding (in Qld) is that the vendor cannot void the contract, only the purchaser. So you have a certain amount of time to get your finance or building inspection done without risking losing the house. Maybe different in other places. I am sure England has very different rules from watching Location Location Location and other shows.

Of course, if the vendor crosses out the purchase price and changes it to a higher price, then the contract has still not been signed by both parties at that higher price, so in the process of trying to get the vendor and purchaser to agree on a price, the property is still available to be sold to another purchaser. This is what I call gazumping, slipping in a higher offer before the contract is signed by both parties, even if a verbal agreement has been reached. It has happened to us, and we have also done it. It is not unusual, especially if two agents are both trying to get the sale.

This is exactly how we bought our last IP. The purchaser put in a contract, the vendor altered the amount and before the purchaser had decided to sign at the new higher price, we put in a contract which the vendor agreed to. (In our case, the other purchasers were developers and quite possibly would not have increased their price anyway, but who knows.)

My family member who used to sell houses, would say that in this case, (at least in her office) both contracts should have been presented to the vendor by the office principal (to avoid any vested interest in promoting one offer over the other) so the vendor could decide which one they would sign, if any. I know this is the moral thing to do, but not everyone follows the same rules. In our case I don't know if the other party ever got a phone call to say there is another offer and asking them if they cared to increase their offer.

So is "exchange" when both parties have signed off on the contract?

We also had a situation ten years ago where we offered $155K for a house listed at $153K. We signed the contract at about 5pm and didn't hear anything until after 9pm. Our phone calls were fobbed off. We were told later that even though our cash offer of $155K had been signed by the vendor (which made a watertight contract) another well known local flipper had put a contract of $154K in and was trying everything to have our contract overturned somehow. He brought his solicitor into it apparently. Luckily the rules were followed and we got the house. An unethical agent (and they do exist) could have told us we missed the house but I suppose that would have raised the risk of us asking for our contract back, which would have shown it had been signed by the vendor, and he no doubt was not prepared to do so, or was too ethical to bow to the pressure this other purchaser (and solicitor) was putting him under.

Some of the stories I have heard from my family member about how some agents operate would perm your nose hairs.

Wylie

Not sure about now, but ten years ago( in Qld), because we didn't put a clause in our contract specifying that we could have a copy of the building and pest inspection if it was not "up to scratch" and their solicitor refused to release the report, and our solicitor said we had no right to the report. She was annoyed with the whole set up as their solicitor (purchaser's brother) was a real tosser in all respects to do with the sale and was giving her all sorts of trouble.

Maybe the rules have changed about being entitled to a copy of the report, and maybe they differ in different states, but they used it to their advantage to get two thousand off the sale price and obviously it was okay or they would have been happy to show it to us. We planned to live in this house forever, and everything had been done to a very high standard so we knew there were no building issues (apart from maybe a stump or two) which is what the report picked up.

Best part was that the solicitor was acting for his sister and her husband, they loved our house and were trying to reduce the price by the $2K we had got them up from their original offer. One of the items from the building and pest inspection that we were allowed to see was that the cubby house was not up to building standards . So our solicitor advised that as the cubby was not attached to the ground it was a chattel and we took it with us – left a big hole for them to look into the ugly back of the neighbour's garden shed .

Final best part was that when a stumper did come in to do the two stumps, he found twelve that needed replacing .

I am not really a vindictive person, but these tossers caused us so much trouble and hassle during this time that I could not help but see the funny side of it all.

Except that we had two buyers lined up behind us to grab the house we had contracted to buy, I would have loved to have just said "sorry, I don't want to sell to you any more". That would have fixed them, because they LOVED our house, but that would have been counter productive to us.

Wylie

I miss being able to click on "recent posts" rather than have to go into each area individually. Is the feature still here or is it gone?

Wylie

We get the outgoing tenants to have pest control done, and put that in the lease.

So new tenants going in have a freshly “pest treated” house.

Anything that crops up during their lease, we let them deal with. To be honest, we have not ever had a tenant request a pest treatment except recently, just after a tenant moving in we had a major black ant problem in the kitchen, which we paid to have dealt with as it was within a week of them moving in, so felt we should step up to the plate.

Wylie

I went with my mum last night. Have seen him before but was interested to hear his thoughts on the state of the Brisbane market.

Second speaker from Chan & Naylor was very interesting and someone we will be seeking out when the Brisbane office opens in a few months, particularly for his trade mark trust which follows the bloodline as it is quite pertinent in our family situation.

We had to leave after that speaker and missed the final session.

Could you please tell me what we missed. I’d appreciate an idea of what the last session was about.

Thanks, Wylie.

My understanding is that (in Queensland) if no action is taken after notifying the manager or owner, a tenant has the right to have things repaired and claim the cost back. I don’t know how this happens as we self-manage and have never had anything left that needed fixing.

Get your friend to check with whatever authority is appropriate in your state and make sure they have copies of their requests for having something fixed and that they follow the letter of the law regarding notice periods etc. Leaking gas is dangerous.

Wylie