Saw a budding truffles grower who claims to have invented a genetically modified tree that all but guarantees truffles will grow in its roots pitch successfully to investors on “dragons den” or whatever it’s called. Might be another one can come up with same if you give them enough cash and 8-10 years.

Now there’s something you never have to deal with in my line of work!

Yessssss (duh!), I haven't made this connection between the first part of your nick and the last. I'm good that way.

Enlightening, thank you.
I won't add anything else about how things are different in other countries, because, as I've learned on this site, that's considered blatant advertising
Q1 – have any of you found, in your dealings with turnkey operators like Alex or Jay here, that they take any of the edge off these difficulties at all?
Q2 – how about buyers' agents? wouldn't there be nation-wide or at the very least state-wide agents that can help an investor who wants to spread their investments a bit more logically risk-wise? Alex mentioned they are only used for large investment portfolios/budgets, but I'm wondering, if someone's buying three properties for example – wouldn't it be already worth using one?

Still available in Asia. God bless cashflow.

Wow. This is necessary in most places, is it? Wouldn't insurance cover something like that?

Hiya, Marcus, was pleased to see another Japan-affiliate here.

My emails [email protected]– would love to chat and maybe catch up when I’m over- where in Japan are you based? (I’ll be in Fukuoka, Shizuoka and Osaka this month…)

Sounds like a lesson learned to me. Thanks for sharing that. I also think it's good that you're looking back and finding it amusing – best way to learn in my book. ("And that was the time I learned to get a local third party's opinion on a deal" etc…)

Jay/Alex – are buyers' agents popular in the US like in Aus and Asia? Always thought that was the best way to avoid lack of familiarity with a local market…

Labrador- still very curious to know how you got to this deal, if you feel like sharing?

Luke – a bond (deposit, in our case) is indeed a great idea, and we do this once we identify a relevant property – the buyer must transfer the deposit before we will commit on his behalf – but there's no way you can charge anyone this kind of money before you show them the property in its full detail. The advance fee is a much smaller sum, and actually quite reasonable and easy to pay compared to these bonds or deposits – it also comes much earlier in the process, because our fee is based on your purchase budget and does not increase if you say "no" to ten or a hundred properties until you find your one and only (or ten and only). Hence, if we spend a month or three trying to satisfy a very picky client (no problem with those, they're the ones I like pleasing best) – we need to make sure he's indeed a client and not a tire kicker, otherwise we'll be out of business, as simple as that.

Our commitment is to the client, not to a particular property or bunch of properties – therefore, we require the same. Again, I'm guessing this is different if you buy and sell properties yourself, as opposed to representing others. The properties I source for others often disappear in a matter of days or weeks, way before I'll be able to do anything with them for any client, if I don't validate him in advance, so I'm ready to pounce for him when the right property shows up. The best deals are often closed before they reach anyone's website, through private mailing lists and a few telephone calls.

@ Alex – It's also very different in English speaking countries, I would guess. The information you offer is available to anyone who speaks English and wants to do the research and legwork, or can afford and manage his own English speaking team on the ground. The information we offer is only available to local language speakers, and there are far less of those than English speakers – so to have us do these "pretend customers" research for them, based on their requirements, which would cost them a fortune in translator fees and/or hirelings if they were to do it themselves – and then to be thrown out of the cycle – is just not acceptable from our perspective. These are not properties we have any interest vested in, nor is the information about them, advertised and researchable, available as freely.