Assigning contracts – ethical?

I really do not understand what you mean by “assigning contracts” but the whole issue of ethics in real estate is a touchy one. I recently put my PPOR on the market – private sale thru housemart.com There were a couple of reasons why I wanted to sell. One was because I recently got married and if I sold now I would not attract CGT. The other (main) reason was because I had owned this townhouse from new for 3½ years and every winter when it rained I had water damage. The builder has assured me that this time they have rectified the problem, but I would not know until after another winter.

My dilemma was – how much do you tell a prospective purchaser? Agreed – they should do their due diligence and get copies of the strata AGM minutes etc, but do I have an ethical responsibility to spill the beans? I got my first offer yesterday (after 3 weeks on the market) and the purchaser is friends with one of the original developers and has stayed in the complex the past week in said developers unit. The purchaser knows all the faults with the development and still wishes to proceed with purchase.

Relief?? You betcha!!
Fibejebe.

Here is a good example of someone letting their emotions getting in the way of what is the right thing to do for their family.

Some years ago a friend of my wife lived in a semi in Bronte.

She and her husband decided to move from Sydney to Perth for some stupid emotional reason (which I don’t want to go into because it isn’t relevant for the purpose of this post).

They finished up having two buyers, one offering
$ 10 K more than the other one.

The wife decided that she would sell to the nice young couple for the $ 10 K lower offer rather than going for the higher offer.

Now this family wasn’t in a strong financial position and, besides that, they had three young children. In fact they themselves were in dire straights fimancially speaking.

Now I can imagine that some people here may well say ‘good on her, she followed her heart’.

I say she was a f….. idiot who had her priorities wrong.

How irresponsible for someone who isn’t flush with money herself to throw $ 10K away like that.

Bleeding heart ? No, must have been a bleeding brain.

Pisces133

Markpatrick, to try to defend the indefensible is not too smart a choice.

One of the main reasons these people moved to Perth was because the house prices there were so much lower.

That together with the fact that they had a largish family must make it clear to every thinking person that they were hardly in a position to treat $ 10 K in a cavalier manner.

As this occurred some seven or eight years ago, $ 10 K then would, in today’s terms, represent even a lot more than just that amount.

BTW, you really should read my post a bit more careful so you don’t confuse my gender.

I am actually quite surprised to hear that a sensitive person like yourself is involved in such a barbaric ‘sport’ like boxing.

Boxing is a very dangerous pastime as every time one gets hit in the head thousands of braincells are permanently damaged.

I note with amazement your statement “I don`t think someone having money is of any benefit to there kids for a start.”

As a parent one has responsibility to provide for one’s children the best way one can.

Unfortunately money is essential for that to a great extent.

I remember when I was a boy scout (cub) there were two boys my age in my group. They lived around the corner from me.

In winter time only one would attend a meeting as they had only one winter coat between them.

That my friend was caused by their parents having the outlook that it was alright to have eleven children when they perhaps only could comfortably afford two or three children.

That in my eyes is a crime as having more children than one can afford to look after properly meant that all of them went without the necessary.

So in our society money IS important as is the responsible management of it.

Making statements like “money isn’t important” is foolish.

Pisces133

Calling Matt P.

Hi Matt. I just looked at your profile.
A greeneyed, 6ft 1 inch monster of a fellow, only seventeen AND married ?

Married ? Seventeen ?

Cheers,

Pisces133

Hahahahah [^][^], i was wondering how long it would take for someone to have a look and comment [:p][:p]

Haha ohh im evil, [}] nah, im not married, just in a relationship []

Cheers Matt

“If you do what you have always done, you will get what you have always had.”

“Isn’t it time for a change?”

Markpatrick you said :

>>grew up in a far from financially comfortable large family and I think it can do kids a lot of good in that environment, as long as it`s a happy environment!,<<

Yes, a loving environment is very desireable. A lack thereof can cause big problems.

That is the reason that I say that it should be a priviledge to have children, not an automatic right.

Your second point :
>>fact is EVERYONE can`t have money and everyone can`t click their fingers and provide for their kids everything they want in life.<<

Sometimes the family income isn’t enough to provide the bare essentials to the children. Something is definitely wrong there.

Part of the solution ? (In hindsight) Not to have that many children that ALL of them go short of the bare essentials.

Again, in many of these situations the father earns a lot more money than he brings home to his wife.

Why ? Because most if the income earner’s wages finishes up in the till of the local pub.

BTW, my father’s mother had 17 children, only five survived beyond five years of age. But that was in an age of religious superstition where people were heeding the dogmas of the evil priests and, secondly, ‘the pill’ was unheard of.

Today there is no need for a woman to be abused to the extent that she is like a two legged rabbit.

Pisces133

hi Kay,

very interesting things coming up from what you are saying.

‘I have made decisions not to deal in the pensioner market, nor the wrapping market, nor the “old guy who doesn;t know what his house is worth” market. Nor the “death, divorce, drought” market.’

I get why with the wrapping – i share that sentiment merely because I think finding leads would be a pain in the arse, and I am in NSW (where the law does not protect the wrappee) – not because i am morally against it.

I wouldn’t feel comfortable with drought. either – however I’m Ok with death (they don’t need the house any more!) and divorce (stuff happens)
pensioners (I would love to have some pensioner tenants and would pick them over younger tenants if I had the opportunity.) I would be happy to buy an IP that would appeal to pensioners, on purpose.

‘Old guy who doesn’t know what his house is worth’.

I drove by a seafront property for sale with a crude sign in the window. Private sale, because the vendors (old guy and his wife) didn’t want to pay real estate agents commission. Thought they were a rip-off. However I personally don’t know if they would market their house to enough people to get the price they wanted. I don’t know what the point of that was, other than: I’m an investor. I was in a town of 40 thousand people and there were a LOT of houses for sale. Maybe hundreds. And out of them all, which one do you choose? Well if you want to live there you buy on emotion. ‘i love it!” and if you’re an investors, it’s ‘this seems like a good deal.’

If you’re Kay, do you find out which of the vendors has the most tragic situation and buy their house, paying them more than the asking price?
And if so, why?

I think you might have some kind of subconscious thing about rich people being bad, or something. Just remember that we live in an abundant universe and there is plenty for everyone. And we can all prosper. And the more you prosper the more you can give, if that’s what you want to do.

>I think if a house was under foreclosure, I wouldn’t be able to feel happy >about the purchase. I can’t bear human suffering.

banks are humans too, what about their suffering? ok, that was silly, but here’s serious,: What say, if the bank didn’t have enough money to pay interest to people with money in the bank, because they had a lot of bad debt, and they didn’t call it in, because they felt sorry for their client?
(meaning: the defaulting mortgage customer) Eventually the bank would go bust (the word would spread that you could default on your loan, and nothing would happen.!) if the bank went bust, a lot more peopl than just the one would be in financial trouble.

‘I think i would have to give someone who had foreclosed absolute market value for their place.’

Most people don’t know what that is, how to work it out, or whatever. They just guess.

‘Bleeding heart syndrome eh.’

yeah, but here’s the scary thing, you said ‘
..as Telstra is about to do- lose 400 australian jobs because they want to pay poorer wages to Indians. For me, it’s hard to justify profits over people.’

Now all that telstra have done is swap the work from Australian people to Indian people. you seem to have a hidden bias that Australian people are more ‘people’ than Indians. But it’s not the cricket, you know.

‘One could put up a real good case that us fat cats in the West should be sharing our good fortune with our unfortunate brothers in India’.

If I have a business and I figure out how to offer more value to people for less cost, i.e. be competitive, and I could source things from overseas, I would. i wouldn’t have a bias where they come from. i bought a computer from the US over the net because the exchange rate meant that it was a bargain compared to the exact same goods here.

‘Yeah, the RE game can often make me feel very discouraged. You get seen as a “fool” if you wish to pay fair market value for a property’

I hear this whole ‘buy under market value’ thing being bandied about by seminar types (excluding Steve) and i think it’s such a crock. i mean, when I buy a property, I am the market!!! So I pay market rate because if I don’t, the vendor won’t accept my offer! And I also find out what market rate is for that kind of property in that area.

If you have sellers and buyers meeting up (i.e. a market) the price will be decided by the negotiations between the two.

Let’s say you want a coffee. your friend suggests Starbucks. You say, no, rip off, this other joint is cheaper. Cool. Does that mean starbucks is too expensive? No, because they would’t be in business if everyone thought their coffee was too expensive, or if it wasn’t priced for the market.

So you and you friend went to the other joint and coffee was 2 bucks. you thought it was under market value, easily worth 3. Do you pay extra? (I don’t mean tipping the waiter.)

if not, why not, and what’s the difference?

‘would rather be a pensionaire than a millionaire’

That’s OK, because I’ll be a millionaire and i’ll be supporting you.
sigh.

you and all the rest of the people who didn’t get it together, for all their stories, reasons, beliefs, and excuses.

‘if the latter meant having a career of ripping people off ‘

Yep- i knew it – it’s a belief thing with you.

well I would say your belief means that you are maybe unable to see the win-win in a property deal. you think, a deal is win-lose. the buyer has a need, and the seller has a need, and when both are satisfied, a deal goes over the line.

sorry about the ramble.
it’s 2.39 am.
cheers-
mini