How to catch an out of towner

When the agents ask you where are you from? I would normally answer to the closest town in the area and indicate that you know this town very well (do the research in the town first). And point out that you are interested to buy this property to live in if the property is empty at that time.

Regarding making an offer I would normally go to there office with the agent put an offer on spot with a cheque book. I then ask the agent to contact the vendor right away in front of me. If the agent does not want to contact the vendor then I will tell the agent that I won’t put in the offer if you don’t call the vendor now. If the agent still refuse just walk away.

But as other said above building relationship with the agents are the keys in successful purchase. I don’t mine to go to inspect property with the agent. Once you are in the car with them make sure talk about the topic that they like most and go with the flow, make them happy. Said to them that you would like to take them to the coffee, lunch one day.

One other trick (not sure whether it is illegal or not) is to offer the price that you want and tell the agent that if he/she can get that price for you then you will give them cash ($100, $200, $300….) that way the agent will try harder to convince the vendor.

Kind regards

Chan Dollars
[Retire Young, Retire Rich] [strum]

I’m just not sure what to do in this situation either. Last week we looked at a property on the market for 100k and as we were leaving to “think about it” (only worth 90k by my research) the agent told us that the vendor had turned down an offer of 95k about 2 weeks ago. My thoughts (kept to myself) “what idiot puts a property on the market for 100 and turns down an offer of 95? Is this agent telling me lies?”… as a result I am yet to make an offer or even a decision about if I should bother.

On another note, although I don’t have a lot of experience, is it an agent’s trick to tell you that someone else is very interested/about to make an offer of $$$/just waiting on finance to come through/etc etc as soon as they think you show some interest?

I hate to be sus and assume the worst about people but I only get these lines when I am interested in something.

Regards
Sonja

Hi Sonja,

I agree with MarkyMark; going with your feelings. If you feel that 95K is reasonable then stick to your guns, just remember however, that it may cost you the property. How will this make you feel? If you are okay with running the risk of loosing it, fine….but if you REALLY have your heart set on it, maybe some further negotiations may help.

How about offering shorter settlement period, say 95K and a 30 day settlement instead of 60 (if that is what you orginally may have offered).

Me personally, I try to never get “emotionally attached” to a property enough that I HAVE TO HAVE IT, because if I do that….and I lose it, I will kick myself “for not offering just a bit more” bla bla bla !!!

How long has the property been on the market? Was it originally passed in at Auction (if so, what was the highest bid)?

All in all…STICK TO YOU GUNS….if you believe that 95,000 is too much (based on whatever is being paid for surrounding properties in the area) then DON’T go any higher. But at the end of the day, the only person you have to live with is yourself (on whatever decision you make).

KICK BUTT…..and keep us posted.

Good luck

Jo

Sonja said:

“PS I still wonder how far to trust agents although I expect experience will go a long way to helping me with this.”

Well, you’ll see from above, that some investors are not honest either. If you’re honest with others, then you can hope people are honest back. If you are dishonest, then expect others will treat you with the same level of disrespect.

Sonja, I have had great dealings with agents. They are just people like you and me- no better, no worse. Expect high standards, and give high standards back, and you should be right.

kay henry

Seems everyone’s missed the classic which is “someone else has just looked at it and is about to put an offer in”. I was looking at an investment a couple of years ago which I wanted a building inspection on first and told the agent I’m waiting for the inspection report as I’m not going to negotiate a price twice. I also found out what the vendor had paid two years earlier and recognised that there was a psychological barrier where they would not go below that, so I started negotiating a few thousand below that price and what a coincidence we agreed on the same price the vendors had paid two years earlier.

The other thing to consider is that if the asking price is going to give you a good return and the agent says they’ve had offers below but are sticking at the list price, offer the list price. I did this on the last place I bought and when i got the QS in he estimated the cost of construction as almost twice what we paid and the replacement cost as 3 times. Fair enough, a place might only be worth what someone is prepared to pay on the day, but with building up to full occupancy levels we’ve obviously got some capital growth possibilities

crj

yeah henry-! And only 3 percent of them are investors themselves apparently!

Bear, I do that too! I find that playing ones’ cards down a bit, low status, works a treat.!!!

And like you I suddenly turn all smart and savvy at a certain point in the deal.

Interesting about all this ‘asking price’ stuff.
I was interested in a property for 23K. (OK, it was a year ago and in NZ!!!!) I rang the agent:
“This property, listed at 23K – c’mon, what’s the REAL price?” (this was after a whole lot of other questions such as reason for selling? blah blah)
and the agent let slip (bless!) that the vendor wanted at least 15K. Well I hung up and screamed!
Eventually offered 14K, to end up with 15 – but
‘Bill’ had forgotten the agent commission, so 16 it was – And since then I have realised that the discount you get depends on your ability to get information….and the heat (or not!) of the market!

In a hot market things sell quickly and for asking price of above. Other times, things are very negotiable. If there are a lot more properties for sale than there are buyers, agents will eventually be in denial about prices dropping. but they will drop. And investors will be able to get discounts of 10-20 percent easily.