Hi wealth4life,
I looked into buying in Perth, met with buyers agents, but for the same amount of money and the distance from CBD, I could only get townhouse or villa with no option for value adding in the future. Hoping for the capital growth only was not the option. As far Carina Heights is concern, I couldn't find a free standing house for sale under $500K last time I checked on the net (only townhouses).
To answer god-of-money,I don't think that all buyers agents in Australia are spruikers. They simply provide the service for a fee. At least they are working for me, not the seller. I might be inexperienced or naive, time will tell if I made the right decision.
As stated before, I didn't want the hustle and time spend to find the right property, hence I was prepared to pay for it.Warm regards
Greg
i agree to that rochowczyk, not all agents in australia are spruikers, good luck on your real estate business .
adviceman wrote:I think there are major benefits and also some challenges that come with dealing with Buyer's Agents like that. But if you want a large pool of possible sites, its a great place to look. good luck.quote=richief]Hi forum members.
I'm asking for any insights into using Metropole as a buyers agent? I am considering using them to find and purchase my next investment property as was wondering if anyone has any experience using this company or the like???
Thanks
[/quote]
adviceman wrote:I think there are major benefits and also some challenges that come with dealing with Buyer's Agents like that. But if you want a large pool of possible sites, its a great place to look. good luck.quote=richief]Hi forum members.
I'm asking for any insights into using Metropole as a buyers agent? I am considering using them to find and purchase my next investment property as was wondering if anyone has any experience using this company or the like???
Thanks
[/quote] Adviceman My experience with metropole to put it mildly was very disappointing, while in Melbourne In Jan 2009 I noticed some very cheap properties along near the beaches in St Kilda and Elwood . I thought I should buy that,the prices seemed to low to be true, but knowing virtually nothing about the Melbourne property market and being the biggest single investment Ive made I engaged Metropole in Feb. My bank would lend $30,000 less than required and I did not want to cross securitize. So "no problem" metropole have brokers who are investors and understand investor needs , and for some reason she couldnt get the papper work direct from my accountant so had to get reams of figures and go visit her. After alooong wait like 2months she comes up with bank west with an interest rate of about 5%. She refered me to the manager of bank west, who was new. He was the loans officer at the Anz who held three clear tittles but would not lend me money. Now he has changed bank and wants to lend me money but he never receveived any papper work or details from the broker and have to go through the loan application again after a couple of weeks you can have the loan buuuuttt…. the interest rate will be 6% ,very high then, and there were thousands in fees I had to transfer all my other loans and mortgages to him costs of about another 10k , As if I would pay all that money for a more expensive loan. Although money wasnt Metropole wouldnt start the buying process until they had a letter fom the bank saying I already had loan even though I had some lump sums due and did not need a full loan. So any way to make along story short 4 months later I was presented with a property supposed to be like 20,000k cheaper than auction because the vendor does not have to pay for selling costs . Any way about amonth latter in a rising market the property was auctioned for about 40,000k less than the price they wanted me to pay 10,000k for. About a week after the 1st property a 2nd property was presented I was told I have to make a quick decision as it wasnt on the market yet but advertising would start in a couple of days. An offer was made the seller agreed I received the contract signed it sent it away. a long story and 5 weeks later a lot of excuses the contract still not signed by the vendor then I hear an other agent has been showing clients the property ,I may have mis understood something but there is conflicting reports who the agent was and I was told I had a case I could take to the reiv. At this stage I was ready to pull out but when he put in a bid of 10,000k more I thought that was stupid for a proffessional buyers agent he could have wore me down with a few 500 or 1000 bids, I put in one of 500 just to see what happens and how much extra he would bid above what he needed too. He bid another 10,000 and said that is his final bid, a strange thing to do if your intent on buying the property I made one final bid and said if Idont hear back from you in 2 hrs the deal is off. So for the next 3 days my Investing in melbourne was over. Then phone rings 'congrats youre the owner of the property" Only because the market took a huge leap that weekend and I decided if I didnt get in the market then I never would and all the hasle and time spent. I relented and went a head with the purchase. A two month instead of one month settlement was negotiated as part of the price but settlement took 3 months because the vendor couldnt get his papper work to-gether sooo paid an extra couple k for no reason Prospective tennants couldnt move in until settlement so were lost then it sat vacant for 2 months.
The property I purchase my self I negotiate, early access at the end of the deal by offering more money. If they dont like that at least acess to the garage so tennants can store some of their stuff and move in at settlement. The only time I inspected the property was the presettlement inspection as soon as I walked into one room I could see a water damaged window frame but again this so called proffessional couldnt see it even when pointed out. The agent wasnt interested with customer relations at inspection he just wanted to open the door and then get away as fast as he could and so it goes on and on but you should have the gist of it now. So from deciding to buy aproperty in Jan it took until the end of october to acquire and settle and until dec to get tennants I should have just went and bought any of the first properties I saw and saved a lot of money as prices were rising from march . . Also other property has given higher yeilds and higher capital gains.Adviceman forgot to mention the important part if you dont read the previous rant this will sum it up. The bank valuation came back What I paid was right at the very top of the maximuim price it should be worth. Add on the agents fee of $12,000 makes it an expensive acquision. But the insight and knowledge gained into the attitude ,nature, compentecy and ethics of the real estate industry was invaluable. Worth paying an extra 20,000k , well almost . Being in the middle of a bidding war between two buyers agents showed me how not to buy property. I am now confident I can do as good a job or better than a so called proffessional. The rule I use when buying property is to make no more than two offers, make a fair offer at the low end of price range if not accepted make another afew thousand more. Shutdown the bidding and not get into a bidding war. It appears to me these buyers agents try to get the highest price they can so they will be offered more properties from their suppliers, and not have to go and look for them.
Well.. use buyer agent when you are buying a 'special' property
for common apartment/house.. there is always one around the cornerI dont think buyers agents are spruikers- they can really help in search, selection, putting good deals on the table that you would never publicly know about.
My company that I own has 3 in residence, we all have degrees in Business, Property, Construction, Accounting, our full R/E licenses in NSW/ QLD. Between our small specialised team we own over 70 properties, over 80 yrs combined experience, manage about 200 new homes in our rental / asset mgt division and we probably build about 100 a year – some we keep, others we sell- this is our own building/ project mgt division.
We focus on development sites, duplex, blocks of units, properties to reno/ add value to, Qlders to raise up, bulk purchasing blocks of land direct off developers, and projects that maybe have gone wrong, ran out of money etc so that they are in a position to be bought out or take over and complete.
Probably the core thing people dont realise is this is how very serious developers, investors purchase, they do not have time to find the deals, will cost them more than 2- 2.5% in their billbale time to find one deal, or often they will not know exactly what they are looking at if front of them, or what they can really do with it. A lot of good deals do not even get to the net/ papers. We get a lot from solicitors, divorce cases, mortgagee, deceased estates, fire damage homes, insurance damages, tenant damage, partnerships gone wrong, urgent business sales.
About 6 weeks ago for a client I have secured a subdivisable site 6 km from Brisbane CBD for $530, with a 4 brm Qlder on it, it has potential to reno and raise up, and split off the back block and sell off- either way there is very good profit in the deal for my client, my service cost him $10k, it was on the market for 10 minutes only, I was against an offer of $590, but secured it with a cash contract, no conditions, and 21 days settlement. Have just had a valuation come through at $1million from ANZ based on my draft plans/ specs/ builders quote of raise/ reno as put a proposal through for a raise, reno, and pool costing 290k all up, and just had 3 agents appraise at 1.2m- in a fantastic street with recent sales of very comparable.
My client is very happy and would never have found this deal, known what he was really looking at or the potential without using a sevice/ specialists. Actually I should have bought this gem myself.I am investing in S/A at moment and using a buyers agent to help me, as I dont have time, knowledge, or many contacts down there, so if I can see deals with opportuniyt/ profit in, Id rather part with 2- 3 % as thsi is better than making a huge mistake in areas I dont know, so suits me to also use a specialised buyers agent.
What advisors certificates are you talking about exactly? as there is no requirement to have them in Qld only to have full real estate license-most certificates are financial planning/ and most financial planning cert only focus on shares etc.
Bye
KylieInteresting Greg, thanks for sharing. One advantage for spreading your investments out over different states is to lower your land tax which becomes an issue when you start to get a few properties in your portfolio.
Seems to be a very popular price range between 400k and 500k for investors looking to buy in Brisbane at the moment, it's been a strong start to 2010 in this bracket <10k from the CBD.
Crusty, what a rough way to tarnish all buyers agents with a single brush. I dont get more stock for sale to my clients by making them buy at a higher price as you have stated. I get an agent that loves having pre-qualified buyers that dont tyre kick and waste his time.
What I am saying is that as I have a clientbase that seeks a certain kind of property, whenever he (the agent) gets one of those properties that meet the criteria, he lets me know prior to the internet listing. As I try to do repeat business in several blocks of units for example in a city, I usually have an indepth history of the block, sale prices and infrastructure developement information for the area already at hand. This means that he, the agent makes one phone call, I do a client email to my database. A few direct phonecalls to active buyers in the area and a quick sale is completed.
My agent does away with the hassle and annoyance for tenants of open homes and several inspections and I still negotiate on every deal. One client over 2 years has bought 4 units in an area, 3 in one block and a 4th in the block next door. All within 50 mtrs of each other. His other properties in other areas and other states balance his portfolio nicely for him so yeah we are all on different levels when it comes to the market niche we target and the approach we take.
Isn"t variety the spice of life.
DD
Hi crusty I don’t quite understand what you mean by this.
“An offer was made the seller agreed I received the contract signed it sent it away. a long story and 5 weeks later a lot of excuses the contract still not signed by the vendor then I hear an other agent has been showing clients the property ,I may have mis understood something but there is conflicting reports who the agent was and I was told I had a case I could take to the reiv. At this stage I was ready to pull out but when he put in a bid of 10,000k more I thought that was stupid for a proffessional buyers agent he could have wore me down with a few 500 or 1000 bids, I put in one of 500 just to see what happens and how much extra he would bid above what he needed too. He bid another 10,000 and said that is his final bid, a strange thing to do if your intent on buying the property I made one final bid and said if Idont hear back from you in 2 hrs the deal is off.”
Is this related to the metropole agent.
Do Not Use Metropole as a Buyer’s Agent!!! The so called Property Strategists are very convincing in terms of the investing strategy but the Buyer’s Agents who goes out and seemingly finds the “right” property for you, certainly do not practice what they preach!!! Because they get commission when they buy any property for you, they just about “force” the property on you. We were shown a 2BR “dilapidated” unit in St Kilda and informed it was a great buy, off the market, for $520K. The renovation cost (which they also receive commission) was about $40-50K and their commission about $30K! So, all in all, the unit would have cost us $600K in 2013! Now bear in mind that this is just a normal unit, NOT art deco, about 60m2, no land component, ground floor, lower ceiling than normal, etc. As we were seasoned Investor, we purchased an RP Data report and it was only valued at $480K! Luckily we backed out.
We also used Metropole in Brisbane, as we were looking to purchase in Melbourne and Brisbane concurrently, which was another big mistake!
The unit they bought us were far from our key selection criteria and it comes to a point where they “force” the sale on you and because you were so eager to buy “something for fear of missing out”, you will eventually submit to their coercion. The unit they bought us in Brisbane was WITHOUT AIR COND/FAN, which is supposed to be a key criteria over there and being from Melbourne, we overlooked this. They also initially told us there is good land component for the unit only to find out later that the supposedly land component is common area and does not belong to the unit!
Believe us, you are way better off working for yourself, doing your own research about which growth suburb to purchase, etc!
Hi all,
I used Metropole to help me buy a first property in Melbourne in the last couple of years.The good:
– I have reasonable confidence that they do a reasonable job of downside risk mitigation at least to the extent related to suburb and property selection.
– They take the reins and do all the running around in the process all the way to settlement. This saves a fair chunk of time.
– In my case they helped force me to commit to buying a property. Up until the point of using their services I’d been stuck in analysis paralysis.The not so good:
– Ahead of the auction of the selected property I felt pressure to raise my willingness to pay. I didn’t feel confident at the time nor now that this was in my best interest.
– The due diligence missed some things. As a result I missed out on a negotiation tool (the property was passed in at auction) and have some thousands of dollars of unforeseen maintenance costs to now factor in.I probably won’t use a buyer’s agent for a property purchase in my home state. Partly as I now feel I have the confidence to go through the process on my own. I wouldn’t advise against the use of Metropole or others but I would caution to approach dealings critically.
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