Hello all, I am new to this forum, and to purchasing property!
In all fairness, I am buying a home for my partner and I to live in, not as investors, but I am in need of some specific advice and I hope you don't mind me jumping on this forum!
The situation is, that we have found a property that we would like to put an offer in on, and even prior to us making up our mind, I was seriously unhappy with the conduct of the agents.
I went to the first viewing of the property, arriving on time, and so did the agent, as I approached him, I was told the tenants weren't home and we had to wait, so we chatted while waiting, and he had a great time laughing at me and my situation that we have been searching for about 6 months, I didn't appreciate him finding it humorous.
15 minutes pass, and he tries to organise another time for me, then decides to try the door which is not locked, the heater was blaring and nobody was home. Great.
I start to walk around the property and the agent just kinda stands around like a stunned mullet… no help, no tour nothing, and I was the only person who attended this opening.
Then I organize to view it the following monday with my partner and a third party (for advice) to be told late monday that the tenants had buggered off interstate, leaving no access to the property (agents don't have keys?) so we have to wait till friday to see it, appointment made for 7pm for after work. I insisted the agent keep me informed. I was promised priority, and that we would be the first to view it.
5.30pm friday, I am told there is an open at 6pm (heaps of notice, not) I said, neither of us can get off work any earlier so I will see you at 7.
Sorry this is long winded, now for the clincher! I go through the property, at the end being told that there were three parties that turned up at this open (that I missed, funny no-one else was at previous open)
And it gets better, now time to concentrate. I was told that there was one couple at the open that were seriously interested, and were going back through the property Monday
So, we go and have a think and decide on our tactics, and that we wanted to try for this one
I speak to the agent late saturday, and express that we would like to come in monday and make an offer, and I ask about the other interested parties, I was then told that the couple (apparently same people mentioned above) were taken through the property that morning, and were very likely to come in with an offer on monday… Inconsistencies…
Not only that, but I was told (during the open) that "Oh, theres been a lot lot of interest since the property has been relaunched"… Interesting, It has been up before…So, in conclusion, I feel as though the agent is playing games with us, no Im not surprised, but I am annoyed and apprehensive. I have been trying to keep my emotions as poker as possible, so they don't play me too hard.
It is now monday, and we will be going in this evening with an offer, unconditional, and close-ish to the asking price. What I am asking, is for some advice and tactics?
How do I play this game and come out the other side in one piece?
Thankyou, in advance. Kirsty.
Agents play games. There may not be any interested people at all – or it may be true, you just never know. I would be inclined not to beleive him and not let it influence my offer.
Terryw | Structuring Lawyers Pty Ltd / Loan Structuring Pty Ltd
http://www.Structuring.com.au
Email MeLawyer, Mortgage Broker and Tax Advisor (Sydney based but advising Aust wide) http://www.Structuring.com.au
Depending on how much you love the place… if you're happy to let it pass, I would make a lowball offer (~10 or 20k below asking price) and just walk away if not accepted. If they're playing games, they might be desperate.
You have to be careful you do not get emotionally attached to this house otherwise it can be used against you in negotiations.
A house with tenants in it is harder to sell as the buyers experience the run around when trying to see the property.
It was not the agent that was mucking you around it was the tenants.If you want to be good at this
I am reading a book called Diamond Real Estate Deals by Phil Jones and David Bradley that covers this negotiation game.Decide how much you want the property and what its worth. Then decide how risky you want to play it. If you have been stuffed around for 6 months looking and this place falls through, are you willing to spend another 6 months looking? Is it costing you more whilst looking (taking time off work, rent you are paying) or are you saving money (living at home).
If you dont want to spend another 6 months, offer what you think its worth. If you are happy to try and get the best price with the risk of losing it offer below and take your time to make a further offer. If there isn't much interest in the property and it looks like you are going cold after the 1st offer rejected then they will be more likely to consider the 2nd offer
Ignor how much interest the agent says there is, most of what they say is sales talk. When tennants are involved commnication and access can always be a problem, especially if the property manager is a different agent to the sales agent.
Ooh, some very interesting insights. Thankyou everybody for taking the time and offering your advice. I really appreciate it. I am still apprehensive, but it is the first time I have ever made an offer on a house, so I think its normal to feel this way. I hate the way things are, greed and malice and all the rest… lol Oh well only time will tell. We are going to go in at 5k below what we would be willing to pay for it, (first offer will be 14k below the asking price) so there is room to move. If they want to play games, I can too.
Why don't you offer 15% below the advertised price to start (unless 14K is:)). Never know, the REA might be all bluff.
1st offer I ever put on was 15% under and to my surprise the REA took me seriously. Said that the vendor wouldn't go under 300K (was advertised @ 349k and still is). I would have played the game some more and will start again in 12 months. Don't feel bad about the offer being too low, worst that can happen is the REA laughs at you – best is you get a bargain. Just tell the REA that you believe interest rates are going up and the market is too uncertain for you to overcommit financially. Tell the REA you have a few other places that you have put offers on. In most cases they have to take the offer to the vendor…
I don't like greed or malice either but the housing market in this country is full of it. Fight fire with fire.
well, thankyou all again… just thought Id let you know that we just bought a house! The asking price was 369k, we went in and made an official offer of 357.5k, and were told there was another offer on the table (we were going to go in at 355, told to up it because of the other offer) and later on was told that after nearly two hours of negotiating, our offer was accepted! I feel relieved, because it ended up being very painless, considering all the games initially.
Congratulations, I hope it all now goes somoothly for you.
Welcome to the world of home ownership.
Mickasking price 369 ? and you think 14k is lowball ? haha… you really are new to this game are you ?
Offer 300k and you will get it for that price easily. There's panic on the real estate markets now, and everyone wants out. If you think you made a lowball offer you should see my lowball offers, and people better take me seriously otherwise I walk. If people are late for an appointment they can suck up their sale, I walk.
Lesson 1 : take no shit from real estate people : They're all weasels.
Lesson 2 : Don't waste anyone's time. Don't waste your own time , but also don't waste the RE and the sellers time.
Lesson 3 : Lowball offers are anything 30% below asking price. Anything within 10-20% is considered a 'normal' offer. If you offer 5% lower the real estate agent will laugh in your face after getting rid of it to you.
Lesson 4 : Rent. Don't buy when prices are about to crash.
Lesson 5 : Forget about buying for a while, enjoy life and don't worry about buying a house. Owning a house offers very few benefits unless you can REALLY easily afford it. In Australia , this means that any new FHB's will be worse off for the next 20 years from now.Good luck, stay out of property.
Hey, thanks for the tips from your experience Scamp.
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