[Andrew_AParticipant@andrew_aJoin Date: 2003Post Count: 392]

November 10, 2011 - 5:43 am

RobbieP wrote:

Thanks..

How do you go about finding a buyers agent if they work independently?

Generally speaking, do buyers agents only operate in a certain areas?

Lastly, with regards to a buyers agents fee, is this something that would beed to be included in the contract / offer to purchase? i.e

Lets say a buyers agent found a property for $98 000, could the $2k fee be included in the purchase price. If it is structred like this, the buyer can use the bank finance to assit paying the buyers agent fee.

OR

If a buyers agent found a property for $98k, would you need to pay the agent the $2k separately? i.e. not included in the contract / offer to purchase?

Yes the fee has to be paid separately and can't be included in the contract price.

Ideally a BA will have a defined focus area they know very well, somewhere they are physically present most of the time.

A good place to start looking would be with REBAA (Real Estate Buyers Agents Association of Australia) accredited agents http://www.rebaa.com.au/

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November 10, 2011 - 3:11 am

Qlds007 wrote:

A search on the Company will give you others views as the question has been raised previously. 

Cheers
 

Yours in Finance

^^ Agree with this.

Jacqueline, also do a search on NRAS, plenty of discussion to read.

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November 10, 2011 - 3:06 am

We subscribe, as regular buyers it's useful.

For the individual buyer it would be hard to go past the value of a shared subscription to Price Finder, spending beyond that would be hard to justify unless you were clear about what you needed that Price Finder doesn't supply?

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November 10, 2011 - 3:02 am

Independent (ie: definitely not a person recommended by the person selling to you) legal advice is worth it's weight in gold in property transactions where we are talking about hundreds of thousands of dollars. They will be able to look at your personal position and offer suggestions. Good luck.

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November 10, 2011 - 2:59 am

This is weasel copy writing, most agents aren't good copy writers!

A few more.

* Weasel photography, those wide angle shots that make a broom closet look like a double bedroom
* Weasel furniture (virtual furniture placed in photos)
* Weasel silence.. Sellers are as bad or worse than agents in this regard.. Those unapproved extensions that they know full well about and will most likely be revealed in a building and pest and will just waste time and money… etc

Real estate is a large part (very large part) marketing, so weasel is a very appropriate term to be using in most cases!

Those professional photos and stretching the truth property descriptions are annoying.. but they do really work.

Wisdom from Jim Rohn.. 'People shouldn't judge you on your appearance… but here's a hint….. they do!'

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November 10, 2011 - 2:51 am

RobbieP wrote:

.. My next question is.. if a buyers agents represents the buyer, how does he lock a seller into a deal with no mandate in place and does the buyer pay for the agents commission?..

Robbie in QLD the legal document is a form 22a, the form to engage a buying or selling agent, this is the required legal form that is both supposed to offer the agent protection for their commission and the buyer potential recourse if the agent doesn't fulfill their legal requirements. The buyer should be paying the agent yes.

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November 10, 2011 - 2:46 am

RobbieP wrote:

I think what i was refereeing to is agents (working for agencies) who advertise properties on sites such as Doman / RealEstate will always be representing the seller, which means they always going to try get a much a possible for their clients property, so you never really going to get a good deal buying property through these kinds of agents. 

I guess a better use of an agent would be a buyer’s agent. I guess a buyer’s agent would represent and have the interests of the buyer at hand. I guess a buyers agent would need to work independently? My next question is.. if a buyers agents represents the buyer, how does he lock a seller into a deal with no mandate in place and does the buyer pay for the agents commission? What commission do buyers agents usually charge?

An independent Buyers Agent will be representing the buyer's best interests and their interests only. A selling agent is obliged to represent the best interests of the seller and is not working for the buyer. It's a clear distinction, have a look at where the money is coming from to pay the agent and that is who they will be representing.

A genuine Buyers Agent will be charging a fee to the buyer, these fees vary but a decent rule of thumb would be around 2% as a general guide for a full service search and secure.

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November 3, 2011 - 3:11 am

This can be a frustrating process when you are dealing with a bank on the other end of the transaction with a sales agent in between.

We have been involved in two recent ones in the last few weeks and it was an ordinary experience, they weren't motivated by anything other than covering themselves legally, which made it difficult. We offered full list price for one with tight conditions and lost, the other property went for a good deal below list price and it was another multiple offer scenario!? So difficult making any rules other than the bank/mortgage insurer just don't care about you or your motivations. They ended up costing themselves perhaps 10-15k on each property (same people selling) but.. I don't think they care about that either. Also the negotiations dragged on for an unreasonable time, but no point making a sunset clause as the reply would be 'so what?' and we wanted to secure both properties.. so play by their rules or the highway!

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November 1, 2011 - 11:16 pm

The answer is ‘depends’

Plenty of very nice suburbs with renovated post war houses with fibro materials in Brisbane. I would be tempted by the more valuable land component, likely to get a higher yield on the brick house though combined with the cheaper list price should lead to better holding costs, fibro in itself might not be a deal breaker if the condition of the house is good.

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November 1, 2011 - 10:59 pm

The selling agent doesn’t always know the sellers motivation either. A smart vendor who really has a minimum of 330k and due to change in circumstances would actually accept 300k is likely to not tell the agent this!

So.. if that’s your property and that’s your maximum, then one idea would be to present a written offer in a polite way and explain your situation as best you can (people don’t usually believe that’s your maximum the first three times you tell them), also since you are taking on price it would be one idea to give on clauses, ie: try and make the conditions stronger for the seller as compensation for the lower price.

Just general ideas and each deal is very individual! Good luck

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November 1, 2011 - 10:50 pm

It would pay to do some research about what is actually involved to be a Buyers Agent, have a talk with some of the NSW members from the REBAA website and get their perspective on the industry.

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November 1, 2011 - 10:14 pm

Do you like paying huge commissions? Would you like to pay 5-10% or perhaps 25-100k in dollar terms extra and above what a skilled buyer would pay for that property sir?

Now this might seem like a silly question but if everybody answered no the marketing companies would vanish overnight. They won’t of course because what they do can be so lucrative and most buyers don’t realize what they are dealing with.

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November 1, 2011 - 9:48 pm

Skye, Interesting topic. I think property management should be really simple if done properly and what causes a majority of the problems is the economics of the industry.

Because management tends to be an add on to sales in a lot of agencies and because it doesn’t scale that well (one manager can manage X number of properties but you will need to employ more people to grow that number substantially) the pressures to employ junior and inexperienced workers is strong, also there is pressure for skilled people to move into areas of higher pay such as sales. There are plenty of more economic reasons I could list but the whole point is that there is a lot of incentive to load up as many properties as possible on staff and this makes it very difficult to do a good job.

For me the main reasons there is frustration is that the big rocks, the very important tasks aren’t taken care of properly such as:

* Tenant checking > Doing the most basic checking on tenant histories to ensure you are getting quality tenants, do this right and everything else can flow well.
* Proactive management > Sorting out lease changeovers a few months in advance to allow for no vacancies and to find quality new tenants by having opens mid week and the like.
* Proper pricing and marketing of for lease properties
* Constant communication > Between both owners and tenants

There are some good managers out there so don’t be afraid to go looking and change managers if necessary.

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November 1, 2011 - 9:28 pm

Rich Dad Poor Dad was a landmark book. Many have cited it as the motivation to build wealth and become financially independent, I remember the first time I read it as well, could have been lucky timing somewhat as the key ideas in wealth creation are very old and have all been written about in other places but that doesn’t change what RDPD accomplished for a lot of people. No book can make you a success, you have to do that yourself and if a book can motivate you in that direction then it’s a good book in my opinion!

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November 1, 2011 - 2:21 am

The REBAA website is a good first stop for independent agents. Do your research as always.

http://www.rebaa.com.au/

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November 1, 2011 - 2:19 am

Any update on what you decided to do Hakanoa?

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October 25, 2011 - 1:27 pm

Lifestylez, nobody can say with anything other than an educated guess when a bottom or top of a market is happening, usually you are being sold something or talking to someone who doesn't know any better if they think they can time a  market with certainty, so there is by definition almost always a better time to be buying if you are trying to match the lowest point of a market.

It's hard to see the Brisbane property market moving quickly upwards in the time frame you mention but then again I couldn't believe what happened in Melbourne last year, or Brisbane in 2007 (+20%) for that matter. For those of us old enough the present market often brings back early 90's memories and that market went nowhere fast.

On a relative basis it's much easier to judge value and Brisbane rates highly in the capital cities at the moment. Those who follow a time tested investing plan and work progressively towards their investing goals are likely to do well.

Never ask a barber if you need a haircut though

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October 24, 2011 - 9:15 am

In QLD the cooling off period is 5 business days, with a 0.25% of purchase price penalty attached. Without looking at your contract there is no way of knowing what your most effective avenue will be, best to get independent legal advice asap if you haven't already.

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October 23, 2011 - 11:38 am

hakanoa wrote:

We have signed a contract for the purchase of a brand new duplex property 3br/2ba in Coomera – Lily Estate.  We have just received the date of the cooling off period so we have a small window to opt out.

Can anyone comment on this as to whether it would be a good investment — thanks.

Interesting time to be asking this question!

Generally when you receive 'help' in selecting your property you are talking about a marketing company which will have 25-40k of margin built in, sometimes a whole lot more. The model is the marketing company is really selling developers stock and don't have your best interests at heart. I don't know the specifics of your deal and they could be very different…. buyer beware though.

Have a good look around on realestate.com.au, get some recent sales data from agents, have a look at what houses are selling for, what prices they sell for, what yields they sell for and so on. It's a few hours of browsing only to get some basic grasp of what might constitute fair value.

Good luck with your research and make sure you get a truly independent valuation.

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October 15, 2011 - 6:44 am

matthew.f wrote:

Andrew_A wrote:

matthew.f wrote:

I thought I would share my frustration with some new bank lending criteria. I have sourced a property in Brisbane 2km from CBD. Returning just over $1,100 per weeks and for sale in the low to mid $800k's. Gross returns for a house @ approx 7.2% gross returns. With 10% deposit and such great returns it seemed a no brainer. This house is in immaculate condition and the floor plan has been reconfigured to accommodate for 4 bedrooms all with ensuite and own kitchenette's. 4 seperate leases (for each room) accumulates over $1,100 income. Bank criteria will not take into account the extreme returns as they deem it to be student accommodation and then decipher what the true market rent they think would be…. $600per week (rented out on one lease). True rent to me is exactly the true rent that is on the leases? Any thoughts.

By sourced a property I presume you mean you found a listing from your colleague and fellow sales agent at Ray White South Brisbane, Brent Compton?

Hi Helen, Thank you for doing your homework. That is a source isn't it? Yes Brent not "Brett" is a work colleague. Moving on from this, the emphasis is on the Returns (income/expenses). Amazing. Some people don't share ideas, but rather dissect other's postings. Thank you for your comments.

I've been sharing ideas on here and other investing forums for 8 years, how about yourself?

No problem at all looking into the property, lets just be clear about who will be rewarded if this property sells.