HI,
has anyone ever bought over the internet without actually seeing the property but just gone by what the real estate agent has told you. If so how has it gone?Hi angie7,
You wouldn’t buy anything based on what the real estate agent tells you. You would complete a thorough due diligence which would include things like building inspection, pest inspection, bank valuation, contacting property managers to get a fair idea of potential rent, buying a suburb profile report to see what has happened in the suburb (from previous sales perspective), check the local council website to know more about the local area (proposed infrastructure development, etc), finding out the local industry support, etc.
You can engage a buyers agent to help complete the transaction on your behalf and minimise the risk of buying the property without seeing it.
Hope this helps.
Sanjiv
*******“There is no passion to be found playing small – in settling for a life that is less than the one you are capable of living.†– Nelson Mandela
Hello Angie7.
I completely concur with Sanjiv. There are people out there who do make successful property purchases online without ever visiting the property but I’m willing to bet that all of them complete extensive due diligence checks before they buy. Of course you should always complete due diligence checks before any purchase but when you don’t have the benefit of your own eyes then you really need to be doubly careful.
By way of personal example, I was looking at a couple properties a few hours from where I live. On paper (or, to be more accurate, the computer screen) everything seemed okay. I called the agents and asked a number of questions with their answers being satisfactory. In fact, one of the agents even faxed me a whole bunch of plans and a site survey etc. After a couple calls to council to verify a few points I was going to go ahead with placing an offer with a ‘Subject to Due Diligence’ clause on one of the places.
Then I had a hole appear in my schedule and decided to drive up and take a look at the properties myself. Long story short it turned out that the place I was interested in sloped down to back onto a school oval and was waterlogged in a good 15cm of water. Suffice it to say I didn’t go through with the offer and ended up saving myself a couple hundred bucks in report fees and a week or so of time.
The second property was all good and it’s now in my portfolio.
The moral of the story as far as I’m concerned is that if you can sight a place yourself (or get an unbiased pair of eyes to sight it for you) then you may very well save a lot of time and money.
Cheers,
Art‘Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds.’ – Albert Einstein
I meet people all the time who have purchased properties over the internet including off shore. Most have made huge mistakes because often the internet only shows the house not the street or what is next door.
Frankly I think that anyone who buys over the net especially on a real estate agents recommendation is a fool at best.
Always research and remember the price of an airfare and accommadation is a small price to pay when it comes to the value of the investment property.Always remember the saying measure twice cut once. If you do that with investing you are unlikely to make mistakes.
Nigel Kibel
http://www.propertyknowhow.com.au
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“Frankly I think that anyone who buys over the net especially on a real estate agents recommendation is a fool at best”.
Totally agree with Nigel on this.
I have bought 2 properties, and backed out of 3 deals over the net. I still own the 2 properties; they have provided excellent cap growth and the rents have continued to rise. I am very happy with them and still have not seen them after 4 years.
The 2 deals I did do were after extensive D.D where I became a pain in the arse to the agents concerned – asking for photos of the property inside and out, arranging pest/building inspections, endless phone calls about the area, rent stats, maps of the local streets and amenities and so on.
I normally slag agents on this site as most will know, but I have to say the agents I dealt with on those 2 deals were very helpful and professional, but at no time did I take their OPINION as gospel, and that, I think, is the big difference.
You need to act only on FACTS – not OPINIONS.
Cheers,
Marc.
[email protected]“we get sent lemons; it’s up to us to make lemonade”
I bougth a townhouse in WA two years ago and I have still never seen the place and it doubled in value. You get lucky sometimes……….BUT I was failry worried
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