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6 steps to property buying success: the essential guide for home buyers and property investors
Using a buyer’s agent is a good start in reducing stress when buying a property. Our Buyers Agent Guide series 6 steps to property buying success makes understanding and completing the transaction even easier.
In this article, the first of the series, we provide practical and straightforward guidance for buyers in a simple ‘how to’ for planning and researching your home or investment property. (more…)
Tips for getting the most from your buyer’s agent experience
Lately there has been an increase in the number of people contacting us here at Buyers Agent Guide who are looking to use a buyer’s agent for the first time. With the advent of buyer’s agents being relatively recent in the real estate industry, many of those who are new to this service may be unsure of what expectations they can have when using a specialist to help find the right property.
A good buyer’s agent can be even more effective in helping with your property purchase if you know what to expect from them. (more…)
Property valuation is sometimes misconstrued with an appraisal provided by a real estate agent. Typically a real estate agent’s appraisal will provide an indication of the property value based on opinion, recent property sales in the area etc; however the ability to use this information is largely limited to personal usage. Your Buyers’ agent should also be capable of providing equivalent appraisals based on their market knowledge, and be able to sort through property listings, weeding out appraisals that are overly optimistic.
True property valuations are carried out by an independent and qualified professional valuer, who has completed tertiary level qualifications in order to be licensed/registered by courts, lenders or state bodies to carry out an expert valuation. The property valuation provided by a professional valuer is considered a formal assessment with the outcomes able to be used as in legal proceedings by courts and widely used by lenders as a risk mitigation tool due to the qualifications and independence of qualified valuers.
Without doubt it is essential to engage a building and pest inspector (a.k.a. building surveyor) pre purchase but we will cover that in more detail in a later post. Before progressing though it is worth noting that most Buyer Agents will have a recommendation/preferred inspector to use (also harmless to ask if they use them for their own property purchases). Inspections are a crucial step in the process, therefore you want someone that comes highly recommended, minimising the chances of ending up with a lemon with hidden issues, that can leave you significantly out of pocket (e.g. white ants, foundation integrity etc).
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Important things to remember if you are planning to negative gear an investment
In short, yes. But they can be mitigated.
Negative gearing of property is an investment strategy that has been used widely over the past few decades. A plethora of promoters and naysayers have given their opinion on the practise since its inception, so with this post we will try to bring some balance to the discussion around the potential risks that you can be exposed to when negatively gearing your property. We will also provide some insights regarding how buyer’s agents may be able to help mitigate the potential downside, particularly in light of current property market conditions. (more…)
It is essential before engaging the services of a Buyers Agent to confirm they are licensed or authorised to deal in property.
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Typically Buyers Agents will offer their services to bid on a client’s behalf at auction.
There is a multitude of rationales why a client would use these services from simply being unable to physically attend the auction, inexperience with auction bidding and wanting to remove emotion from the decision, to a bidding strategy where anonymity is beneficial i.e. the client may already own 3 apartments in a complex, and wishes to purchase the 4th and final apartment.
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