Buying in Mount Gravatt East Brisbane

KangaBanga

KangaBanga

Hi all,

Looking to buy the house as below for PPOR..

http://www.realestate.com.au/property-house-qld-mount gravatt east-115959703

2 open houses so far.

sellers want 880k and agent said he has received 3 offers between 880k-895k but have been rejected due to long settlement. Owners had bought elsewhere and have 60d settlement on the new place conditional to this sale.

I am ok with offering fair value or more and have so far offered 800k in a letter of offer with only B&P condition. (next door with similar build but less quality internally sold for 760k last year at auction). ANZ automated valuation system gave a 725k to 840k to 955k range.

Questions :
1) anyone / agents here familiar with the suburb have any idea how to value this one? land value is 350k. building was built 1998. Claims 2.5 toilets and kitchen recently reno but style/fittings and condition looks like 2-3 years ago. Total floor area 353sqm + 40sqm DLUG. Backs into the Bush. Laminate flooring both levels.

2) Look at picture 10, in the middle of rear wooden fence there is a tree next to it which has a termite mound midway up which has grown to surround the whole trunk now. I initially thought it was a large beehive but no bees were buzzing around. Also note the large native in corner of backyard. How would these affect value?

Agent is still replying my emails so I am assuming he hasn't got any offers they would like to negotiate on yet.
 
Last edited:
oops, sorry, missed that the first time round! Lovely house, good area, close city. Maybe offer the settlement they want for a lower price and negotiate up from there?
 
Gotta love that area - satellite cbd.. I purchased there 9 years ago and the CG/yield has performed very well.
 
What do you think it is worth? I live nearby, but don't have a clue as this isn't the type of house we know much about?

I guess you have the upper hand if they need to sell with a long settlement but a drop of $80K might see them try to extend their own settlement. Maybe it is only worth $800K but if they've had other offers at the higher price, that is possibly indicative of its worth.

I'm a bit of a softie, but I'd not be happy to lowball someone knowing they were in a timing bind, but that's just me.

Regarding the termites in the tree... why would that reduce the price? I know purchasers get nervous about termites, but in a tree in the back yard? There wouldn't be many trees in Brisbane back yards that don't have some termites munching away.

I wouldn't try to use this as a bargaining tool. We've had both lowball offers and purchasers trying it on regarding termites in a tree in the yard. Both instances just made us think "we'll sell to anybody else, but not this person".

Be aware that you could easily offend the vendors, who would rather sell a kidney than deal with you, but of course, with the time issues, they might be forced to deal with you. Maybe they will leave prawn heads in the curtain rods as a payback :D:p.
 
no prawn heads.

Its been a month and 4 open houses later I decided to rock up and speak to the owner of the house directly and to mention about the REA telling lies and playing games and not wanting to let me put in a contract of sale for 800k to get negotiations started as it was too low and that I was actually looking to negotiate with a cash offer up to 840k.

Found out real reason for sale was vendor had already bought another smaller place to downsize and would prefer to have 1 mortgage to service instead of 2. He has no problem with having 2 mortgages, just would prefer not to. He does not have any urgent need to sell unlike the agent claims. No formal contract of sale has been submitted to him yet, mostly verbal offers from REA and a letter of offer thingie. Very very pleasant to talk to and very forthcoming with information about the house and history and neighbours.

Renos were also done slightly longer before vs. agent saying 6months ago.

Owner is a first time seller and has asked around different REAs and they all price the house about 880k. He is happy to negotiate with me and even gave me his mobile to contact him directly. But at the moment he is guided by the REA pricing. He does not know how long his contract with the REA lasts even.

He says he would consider my offer if the house is not sold 3-4 months down the road.

This morning got an ANGRY phone call from a really pissed REA. Owner had called him about my visit and says he does not appreciate buyer trying to "f**k him over" and talking directly to owner (how is that possible, he still gets the commision?).

Tried to placate him as much as possible. gave me a bit of a talking to then asks me what I found out from the owner. I said I was just asking about the renovations done and usually like to talk to owners selling properties directly if possible as they have more information on the house.

He then kept saying the sale could only go through him and quite aggressively proceeded to say "so are you going to put in an offer for 850k?" many times no matter what i replied until I said I had to discuss with the wife. He then instructed me to call him back after discussing with my wife.

I am just gonna correspond directly with the owner now and put my offers directly with the owner in the future as he has said he's happy for me to deal with him directly and is so much friendlier.
 
My heart bleeds for the Re agent, bring out the tiny violins.

I would be inclined to deal directly with the vendor, however, from the very little I know about RE law, RE agent may have a claim against vendor if they sell direct. Dunno, check it out.

Personally, I would love to see a whole bunch of RE agents go down in a shark cull.
 
I'd give the owner another call and kindly ask him to check his paper work for the length of the listing agreement with the agent. So you can strike a deal with the owner outside of the agent's listing agreement and split the difference on the commission. For two reasons.

1) The difference in commission is probably what will get the deal over the line?
2) The agent doesn't deserve his commission if he carries on like a maniac.

I agree it's worth getting an independent valuation for a house like that. I reckon the land would be worth a little more than $350k.
 
vbplease said:
I'd give the owner another call and kindly ask him to check his paper work for the length of the listing agreement with the agent. So you can strike a deal with the owner outside of the agent's listing agreement and split the difference on the commission. For two reasons.

1) The difference in commission is probably what will get the deal over the line?
2) The agent doesn't deserve his commission if he carries on like a maniac.

I agree it's worth getting an independent valuation for a house like that. I reckon the land would be worth a little more than $350k.
Click to expand...

according to onthehouse land value was
RPD: L13 SP102022:pAR BULIMBA
Unimproved Value: $350,000
Date: 30/06/2012
Land value in the suburb may have gone up 5-10% since. Even taking up as 10% would be 385k.

Agent is asking 850k. That makes house value 465k. I really dont see how its worth more than 400k. A similiar new build very decently fitted out would be less than 400k.

thanks for all the advice, I will speak to the owner and see what he thinks.
 
Unimproved land value is NOT the same as market value. It is what the council uses to charge rates and is used by the nice folks at the land tax department.
 
Angel said:
Unimproved land value is NOT the same as market value. It is what the council uses to charge rates and is used by the nice folks at the land tax department.
Click to expand...

I don't think they are nice folks :mad::p

Also... search "land" at Mount Gravatt East. Angel hit the nail on the head. See what land you can buy for $350K.
 
Angel said:
Unimproved land value is NOT the same as market value. It is what the council uses to charge rates and is used by the nice folks at the land tax department.
Click to expand...

I always thought this value is the amount the government will pay you as compensation if they decide to make something like a motorway through your property.

So how can we or a valuer value the land a property sits on if they dont use this as a guide? do they arbitrarily add on 100k to this official value?
 
KangaBanga said:
according to onthehouse land value was
RPD: L13 SP102022:pAR BULIMBA
Unimproved Value: $350,000
Date: 30/06/2012
Land value in the suburb may have gone up 5-10% since. Even taking up as 10% would be 385k.

Agent is asking 850k. That makes house value 465k. I really dont see how its worth more than 400k. A similiar new build very decently fitted out would be less than 400k.

thanks for all the advice, I will speak to the owner and see what he thinks.
Click to expand...

This would have been a good purchase then....but it is under contract..http://www.realestate.com.au/property-house-qld-mount+gravatt+east-116224867
 
I think it's a pretty unique location, I would compare it to Mt Gravatt Mountain area. It does seem overpriced to me. I vagually remember when they sold off that Tafe land. :)
 
Not sure on the law in Q'land , but in NSW ( correct me if i'm wrong ) if the agent introduces you to a property and you subsequently buy it directly from the owner , the OWNER would still have to pay a commission ... and if they don't the agent would have a case against the owner .

so that's not you're problem is it ......

Personally if an agent attacked me in that situation , I'd bite straight back , along the lines of , well it's apparent to me that you weren't communicating my offer to the owner , so " "MATE , you weren't doing you job of representing YOUR clients interest and ringing up and ABUSING a potential buyer is also not representing your clients best interests ... do you want me to ring up the state realestate institute / Principle of the agency / Fair trading etc and put in a formal written complaint about YOUR behavior , or are you going to get off your high horse , put your ego back in it rightful place , which is not in this negotiation and actually worry about sorting out the best deal for your client . I'm not interested in Screwing you out of your commision ( I'm assuming that's not your intention ) , I just want to buy the house at a fair price .... What do you want to do ? "


Cliff
 
KangaBanga said:
This morning got an ANGRY phone call from a really pissed REA. Owner had called him about my visit and says he does not appreciate buyer trying to "f**k him over" and talking directly to owner (how is that possible, he still gets the commision?).

Tried to placate him as much as possible. gave me a bit of a talking to then asks me what I found out from the owner. I said I was just asking about the renovations done and usually like to talk to owners selling properties directly if possible as they have more information on the house.

He then kept saying the sale could only go through him and quite aggressively proceeded to say "so are you going to put in an offer for 850k?" many times no matter what i replied until I said I had to discuss with the wife. He then instructed me to call him back after discussing with my wife..
Click to expand...
Next time ask the re to use more simpler algebra,,then ask the re who's name is on the "Title",his name will not be because most re's are taught from day one about one word control,,the best way to control control freaks is ring him back in a week and tell him your wife is still thinking,for 850k you can buy a six-pack brick walkup flats with rental returns above 60k per year within 12 klms from the cbd...imho..
 
dropped by the owners place again today and told him about the REA. He had only told the REA about my call and not said much else. Quite surprised with the REA's reaction.

I suggested to deal directly after the REA contract had lapsed. He said REA contract was for 2 months, but not too sure on the other contract clauses. Said he would not have accepted the 850k anyways which the REA has instructed me to put as an offer. Feels his house is closer to 900k as he had spent ~140k on the renos inside (says just the big tub in the bathroom cost him $2,500?!?!?) and paintwork/pool outside. Also because his neighbour of 7 years who sold off next door used to be a senior REA for mcgrath and had actually helped "value" his house for "low nines" which he thought was too high to be asking, so he is only asking 880k+ and saw no need for an independent valuer as he was pretty sure of the value.

Well what can I say, the guy does love his house.

Was at wakerly today looking at props and must say it is quite a nice family friendly suburb. But there is a lady in a classic queenslander hidden away in a side road who used to own the land along Moss Road. She has a CATTERY.
 
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