Conveyancer location and cost

[JamesGG]

Guidance is sought regarding a BA. I have detailed information about the town, property value, likely rent, and related information. Someone is needed on the ground to negotiate for me. I see no point engaging someone who will buy the property for an amount that is too high. Put another way, I have a reasonable expectation of what can be achieved. This is of course more than I would like to pay, but reality is needed.

It is unclear if it is a appropriate to engage a BA with a written instruction to buy the property for $X or less. I also do not know what the normal terms are for this sort of deal, just negotiation. Is it fee on success, half up front and half on success, something else? Also, what sort of fee would be appropriate?

(snip)
Should the BA be in the same town?

Most BA's will offer a negotiation-only service if you have already found the property that you would like to buy. Usually you'd expect to pay some upfront to engage the process and then part upon success.

I don't think that the BA necessarily needs to live in the same town, but they should be willing to travel there to get the deal done.

 

[Burramys]

Thanks, most useful. The BA in the town said more or less the same thing in an email a few minutes ago. The contract wording is very muddyand ambiguous. Due to this I have lost four days.

 

[Terry_w]

Whilst some transactions are obviously more complex, you don't know if a simple transaction is going to become complex, but realistically most property transfers are fairly straight forward. The point I'm trying to make is to use a conveyancer that has good backup from a competent legal team if necessary.


... and I find that most conveyancers are actually more competent in facilitating residential property transfers than most lawyers are, even though they're not as qualified on paper. I admit that my sales experience is limited, but over the thousand+ purchases I've been involved in, problems have occurred far more consistently when it was a solicitor doing the work than a conveyancer.

Yes, you don't know when a simple matter will become a problem.

I agree that coneyancers may be more competant at processing a transation as this is a manual thing which even non qualified staff do.

The real value in using a lawyer is them picking up problems before they occur.

eg. a client wanting to buy jointly with a spouse. Do they do tenants in common or joint tenants. Could a conveyancer explain the succession issues and the fact that a JT arrangement could be challenged?

e.g. Person was going bankrupt and tried to transfer her half of the house to husband for $1. Conveyancer didn't explain legal implications of this. Just did the transfer. Person paid stamp duty and then her half of house was attacked by creditors anyway. Wasted $15k plus extra costs incurred unncessarily.

e.g. X wanted to use a property for a particular use. Conveyancer couldn't explain properly whether it would have been possible to use the property for this. X settled on property only to find out they could not use it as intended.

 

[Peter_Tersteeg]

eg. a client wanting to buy jointly with a spouse. Do they do tenants in common or joint tenants. Could a conveyancer explain the succession issues and the fact that a JT arrangement could be challenged?

e.g. Person was going bankrupt and tried to transfer her half of the house to husband for $1. Conveyancer didn't explain legal implications of this. Just did the transfer. Person paid stamp duty and then her half of house was attacked by creditors anyway. Wasted $15k plus extra costs incurred unncessarily.

e.g. X wanted to use a property for a particular use. Conveyancer couldn't explain properly whether it would have been possible to use the property for this. X settled on property only to find out they could not use it as intended.

The conveyancer I refer to does ask these types of questions and does refer them onto her bosses (the solicitors) where necessary. I think we can both agree though that you won't get this type of service from a $450 conveyancer.

 

[Terry_w]

The conveyancer I refer to does ask these types of questions and does refer them onto her bosses (the solicitors) where necessary. I think we can both agree though that you won't get this type of service from a $450 conveyancer.

Not sure how someone not qualified could know when a potential issue could arise - thats the whole point of my argument.

You would also get the same problems with many solicitors - they are just transaction focused and are essentially just conveyancers that go through law school somehow!

 

[Jake Milne]

It is unclear if it is a appropriate to engage a BA with a written instruction to buy the property for $X or less. I also do not know what the normal terms are for this sort of deal, just negotiation. Is it fee on success, half up front and half on success, something else? Also, what sort of fee would be appropriate?

Google is not very helpful, and neither is PBAA. I'm getting 10 000 hits from all over the place - USA, UK, nanny services. LOL! It seems that Google does not understand the words <"buyer's agent" Horsham Australia>. The Yellow Pages is equally bad, not listing the BA I have been considering. Should the BA be in the same town?

Burramys,

It's really unlikely that any serious BA's are going to be able to help you with on the ground work in Horsham.

It's such a small market there and there isn't enough volume to be commercially viable for a BA to be local in that area. I'm not sure who it was you were able to talk with there?

JamesGG pointed out negotiation only services. This is viable as Melbourne based BA's can do the work via phone/email. It's not hard to value properties in these areas and a building inspector can make sure everything is in order.

Although I agree that BA's should travel, Horsham is 3.5 hours from Melbourne which is a 7 hour round trip which is a lot of time that a good BA wouldn't be able to spend multi-tasking for his client base. I think you'd find most reluctant to make that trip for what might be a $60,000 - $80,000 house with a tiny negotiation fee attached.

I'm happy to spend 10 minutes on the phone helping you with how to approach such a rural area by yourself if you'd like.

 

[nhg]

You would also get the same problems with many solicitors - they are just transaction focused and are essentially just conveyancers that go through law school somehow!

No joke. Most of my mates are lawyers. It wasn't until I needed one for one thing or another, that I realised... yeah. Hard to find the right one for the job.

Terry for Trusts;
Farid for Property Settlements.

They are my go to guys.

 

[Burramys]

Jake, thanks for that advice. I picked Horsham as a nominal town. I'm not buying there. The responses I'm getting - or more to the point *not* getting - paint a rather bleak picture on the BA industry. Mind you the vendor's agent, the vendor and the vendor's lawyer have not replied either. Maybe they're doing their Christmas shopping. I'm shopping for a house.