Due Diligence

[bojangles]

Now, this may sound silly but as a newbie I feel I have the right to sound silly at least once on here I am looking at buying a town house as my first IP. When it comes to conducting Due Diligence, would you guys and gals have a checklist you go through before making a purchase? Of course I know part of it will be carried out by the convayancer doing the various searches. But what about the other things I should look into before going forward with a purchase? Any ideas would be much appreciated!!

 

[Miss V]

Check the body corporate records. Make sure that there is money in the sinking fund, and that they haven't spent gazzilions on hidden problems, or are about to. If they have plans to fix common areas, you could be up for extra costs.

Don't know if that helps.

Cheers

V

 

[sparky23]

Hi Bojangles

Are you looking at a specific townhouse that you can put figures on here for or is it a general question? They won't all have strata fees the ones I have just built have their own torrens titles.

 

[bojangles]

Hi sparky, no not a specific one, just want to make sure I dont miss anything..

 

[Ridin-High]

Hi sparky, no not a specific one, just want to make sure I dont miss anything..

bojangles, its ok if you miss a few things, just as long as its nothing major (eg house is about to fall down)

you will learn by experiencing not one thing will be perfect, if it passes your basic investment critera then i'd say go ahead

 

[sparky23]

This one looks very spiffy! LOL

http://www.realestate.com.au/cgi-bi...t=&header=&cc=&c=82436801&s=nsw&tm=1228623348

 

[bojangles]

Oh yeah it is very nice sparks..but out of my reach and also a bit far from Sydney CBD.I'm trying to find the right balance between CG and Yield. Looking at spending around 320K. Anyway..very spiffy indeed Sparks!!

 

[ChrisLang]

Now, this may sound silly but as a newbie I feel I have the right to sound silly at least once on here I am looking at buying a town house as my first IP. When it comes to conducting Due Diligence, would you guys and gals have a checklist you go through before making a purchase? Of course I know part of it will be carried out by the convayancer doing the various searches. But what about the other things I should look into before going forward with a purchase? Any ideas would be much appreciated!!

Hi there bojangles,

I wouldn't have suggested this if you didn't mention being a newbie Have a look at this list of questions (there are two parts) and see what you haven't asked the agent/vendor/yourself yet:

http://www.homeiown.com/how-to-find...d-price-by-asking-the-right-questions-part-1/

http://www.homeiown.com/how-to-find...od-price-by-asking-the-right-questions-part-2

Hope you'll find a couple of ideas there.

Cheers,
Chris

 

[jasper]

Put building and pest inspection rights on contract for your own protection. Check strata and sinking fund. Try to get a copy of the last meeting minutes if possible, often shows up hidden issues.

 

[grossreal]

hi bojangles
couple of things
first don't be in a hurry to sign anything make sure that the exchange is subject to finance
don't put any more then 1% at exchange
check the council and get a 149b certificate and get the vendor to pay for it
it costs about 200 and a normal is about 50 but the 149b tell you that it to all council requirements so you are covered
make sure you get a building and pest report and get a friend who knows a builder to check the reports for free

 

[bojangles]

Thanks all for your kind advice!!! I'll be much better prepared now. Please if you think of anything else dont hesitate to write it here. Again..I thank you..

 

[Property Meister]

I have a question for the experts ,

a lot of you mention about becoming friendly with a real estate agent,

I find this very difficult to do,

mainly becuase they are sales people, they will basically do anything to line their pockets, I hear and read so many posts where REA's are saying the property market is as strong as ever blah blah when clearly its not, (eg the FHO market going nuts at the moment etc )

Ive spoken to a few RE agents and most of them do the sales spiel. eg I said to one last week, I am looking for this and this with a budget of $400k, he said, oh you won't get anything for that price, (I was enquiring for one that was adverstised about $460k), when there are 3 advertised for $390k, and one was sold at auction for $360k. so all credibility went down the drain with this guy, becuase he has outright lied to me.

ive also seen a lot of people hear saying that they were speaking with their REA about their local market, and it seems that they have a good relationship with their REA, was wondering how do you get into this position, Ive even said that I was interested in 2-3 properties in the same suburb in the next 12 months, and that didn't seem to make much difference.

at the moment, I have been going by the number of ads on re.com.au, the prices, the changes in advertised prices, the time it takes to sell a property as a guide to the market in a particular suburb, do I need to even bother talking to a REA, to get a better feel for the local market or even the entire property market??