Anybody dealt with Mirum Group / Fortitude Homes?

So glad to read this, though sorry for your experience - I too had dealings with Mirum and there were a few red flags which made me pull out asap.

 

I thought I needed to speak up. Because I feel like working with the Mirum group is one of the biggest mistakes I've made so far (this happened in June 2019). I'm personally a new property investor just starting out myself. But essentially what happened was I signed a CONTRACT for a H&L package and an application for a LOAN when what I thought I was signing was documentation for the bank to assess the property and I was told that if the numbers from the bank comes back unfavourable then they would find me another property. None of their conveyancers or brokers made it clear to me that this was a contract for a H&L package and not just an assessment like I believed. In the end I've had to get the bank to decline my loan in order to get out of the contract under the finance clause. This has all delayed my property journey for over 6 months now.

But a few takeaways that I found out about Mirum after this experience:

1. They are NOT a buyers agent. They don't charge any fees. Their service and all the time they spent coming out to my house was FREE. That's because they get commissions from the developers and that's what I would be paying for if I purchased the property.
2. They work with developers and builders (inc Fortitude homes) to create 'investor packages' - so brand new H&L packages targeted for investors. They are homes that are very small in land component compared to other properties in the area and very basic inclusions to keep the 'price low' for investors. The H&L I was presented had a land size of 418m squared.
3. They try to sell these to new and inexperienced investors (like me) by acting as a 'property investment advisor' when I think they are really just trying to sell you their properties.
4. They work with a network of brokers, conveyancers and property managers (I am happy to provide names) and I'm not sure how they are paid - I certainly didn't pay them anything. They didn't give me a choice to choose. They just assigned one to me.
5. I never felt totally clear about the whole process they go through from beginning to end, they only advised me of the 'next step' once they've finished the current step. e.g. they told me about seeing the property advisor as the 'next step' when I was seeing the broker. Because I was unfamiliar with the way purchasing a property works, in hindsight, I felt like I was easily strung along with their 'hand holding' process.

You will also find that they do not disclose information about what they do, how their company works, how many people work for them etc. So make sure you do your due diligence!


Feel free to message me if you want to know more. It was a very huge saga. It's not the best start to my property journey. I'm now working with @PropertyTwins and a real buyers agent who is looking for a property for me, with a property investment strategy.

 

Do you mean checking the companies via ACCC or Fair Trading?

 

Comps = comparables (ie. comparable properties)

 

@Lindsay_W cool, thanks for the clarification