Examples of properties you didn't buy or John West properties ...

Thought it might be educational to start a thread to post examples and reasons why you didn't buy a specific property .

I just bought a property in gailes , but there was one I passed on and for newbies I thought I'd share the reasons why I passed on it .

Rent was good , 320 for something in mid 200's but it was a private rental . Suggests that the current tenants probably have a dodgy record so cant pass all the Checks that normal PM's use so they may end up being problematic . Knowing the area the rent seemed high for the property so if the current tenants leave the rent might drop . Given the state of the property it might take a while to rent if vacant .

State of the property was dodgy . Had carport and awning which were dodgy to say the least . Obviously not council approved but also very substandard . Beams inadequate with noticeable bowing and 1-2 screws on uprights that should have been bolted .A big storm and they could easily end up in litigation alley .

Door to bathroom wouldn't open fully as it had been tiled at a higher level than the bottom of the door and then a row of tiles had been removed so you could just fit in ....

Cheap stick Vinyl on bathroom walls . Definitely not designed to go on a bathroom wall ...

Underneath bathroom some dodgy waste connections using that ribbed flexible tubing that's normally used to connect washing machines and there were lots of water marks on the woodwork under the bathroom

The basic bones of the house seemed ok , but the asking price was similar to asking price for other better properties .

It would have been an option for a hands in person who could go in and fix things themselves without having to pay someone to do the work but that's not me , but it was overpriced and rent wasnt sustainable

Apparently the owner wasn't highly motivated due to the rent .

I made a comment to agent that it might be worth 30 k less than asking but want interested . I saw it just before it officially went on line . Apparently it sold within 1-2 weeks .

As , IMHO , they've got their timing right I still think they'll make money .

Cliff

 

We passed on a "renovator's not so delightful" nearly two years ago. The house was in a great location, very unloved and a deceased estate. This would attract the handyman in us all and the asking price was at the bottom end of the local market.

However the siblings were fighting over the price and some wanted top dollar while others realised it required a massive amount of work to get it up to the median for the area. I would have been prepared to take it on if we could get it for about $50K below asking price but the owners were firm.

The deal breaker was that it backed onto the local school. This is both a positive and a negative - easy to get the kids there but there was a landslip under the fence because the school was built much later than the house and where the school land was cut down, it hadn't been retained properly. Essentially half the old fence was just hanging above a one metre drop. There is no way I would be dealing with the Qld Government to get this fixed. I have passed over other houses with similar issues, as you cant even get a grumpy neighbour to cooperate when trying to solve these things.

When the house was later put back on the market after the reno, there was a new fence, still dangling above this small but neatly turfed abyss. It took ages to sell this second time and the new owners currently have a skip out the front. I'd hate for them to be building a pool!