Going at it along vs professional help

We have finally narrowed down our strategy (for those who love that buzz word ), suburb selection (selected North Brisbane suburbs) and finance pre-approval but seem to be hitting roadblocks with someone to help us!
Being a new investor I thought it best to contact a few local BA's to help us but so far we haven't had anyone really keen to respond to our queries. Perhaps our budget is a bit low!
It's got me thinking though perhaps I should save the few thousand k and do it ourselves. Getting up there isn't easy but could be done.
Basically I'm after anyone newbie investors that have done an interstate purchase recently and could give their opinion as to whether they wished/or did have professional assistance.

 

Hiya

Sounds strange that no BA's are willing to help.

Expect them to charge a lot more than a few thousand as well.

Cheers

Jamie

 

Hi @Alex2003,

Well done on taking a step and getting things rolling - sometimes that is the hardest bit!

My wife and I bought our first IP in North Brisbane from down here in Sydney back in November. We've also just gone unconditional on IP 2 last week in the same area. We did this all "by ourselves" meaning without a buyers agent. Of course, we didn't do it by ourselves - there is no way we could have done it without an awesome team behind us!! I'd encourage you to make sure you think about having a good team in place ready to go before purchasing. In particular:

* Have you got a good mortgage broker who is aligned with your goals, knows property well, and can help set up the correct loan structure?
* Have you got a good property manager who will be able to advise you on the area, what types of properties you should be looking for, what work would need to be done on a property to get it rented, rental appraisals, etc.?
* Have you got a good solicitor who will be able to get you out of a mess should something go wrong?

I've made a few posts on our journey here:

Brisbane Questions

Have a read through this thread as well for some more info on North Brisbane:

North Brisbane

There's also some good info on the old Somersoft forums if you do a search for the suburbs you're interested in.

To answer your question, we are definitely glad we did it "by ourselves" - it's not just about the money, but the things we've learnt and how we've grown as people have been invaluable lessons and life skills to pick up along the way.

Feel free to pm me if you want to chat more.

 

Some BAs are still on holiday leave (traditionally a quieter time for new listings before school returns) hence a reason you may not have heard back from some of them. Have you tried all the REBAA ones? Members - REBAA

 

Yep - BA quotes I've had in Brisbane are around the $10-12k for a $400-500k purchase from go to woe (though hopefully not the woe ).

 

If you are looking in Brisbane, you may want to get in touch with @Simon L .

From memory he bought for few forum members in Brisbane.

 

Whomever you do use make sure they're a local BA- I wrote an article on this a while on my blog about the whole concept of interstate BAs buying in different states: "Go local or use a 'national' Buyers Agent? - House Search Australia"
I know I bang on about it but it's so important to hire a professional who is on the ground, has the contacts and doesn't have any conflicting client searches. Best of luck with it all and keep us posted!

 

+1 @Jacque

 

@Alex2003, for North Brisbane, @wombat777 had good experiences with Karen from Property Zest. Have you reached out to Karen?

 

Agree Karen is a good operator and fellow REBAA member. I've personally recommended her to a family friend and they are very happy with her service. Nice no-nonsense lady too

 

Thank you everyone.
@MsAli I hadn't emailed them but I will.
We've bit the bullet and booked a quick trip up within the week so hopefully that trip will give us a better overview of our suburbs and who knows maybe a self sort bargin!

 

Not recently, but my first IP purchase was in Melbourne and I was living in Perth at the time. It took a while but basically I did a lot of desktop research first then travelled to Melbourne to ground truth what I had found out online. I found the reality on the ground did not match my desktop research at all, so this was a very valuable trip for me.

I ended up purchasing in the area I had been looking in and did well out of the purchase and subsequent sale. I'm not sorry I did it myself because what I learned I will be able to use for my next purchases. If I paid someone to do the work I would not have learned what I did. I have some lessons learned too:
- I bought near an employment hub but didn't do any research into school zones
- I found later that the closer to the neigbouring (more expensive) suburb, the higher the price
- I knew that the time a certain road in my area was a psychological barrier but I underestimated the price differential between properties south (higher price) and north (lower price) of this road.

It helps to really get to know an area before jumping in. By the end, I knew more about properties and prices than some of the agents I was talking to.

 

There is nothing like attending some home opens to guage the market. I reckon being there in person is a great idea.