Going to open homes

So, one common thread of advice on this forum seems to be that nothing beats being on the ground to get a feel for the market, and to that end people should be networking with agents and attending open after open.

How does this advice reconcile with buying outside the area you live or interstate? Are the
PCers who are going to opens every weekend going to ones local to their area? How do I build relationships with REAs?

For example, if I wanted to buy interstate I can hardly go to opens every weekend. I can probably go once. Which means - if I am buying interstate should I generally always use a buyers agent?

How do others approach this?

 

Dont necessarily need to use a BA. You can do a few weekend trips to target specific areas and get a feel for housing stock quality and common defects, and meet some agents so they will take offers seriously.

Then when something comes up you can engage someone to do a inspection. Many property managers will do this for a small fee. @D.T. does this in Adelaide and I think @Andrew Hancock does in Brisbane.

 

Some people have bought some of their properties unsighted and if it works for them, that's fine. Personally for me I am not a fan of this strategy and I need to personally check out the property and the surrounding area to get a feel for the suburb. Some of the real estate agents do have facebook pages, apps and suchlike which you can receive notifications. I prefer a face to face contact intially and just touching base with the agents via email or phone.

 

If you buy in another state the likelihood of getting a cracker deal is lower.

The primary purpose of attending home opens is to get an intimate understanding of a selected sub-market.

So buying in another state works if you are simply looking to ride the market.

 

I personally think the value in a Buyer's Agent is extremely underrated by most investors. All they see is the up front fee, not the money they'll be saving in the negotiation (that most people don't do properly themselves) or the time-cost in the relatively large workload that buying a property involves. Unfortunately, it's very hard to quantify the savings for most and even when someone feels like they've got a good deal or done well in negotiating, it's almost certain that using a buyer's agent would have improved it, and the fee is essentially covered. I actually have a very specific example of this in an article I wrote on our website which was a rare quantifiable case.

If you genuinely would prefer to complete the purchase yourself, then yes, you can generally engage someone to inspect for you at least on a physical level. Whilst I have purchased property unseen, it does increase the risk as in my opinion there are plenty of things that one won't pick up if the property isn't inspected at all.

Andrew