Has anyone bought interstate on their own (without a buyers agent)?

Hi,

Any experiences would be great:

- What you would do next time
- What you did well
- Did you adapt your strategy?
- Any troubles you encountered
- Where some cities more difficult than others?

Thank you in advance

 

Bought in QLD.

Just did it myself through word of mouth and due diligence.
Bought in 2015.
See about 5-6% growth pa. Nothing to boast about.

- Inspect before signing the contract
- Buying before inspecting
- Just did what I do back home. Call up the agent and make an offer.
- Troublesome tenants. Queensland has a lot of bogan trash who like to pee on your carpet (no offence to bogans)
- Rates/water/real estate fees are generally higher than back in NSW...

 

Yes, me too.
My advice is: do everything online and when you're at the point where you really want to get that property, fly there to see, smell, touch, listen to it yourself.
Better still, get 2 or 3 properties that you love and visit them altogether. Even if you fly in, fly out in one day, don't miss this important step.

 

As others have pointed out - most of the due diligence you can carry out online. You need to specify your own criteria in order to filter out the properties that you're really after, then it's just a matter of shortlisting the potential candidates.

Once I have a shortlist of properties I'm interested in, what I did was engaging a local PM to inspect the properties for me and provide a report/update on their findings. I then use this information to work out the estimated repair costs and fine tune my offer price based on the gross yield etc.

Once the contract has been OK'd by solicitor I will then make the offer and start negotiating. I don't fly there until the property is under contract to me. That way I save the cost of flying there for every shortlisted property, plus I will be able to make unbiased judgement on my offer price without seeing and emotionally connected to the property.

I used this strategy for QLD purchases and it has worked well for me. You can find more info in my blog - I've noted how I've done it step by step for anyone interested.

Note this strategy may not work for everyone. I've known a lot of investors who are not comfortable putting through an offer before seeing the property themselves. Eventually everyone will work out a way they are comfortable with

 

Interstate, sight unseen. Emails/Phone paid the asking price. Posted the contract. It was pretty risky, I wouldn't do it again. But it hasn't been a total dog.

 

Ditto. Also went to the locations (Qld and Tas) multiple times before making the trip to specifically view properties. I had been monitoring both markets for a few years before determining that it was the time to buy. By the time I made the decision, I knew which areas I was focussing on so when I inspected properties I could be specific. Buying 'round the corner' could bring you more mistakes than buying in another location as you could be complacent when buying nearby.

 

Bought in Melbourne. Going in cold it took a lot of time to select an area. We picked a run down cheap area next to expensive suburbs. Redevelopment of the suburb had already started when we bought. We fid well, so no complaints there. The only real difficulty was obnoxious Melbourne tenants. I find tenants in Perth a lot more chill compared to Melbourne.

 

Thank you, how do you begin your search initially to filter through areas you then take a closer look at?

I am at the beginning of my investment journey and am becoming more knowledgeable however hearing other's strategies (and forming my own) would be great to hear about.

 

@Systematic

What is it that you want with property? And why is that important to you?

This should help you elicit the exact purchasing criteria

 

The area you look for will be limited by your budget and your limiting resource so I would start with these two.

Your budget is pretty simple - how much your broker has told you that you can borrow from the lenders.

Next up identify what your limiting resource is - it will be either cash or serviceability. This will impact how far you can go on your investment journey. Have a listen to this podcast which @Michael_X explained this concept really well.

Once you have these two together then you can jump on re.com.au and use the invest section to identify the suburbs which fit your budget and rent criteria and start looking through listing for deals in those suburbs.

 

There are avenues without a buyers agent, ie getting someone local to go look at your chosen property and comment on the street, the house, its general condition, what it would rent for, its tenant attraction rating, what features it has or hasn't got, etc

Otherwise if you need someone to actually find a property, there's plenty of good BAs on here as well.

 

If you do finally inspect a property, take lots of pictures
Relying on your memory in the following days and months isn't always the best
Nothing worse than paying for a second set of flights and costs

 

@David Shih blogged about this recently:
Strategy – how to effectively buy site unseen

 

Bought in ACT sight unseen, though I did pay a BA to bid for me at auction as I didn't want to do phone bidding and risk any dodgy dealings that may occur by not being at the auction. The BA went above and beyond and took photos and videos of the place too. Was a pretty straight forward process, initial tricky part was going through the property lists, and sometimes not getting responses from agents as they would tend to think you weren't a serious buyer.

 

Bought in Brisbane last year Nov 16.

Yes would do it again

Researching from a distance I did well but used all resources including new ones I didn’t know of. Anything from google maps to re.com.

Yes our purchase was different from what we started out as however we were looking in both Melb and Brisbane on 500-600m2+ (depending on city) and ended up with 1600+ 10km from Brisbane CBD after a number of price reductions and the property being online for over a year.

No troubles encountered besides negotiating to hard, first time I saw he purchase was after we went unconditional. Although I did have family do an inspection prior.

Only was researching Brisbane and Melbourne and had no issues.

 

My partner and I bought real estate last year in Brisbane while we were holidaying in Italy. Never seen the place. Key is to know what you want, really understand the value of the stock your looking at and what is good value/bad value, and then have reliable help on then ground to inspect for you and give you on the ground feedback.

Then it's a matter of calling and negotiating with agent once you are ready to make an offer. Some of the best deals we ever bought were site unseen.

 

Before I worked as a BA I bought interstate several times, but detailed research and sufficient field trips are, in my opinion, are absolutely crucial to success. Buying sight unseen is not recommended, as without an impartial "eye on the ground" so to speak, you are relying on the opinions of those with vested interests (selling agents, property managers) who may not provide the complete picture of your property. I've heard a few horror stories in my time, however one of the most recent was a buyer who bought unknowingly (google earth is useful but only to a point) within spitting distance of high tension power lines. Imagine their surprise when they turned up to inspect the property pre-settlement time - apparently the selling agent had omitted to inform them, but then again they never asked.....

Depending on what state/territory you are buying in ensure you are familiar with the contract law and relevant procedures as every one is slightly different. Seek advice from your conveyancer or solicitor (always use one in the state you're buying in) speak to other investors/buyers who are familiar with the areas and ensure you walk the streets/interview property managers (they can be a wealth of info on the best/worst streets/areas) as part of your DD.

Many investors also make the mistake of rushing to purchase, after only 1-2 interstate trips, falsely underestimating the costs and resources of doing so. After 2 trips without success, and factoring in airfares/accommodation/car hire etc it can often be more economical to have engaged a local BA professional in the first place. It's difficult for some to put a value on local knowledge, contacts and negotiating skill but then again I may come across as a little biased

Best of luck with your impending search

 

I have bought sight unseen with a video walkthrough from agent + b&p, and I would also make trips to other cities adn go see 10-15 places in a weekend and buy something.

 

Buying unseen not as scary as some have it out to be - you should have 1) trusted professional or family member/friend to view 2) building/pest inspector to view 3) bank valuer to view - that's at least 3 or 4 pairs of eyes going through your property, each one taking photos/videos and highlighting where the perceived issues may be

but as always do your own DD - really is a case of caveat emptor