Possible Building and Pest Inspector Scam

Interesting topic (wow, thought I was the only paranoid one who always thought of conspiracy theories.....)
Anyway, earlier this year I decided to have a look up in Bendigo and see if there was anything of interest. One of the properties I visited was a heritage listed house, but on a huge block (i think ~1700sqm) and fairly close to town centre. Property was on the market for quite a bit of time - one of the drawbacks was a narrow easement runing through part of the property. So during the week I spoke to one of the local town planners in Bendigo and discussed some possibilities in terms of subdivision, etc. To cut a long story short, a few days later when I called the agent again, it went under offer the day before - go figure!

 

Agree 100%. None of their business if they ask. From you're side of things, best practice is to refrain from talking numbers with people that could possibly hijack the deal until at least after it's yours. That's the safest way of doing business of this nature.

 

If anything I'd be more concerned about other professionals ( although the chances of them doing it is very low).

A broker would be privy to all the numbers and it's would be easy enough for them to say 'sorry, just ran your serviceability - you'd better pull out under the Fi ace clause'.

Or a BA might find the perfect deal for you only to decide they want it & never present it to the client.

Realistically though these guys see 100 houses a month, how many do you think they can buy (or risk their lively hood on) per year?

 

If it makes you feel any better I just passed on a block I was looking at for myself to a client.

 

I avoided a P&B inspector last week cause he kept asking about the pricing of the place I was looking at...it was one I was hoping to pick up cheap at auction.. went higher than I hoped anyway..

 

A little bit.

 

Not all are licensed builders. In NSW, you dont need to be, to do building inspections, you do to do pest. I know a certain chap, who will crawl like a snake when caught out, but still continues to operate.