We spend most of our time talking about finding the right property, but what about the steps you can take the avoid buying the wrong property? Buying in the wrong location can set you back in a big way. Over the years, we’ve seen many people make the mistake and get tricked into buying into strange areas. These ill-informed purchases, more often than not, are the result of a compelling story attached to it. We’re a firm believer in letting data to the talking and let emotion take a back seat.

There are many reasons we’ve seen relatively switched on investors make poor real estate buying decisions. In most cases, however, the reason comes down to skilled property “spruiker” that targets investors who, for one reason or another, are too busy to do the correct level of due diligence.

In most cases it’s not until a proper level of due diligence is undertaken that particular properties become a poor investment. We’ve found that once we go out and visit these specific sites, the initial appeal conveyed by the salesman quickly begins to unravel. In most occasions, these supposed “fantastic locations” can be:

• Flood prone
• Feature eyesores like power lines or substations
• Be close to major road noise
• Have large industrial zones nearby
• Have high rental vacancy rates

In years past, we’ve seen many locations touted as the next “booming market.” These areas usually go hand in hand with vacancy rates as high as 6-7%, meaning your rental yield will be in serious jeopardy (and any chances of significant capital gain).

So, how do we help find out clients property in the RIGHT location? The answer is surprisingly simple. To begin with, we look for high demand markets with vacancy rates under the 2% mark. From there, we take a look at a diverse range of key market indicators to give us an insight into the overall economic health of the particular region we’re targeting. Another good sign is finding areas with a high percentage of “owner-occupiers.” In our time, we’ve seen plenty of large-scale developments where it looks like nearly 80% of the people living there are renters, this is never a good sign.

At Logica Property, we go above and beyond to understand the ins and outs of every location we put forward to our clients. We do the due diligence to understand all the unique factors that a particular location exhibits. We listen for road noise, examine the community, meet the people and most importantly, put ourselves in the shoes of potential tenants in the area to get insights into the areas long-term investment prospects.

In the course of our lives, we partake in a huge number of transactions. Few are higher stakes than that of selling a property.

Regardless of what stage of life you’re at, selling your property can be a tremendously huge decision to make.  Finding and choosing the perfect selling agent for such an occasion is often the difference between selling at an average price and an extraordinary price.

As a buying agent, we spend the vast majority of our working lives interacting with a variety of selling agents from all walks of life. As a result, we’ve become particularly attuned to the characteristics that separate a good agent from a great agent.

Here are the steps we recommend you take when looking for the perfect agent:

Research

Whilst this probably seems like a pretty obvious first step, you’d be surprised how often we hear vendors say that they picked the first agent that was recommended to them, even worst, it might be a family friend. There are a number of fantastic resources on the web that will give you up to date and accurate data on who the top performing agents are in your area. Keep in mind, sometimes the agent with the most number of listings isn’t the best choice.  Here are some easy-to-use tool that you can use in the process of researching and finding a great selling agent for your property.

http://www.openagent.com.au 

https://www.realestate.com.au/find-agent 

 https://www.localagentfinder.com.au

Keep it local

One of the things that we have grown to truly appreciate is how different the various suburbs of Sydney and Adelaide are from one another. Different demographics, socio-income status and lifestyle. For a selling agent, being attune to these subtle differences plays a huge part in the successful sale of a property. This local knowledge can be hugely advantageous at all stages of the selling process, so making sure you find someone with this knowledge should definitely be a top priority for you.

See the agent in action

Once you managed to build a shortlist of potential agents, the best way to validate your assumptions is to go out and see how they perform in their duties. The simplest way to do this is to go out and visit the open for inspections for the listings they’re currently managing. For some, finding the time to go out to an open for inspection can often be a challenge, so in lieu of this, we would recommend you make an enquiry on a listing and see how they perform. Some of the things worth taking into consideration are;

How do they communicate with prospects, do they communicate in a manner that you’re comfortable with?

What is their body language like? Do they convey the level of competence that will instil prospects with confidence in their abilities?

Did they proactively follow up with you after the inspection? (take note of whether or not they truly listen to you when discussing your needs)

Were they on time and well presented at the open for inspection?

Was the property marketed in an innovative manner? Were the online photos of high quality? Did they do anything unique?

Follow your gut

Sometimes, how you FEEL about an agent should be something you take into account when making the big decisions. You want to be comfortable that this person is going to be honest, personable and easy to deal with, because let’s face it, you’re going to seeing this person a lot of the period that your house is for sale.

Check the results

At this stage, you’ve probably got a pretty good idea as to who you want to sell your property. It’s now we would recommend taking a look at the cold heart facts around how this agent performs. Ask for undiluted facts around sale prices, time on market etc.

Here are some resources you’ll find helpful on your quest to quantify to qualitative.

http://www.onthehouse.com.au

https://www.realestate.com.au/sold

As a final note, we’d love to help you find a great agent, feel free to contact us for recommendations.