CanOz
Home runs feel good, but base hits pay bills!
- Joined
- 11 July 2006
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I mentioned i would start a new thread regarding our property purchase and since we have not settled yet i thought i would cover the beginning of the story leading up to the purchase including our hiring of a buyers agent.
My wife and i wanted to purchase our first investment property, something we should have done a couple of years ago when we first got married. After taking care of some other goals and in the meantime seeing her favorite property market (Sydney) go ballistic, we decided we were going to need some help finding the best place to invest. I was concerned about buying the top of the Sydney market but yet she wanted something in the city.
Trainspotter suggested a place outside of Brissy, a house near Helensvale. Then he suggested a buyers agent, Todd Hunter of the WhereGroup. My wife, being of Shanghai origin was quite skeptical of using a buyers agent. We even got some sceptism from a friend of hers, a RE agent from Australia...
After we searched hundereds of properties online around the Brisbane and Sydney areas (a couple of weeks of work) I managed to convince her that a buyers agent in our circumstances made allot sense.
So we start to research buyers agents. We shortlisted two. Todd Hunter of the WhereGroup and Matt Reeves of Your Property Hound. Let me first say that both these gentlemen we very professional, extremely savvy with property and very passionate about investing for the future.
In the end Matt won out, partly due to the price. He was cheaper than Todd and he was from Brisbane, Todd is from Sydney but researches all across Australia....much broader focus.
So with Matt hired we scheduled our trip to Brissy and eagerly awaited his research. A week or so later he delivered us a half dozen or so places to look at. We soon left for Brisbane and met Matt the following day to start the inspections.
Our brief was to find a place with a gross yield of over 5%, net over 4%. So we wanted low costs. We had approximately 400k to invest, so that limited us to units/apartments. We wanted good opportunity for growth and a good vacancy rate. So that meant close to the CBD and the public transport options, schools, shops etc.
Matt found us these half dozen unique properties. We looked at them all, some more than once and then eventually selected one. We peppered him with so many questions about proprty investing he didn't know what hit him...he was very gracious with his knowledge and was very keen to teach all he could in our brief time with him.
I'll go into more detail on the property and the process a little later after settlement.
For anyone not familiar with an area, a buyers agent can potentially save you thousands and give you a great hands on start in your property investment education as well.
The WhereGroup
Your Property Hound
Todd's blog is very good to subscribe to as well. There are lots of little interesting views of the property market that he posts quite regularly.
So thanks allot to Trainspotter for the great ideas...
Oh, the gross yield was 6.5%, net was 4.5% and the property gives us cash flow of 570 per week when fully rented.
My wife and i wanted to purchase our first investment property, something we should have done a couple of years ago when we first got married. After taking care of some other goals and in the meantime seeing her favorite property market (Sydney) go ballistic, we decided we were going to need some help finding the best place to invest. I was concerned about buying the top of the Sydney market but yet she wanted something in the city.
Trainspotter suggested a place outside of Brissy, a house near Helensvale. Then he suggested a buyers agent, Todd Hunter of the WhereGroup. My wife, being of Shanghai origin was quite skeptical of using a buyers agent. We even got some sceptism from a friend of hers, a RE agent from Australia...
After we searched hundereds of properties online around the Brisbane and Sydney areas (a couple of weeks of work) I managed to convince her that a buyers agent in our circumstances made allot sense.
So we start to research buyers agents. We shortlisted two. Todd Hunter of the WhereGroup and Matt Reeves of Your Property Hound. Let me first say that both these gentlemen we very professional, extremely savvy with property and very passionate about investing for the future.
In the end Matt won out, partly due to the price. He was cheaper than Todd and he was from Brisbane, Todd is from Sydney but researches all across Australia....much broader focus.
So with Matt hired we scheduled our trip to Brissy and eagerly awaited his research. A week or so later he delivered us a half dozen or so places to look at. We soon left for Brisbane and met Matt the following day to start the inspections.
Our brief was to find a place with a gross yield of over 5%, net over 4%. So we wanted low costs. We had approximately 400k to invest, so that limited us to units/apartments. We wanted good opportunity for growth and a good vacancy rate. So that meant close to the CBD and the public transport options, schools, shops etc.
Matt found us these half dozen unique properties. We looked at them all, some more than once and then eventually selected one. We peppered him with so many questions about proprty investing he didn't know what hit him...he was very gracious with his knowledge and was very keen to teach all he could in our brief time with him.
I'll go into more detail on the property and the process a little later after settlement.
For anyone not familiar with an area, a buyers agent can potentially save you thousands and give you a great hands on start in your property investment education as well.
The WhereGroup
Your Property Hound
Todd's blog is very good to subscribe to as well. There are lots of little interesting views of the property market that he posts quite regularly.
So thanks allot to Trainspotter for the great ideas...
Oh, the gross yield was 6.5%, net was 4.5% and the property gives us cash flow of 570 per week when fully rented.