Buying a property is one of the biggest purchases you will ever make in your life. You might only do this few times in your lifetime and if you get it wrong (even once) it could set you back and cost you a lot of money and stress.
When purchasing property, emotion is very much part of the journey and it takes a lot of will power and a particular type of personality to stay level headed and not get caught up in the purchase, especially if it is a property you will live in. When emotion takes over, in most facets of life, some important things can get missed. When it comes to missing important factors in property, it can cost you big time and potentially cause buyers regret.
Below are two recent stories that highlight the importance of having someone who can help bring balance and objectivity to a property purchase and reduce the potential of buying the wrong property or pay too much.
Recently, some Maitland home buyers engaged me to help them find their next home. They were an older downsizer couple who had already sold their home and were now living in a friends flat, out in the backyard. This couple weren’t desperate, but that point wasn’t far off. We had been searching for a few weeks and had inspected a number of properties, but none of them were very suitable at all due to a number of factors, including price. Then one property became available that ticked a few boxes but it still had a few issues and was slightly over priced. Part of my job as a buyers agent is to make my clients aware of both the positives and the negatives of a property but it is usually their decision whether those aspects add to the properties suitability or potentially be deal breakers and cause them to walk away. The positives of this property weren’t that exciting and the negatives weren’t partially deal breakers, but I felt my clients were getting to that point of desperation. After some extra due diligence, they asked me to start negotiations and see what was the best deal we could get. After a few days of back and forth, we were able to get to an agreed price and we were moving forward to an exchange. I sensed my clients had reached the point of “this will have to do” and had settled for this property even though it wasn’t floating their boat. My job usually doesn’t entail telling my clients which property they should buy. But in this instance, I felt I had a rapport with my clients and encouraged them with a conversation saying “I feel like you might be settling for second best. Take some time and really consider if this is the best home for you.” They rang me the next day and thanked me for speaking up and ask me to withdraw their offer. Only two weeks later, we found the perfect property for them, that ticket all their boxes plus more. We were able to secure the property well within their budget with a strategic negotiation.
This situation was such a win for my clients. They absolutely love their new home and have not regretted pulling out of the other property purchase one bit. They have thanked me on numerous occasions for having that initial conversation.
Only a few weeks ago I attended an auction in Lake Macquarie, simply to do some research and potentially see if this particular home would get passed in as it could have been a potential option for one of my clients. The asking price was reasonably high at $775,000 and I felt the property was worth more in the low to mid $700’s due it’s unique characteristics and some issues the property had. I spoke to the agents before the auction and they indicated they were very confident the property wouldn’t get passed as their was a young couple from a previous auction (only 1 hr earlier with the same agent) that were the under bidders (second highest bidders) and the property sold at $840,000. As the auction started, I noticed there was only two registered bidders, the young couple, and an older couple who were standing next to me. As soon as the auctioneer asked for opening offers, this young couple (possibly a first home buyer) jumped straight in with a bid of $830,000. Wow!!!! Everyone else at the auction let out a audible sigh. As the auctioneer did his thing and tried to get a second bid, I asked the other registered bidders what they thought the property was worth, and they said “mid $700’s’ as the auctioneer tried to get them to bid. But they refused and kept shaking their heads. The auction was paused and the young couple were ushered into the home. After a few minutes later, they came out after I assume the agent tried to squeeze them a little more. The auctioneer indicated the bid had increased to $835k and the young couple put up their paddle indicating it was them. The auction was finished the young couple were declared the winners at $835,000, a mere $50,000 over the asking price and $75,000 more than I (and the other bidders) thought it was worth.
I can’t confirm what exactly happened, but I have seen this a few times. I believe this young couple were so disappointed in missing out on the previous auction, that the selling agent grabbed a hold of their emotion and encouraged them to go hard and put in their highest offer straight away and “scare off” any other bidders to potentially avoid missing out again. The agent knew how much money they had and used this tactic to drive up the price. This is not to criticise the selling agent, because his job is to achieve the best price for his client (the vendor) as he is not representing the buyer. The agent was so “determined” in his job, that he even squeezed another $5000 out of the young buyers in the negotiations mid auction.
I felt so sorry for this couple. They visibly were emotional during and after the auction and this has potentially cost them a lot of money. They had no one representing them and were having to deal with an vendor who had a savvy agent and experienced auctioneer representing them. I’m not sure if this young couple will have “buyers regret” or not, but I certainly felt for them and I had wished I could have helped them.
So, those two examples show how having representation as a buyer can not only help ]avoid “buyers regret” but can also assist to avoid buying the wrong property or potentially pay too much money. An experienced buyers agent can save you a lot of heart ache and save you a lot of hard earned money.
So if you are looking at buying in the Newcastle, Lake Macquarie or Maitland areas, please reach out if you think you might need representation when buying a property. It could be as simple as utilising our negotiation or auction package.
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