Written by Mark Ruttner on April 20, 2017. Posted in Blog, Real Estate

To state the obvious, ensure that your finance is in place. Obtain a pre approval letter from a financial institution/s stating the amount and terms prior to setting out on you journey to acquire.

1. Ask the most important question of all. Why are you really purchasing and for what reasons? What are you trying to achieve? Are you an owner occupier or a private investor? Is it capital growth or negative gearing?
2. Prepare a detailed list of strategic alliances required to make this happen. Some professionals that come to mind may include buyer’s agent, banker, solicitor, architect, accountant, financial planner or just plain simply a mentor.
3. Decide as to what your key drivers are, is it location, accommodation, price, rental return, capital growth, or simply how long will I be living here.
4. Forget weekends for the first 12 weeks of this journey. You need to become a “property junkie” as soon as you can. To be able to answer question 4, you need to be active in the market place. Just observing. To know what you want you need to observe and take note of the “game”.
   
5. As part of question 5 above, and moving forward you need to start finding properties as close as possible to your best fit. Simply, you will know when this happens and no one needs to assist. You will get that feeling of excitement and WOW factor.
6. Without hesitation call a property expert. Not just a real estate agent with a vested interest. An expert. Hard to find I hear you say. At the very least ring a buyer’s agent and have a chat about values, and the agent’s thoughts. Remember you don’t really need anyone to assist in the decision making process. Get an agent to become your mouth piece at an auction or through a private sale basis.
   
7. If you do appoint a buyers agent, what should come back to you may include any structural issues pertaining to the property, title boundary discrepancies, comparable sales data, a projected value range of sale price, level of interest, and a property acquisition strategy.
8. Decide on the acquisition.
9. Instruct your solicitor to check Contract of Sale and Section 32 documentation.
10. Ensure that you have a cover note ready on purchase of the property.
11. Provide clear instructions to your buyer’s agent.
12. Remember the “feeling” when you sign the Contract of Sale – Good Luck!