“The power of many will always outweigh the power of one”.
In everyday life, we utilise the skills of professionals almost daily. If your car suddenly blew a head gasket, you’d typically call a mechanic, and if you tore a ligament in your knee you’d certainly consult with a qualified surgeon. Every day we find ourselves consulting and outsourcing tasks to professionals in multiple areas of our lives, and we propose that the property game should be no different.
Thanks to the development of technology and smart devices, multiple areas of property have become relatively easy to navigate and research by both buyers and vendors. Many Australians often browse websites such as “Realestate.com.au” and “Domain.com.au” to search for available properties, market statistics and general property-based articles and reports. Since the market is now so accessible through our personal mobile devices and computers, many people take on the huge task of searching for their own future homes or investment properties by themselves without the help of a professional team.
Common team members in the property game include property managers, mortgage brokers, buyer’s agents (that’s us!), property managers, solicitors/conveyancers, financial planners and real estate agents.
Without the support of these team-members, there is a significant number of property-related tasks that a buyer would have to take on alone. A few of these tasks include: finding a quality home or investment-grade property, negotiating with the vendor or estate agent, interpreting the land title and contract during the contract exchange process, sourcing a suitable home loan, and more. However, we advocate to every single one of our clients that they should utilise the skills of qualified and well-educated professionals in order to make the purchasing process a smoother, more informed, and stress-free experience – and here’s why.
Property-related professionals are qualified and experienced experts in their field. Their primary job is to take the stress out of the property acquisition process for you and to assist you in making informed and educated decisions. Quite a few of our clients come through our doors with misconceptions about these professionals and their services. Frequent questions include: aren’t these people’s services quite expensive? Are they just going to take my cash and mislead my decision making? Aren’t I simply better off doing everything myself?
The answer to a majority of these questions is no. With regard to the first question, professionals in the property game earn their money through making the acquisition process as easy and stress-free for their clients as possible. Most of these businesses also thrive off positive client-referrals. This means that if they misled their clients to make poor financial decisions, this negative word-of-mouth would eventually spread and create a poor reputation for the business. In order for a property professional’s business to thrive, it is in their interests to make their client’s priorities their priorities.
With regard to the costs of these professional services, peace of mind in the property acquisition process will typically come with a service fee, however, in the words of Warren Buffett “I have made more money through the deals I didn’t do rather than the deals I have done”.
Property professionals, particularly buyer’s agents, are there to help you avoid bad investments and common property-related pitfalls – particularly for first-home buyers or inexperienced investors. By investing money in the services of professionals who will assist you in making an informed and well-researched choice regarding the property, the home loan, contract negotiation and more, it can help buyers avoid making costly mistakes in the long run. Plus, most professional services in the property investment game are also tax deductible!
Finally, with regard to spending your own time conducting research, every investor or homebuyer should partake in the decision-making and education process associated with property. However, most people also have limitations and are constrained by time and expertise. A property buyer CAN go and evaluate hundreds and hundreds of properties and home loans listed online, however; do they have time to liaise with every bank in existence and assess all of the available home loan products? Do they have time to read and understand the legal jargon contained within every loan document? Do they have the legal experience required to analyse a property’s land title and contract? Certainly not often – especially those who can acknowledge their own personal limitations.
At Atlas Property Group, we provide value and peace of mind to clients through investing 50+ hours of research into the properties that we put forward for recommendation. We analyse the market data with our client’s priorities at the forefront of our minds and utilise our multiple industry partners across all states and territories to ensure that our buyers gain access to the best deals on or off the market.
After conducting the due diligence on the property, we provide our clients with a 40-50+ page property report so that they can assess the data for themselves and know that they are making a well-researched and highly informed decision. Once our clients have made a decision on the property, we conduct the negotiations on their behalf to secure the property as the best (and often below-market) price! We also walk them through the entire settlement process alongside our industry partners to ensure that the entire purchase process is simple and stress-free.
For all of these reasons and more, we recommend that all buyers surround themselves with a professional, experienced and high performing team in order to achieve their property goals. It will save you time, money and stress in the long run and help you avoid costly mistakes in the property market.
