You often hear stories when chatting to friends and family about property about property bargains that people have managed to snaffle up, where they’ve paid a lot less for the property than it’s really worth.
So how do we hunt to find one of these for ourselves? Momentum Wealth have put together five things to look for and reasons vendors could end up selling you a property for much less than its worth.
INDIFFERENCE
Sometimes property sellers don’t care what the market value of a property is and the higher priority is to sell the property as quickly as possible.
A good example is a mortgagee-in-possession where a lender has taken possession of a property and want to dispose of it as soon as possible to recover the debt owed on it.
Mortgagee sales can be a good opportunity for buyers to take advantage of.
IGNORANCE
Getting an totally accurate quote for a property can sometimes be quite complex for sellers.
For example, vendors might not be aware of zoning laws in the area and have compared their property to similar ones in the area without knowing they are in different zoning codes.
It is also harder for sellers to keep track of exactly what their property is worth when they live interstate or even better, overseas.
DELIBERATE
Although rare, sellers can actually try to sell a property for less than it’s worth on purpose, such as when a marriage break up has turned sour and one partner uses the sale of a property as revenge.
DESPERATION
Sellers can find themselves backed into a corner and feeling like they have no other option but to sell under value.
They may be being threatened by a bank with repossession for example, and will take an offer much lower than what their property is really worth.
EMOTIONAL PRESSURE
We all know that sometimes it’s hard not to crack under pressure and selling property is no exception. In fact, buying and selling property is one of the harder tests of an individual’s ability to handle pressure with so much money and future at stake.
It is often common to find sellers who are becoming irrational in the market as they feel the rising pressure. For example, if a vendor can’t sell their property quickly and has it sitting on the market for a long period they can easily have a rush of blood and slash the price to avoid any further fears and uncertainties that they may never sell their dwelling.
This is a prime situation where a buyer can capitalise on an emotional seller and put in a successful offer that is a lot lower than what the property is actually worth.
