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Houses you should definitely avoid when looking to buy
230 Plays4 months ago
In this episode, we dive into the tricky world of real estate listings, uncovering common red flags and deceptive tactics used by agents. I share tips on how to spot over-filtered images, properties that have been on the market too long, and misleading listings. Plus, I give you a rundown on how to avoid problematic homes and make informed decisions when buying a property.
Highlights of this episode:
- Over-filtered images can make properties look better than they are.
- Properties that have been on the market for a long time may have hidden issues.
- Agents often under-quote prices to attract more buyers to auctions.
- Limited photos or descriptions in listings can indicate hidden problems.
- Staged homes might hide issues like mold or structural damage.
- Misleading listings with vague addresses or few details can be a red flag.
- Always do your homework and research the property's market value.
- Visit the property in person to get a true sense of its condition.
- Get independent inspections to uncover hidden problems.
- Ask for comprehensive information from the agent about the property.
- Check the property's history for signs of quick flips or recurring issues.
- Consulting a buyer's agent can help you navigate the market and avoid issues
Need help navigating the home buying process? Get a free assessment and pre-approval assistance from Hunter Galloway! Call 1300 088 065 or visit huntergalloway.com.au.au
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Transcript
Introduction to Real Estate Deceptions
00:00:00
Speaker
Have you ever looked at a house listing and thought, this looks perfect? And then find out there are a bunch of issues there. Well, today we're gonna uncover the secrets behind these two good to be true listings. If you're thinking about buying a home in Australia, we're gonna be diving into the critical topics, the research you need to do, and you'd be really surprised to see some of the tricks that the agents are using to make the listings
Podcast Overview: Home Buying in Australia
00:00:20
Speaker
look better. um Welcome to the Buying Your First Home Podcast, your personal guide through the Australian housing market. Here we tackle the big questions and the small details that come up when buying your first home. From financial prep to finding the right neighbourhood, we're here to ensure that you've got all the knowledge at your fingertips.
Hidden Issues in Perfect Listings
00:00:38
Speaker
So let's take the first step towards unlocking the door to your new home.
00:00:47
Speaker
Lipstick on a pig? Well, I've recently toured some properties and it was shocking to see some of the issues here. A house that looks perfect online might reveal some serious problems once you get digging deeper. All right, Simon, let's get started by setting up a search for a house. So when you're looking for a home, it's essential to have a clear idea of what you're looking. It's gonna save you a lot of time. All right, so I'm sure at this stage, you're familiar with realestate.com. They're you or domains portal and you've probably got your searches already set up. You might be looking for a three bedroom house. You might be looking for a unit or a townhouse, but you're gonna know the suburbs and the areas that you're broadly like.
Spotting Red Flags in Real Estate Photos
00:01:17
Speaker
So now you know what you're looking for, you need to look out for some red flags that you need to evaluate when you're looking for the right home. Spotting these warning signs earlier can save you from a bunch of trouble. Right, so let's run through these major red flags. All right, so the first example is overfiltered images. A bit like people on Instagram, you don't know if what you're getting online is what it's going to be in real life. So it's hard to really show you an overfiltered image just purely by going online to realestate.com.au because you often don't know if they've overfiltered them until you arrive and look at the property in real life. But we found some examples of the kind of things that they can do to make the properties look nicer than they really are. So one example here is a beautiful green grass, laard like looks lovely and lush. What we don't know is that in real life, there's like patches of brown and missing stuff. It's a lot aren't more untidy than it is in the pictures. And this is an example of when
00:02:08
Speaker
ah real estate agent accidentally uploaded both versions of these images to the real estate listing so this is exactly what's happened. A more extreme example is this property that was sold in Launceston so the top image is what the property looked like in real life and below we see the artist's impression which is essentially completely renovated looks like a perfect time when the reality is very different and this property sold for four million dollars as well so this kind of editing can be harmless in some cases you know if they want to spruce up a little bit of grass just to make it look nicer to get you to come and have a look i think that's fine but if they're changing the exterior the property or if they're moving power lines or other things that are really material to what the properties like i think that's a bit of a red flag.
Misleading Real Estate Imagery Tricks
00:02:51
Speaker
something to keep an eye out. If you see super crisp blue skies with lovely clouds, there's a good chance that property has also been edited, so you might want to just keep an eye on that. Yeah, I remember a friend of mine was looking at a property. It seemed like a complete bargain. It was in Nundah here in Brisbane. It was a house that was about $200,000 under market value. He sent it to me and said, man, look at these photos. It's amazing. It seems like the perfect place. I sort of thought and said, oh, those photos look weird. Let's have a look on Google Maps. So he jumped on Google Maps and In the photos, it looked like, you know, no neighbors, pretty clear property. It was all really nice. But in the maps, there was a 15-story apartment complex on one side of it, looking right in. And on the other side, it was right next to a petrol station, which they'd somehow taken the angles at the perfect angle and made it look like this home was a completely independent, beautiful block.
Decoding Long-Duration Listings
00:03:39
Speaker
So little stuff like that, having a double check on Google Maps in Street View can really help save the heartache of going to the home and finding out it's a complete dump.
00:03:46
Speaker
Absolutely. so The next big flag we want to have a look at is properties that have spent a long time on the market. so You can't actually directly see this on realestate.com.au. They kind of hide it behind in the backend, but you can sort properties by oldest to newest. so If you are looking at the properties that are in the older side of things, it could mean that property has been sitting on the real estate website for a couple of months or even more. And that can be a sign of some problems with the property. There's a couple of examples here that I can show you just to see what I mean. So this house here, address available on request, Calamvale, Queensland. This one was one of the oldest properties on the listings in the area. And when you have a look at the photos, you can probably see why.
00:04:31
Speaker
There's a bit of an issue on the roof there. There's a bit of an issue on the roof. They haven't even cleaned up the place before taking photos of it. There's rubbish in the sides. It's not a great listing, so you can see why it's been there for a little while. In some cases, the properties won't look like there are any problems. when you're looking at the listing, but if they have been on there for a couple of months, you need to be thinking about why hasn't somebody bought this property yet?
The Underquoting Game in Auctions
00:04:57
Speaker
So keep an eye out for that. And even you can ask the agents that sometimes say like, have there been other contracts? Have they fallen through? What was the reason for that? Because I've had some clients and you might go through this example here now in Victoria, especially with some of the cladding issues there and
00:05:12
Speaker
There are buildings that are having to do rectification works and fix up claddings that have been on the market for ages. They seem really cheap, but there's underlying issues there that aren't being openly advertised. yeah So this next example from Victoria doesn't have any cladding issues, but it's another example of the kind of listing that you should avoid. So this photo here, at least that being nice enough to tell us that this is an artist impressions only, an example kitchen. And what you really see on the rest of the listings here is just a photo of the street, another photo of the external of the street, and a restaurant. And this listing here is no photos of an actual property. And then when you dig into it, they're selling off-the-plan apartments. So they're not even selling a real property. They're just selling the idea of an apartment at some stage. And that's another thing that can happen on as you're browsing through the listings.
00:05:56
Speaker
Very frustrating. Yeah, next up I want to cover a big one. This is I think one of the most frustrating experiences when you're looking at buying a property is underquoting the price for properties that are selling at auction. This is a massive common thing that real estate agents will do is they'll list the property on domain or real estate and a price bracket that's actually lower than what they expect to sell it for what they want to do is they want to get you excited they want you to go and look at the property get ready to go into option and they want to drive up the price so even if they know that. People who are looking at buying a house for eight hundred thousand kind of for the property the people at the option when they see this fifty interested buys is gonna create the demand so they do it for a reason it's not a very good reason.
00:06:36
Speaker
So there's a couple of examples here. So this property here in Gisborne in Victoria is listed for $530,000 to $580,000. It's a nice looking property. It looks very nice. When you look at the comparable sales though, They've put comparable sales here is 580,000, 575, 550 within a few recent months. Again, that looks pretty good, but if you scroll down to the value guide on realestate.com, you'll see that properties are actually selling for 660, 685, 705. What the real estate agent has listed as comparable isn't the same as what realestate.com.au has. There's a mismatch here and it's a sign that they might be trying to underquote it so they'll get more people to the auction. Yeah, I remember you had an example a couple of years ago of a friend of yours that sold at an auction in Mitchelton. And I remember you saying that the agent sort of advised, well, we'll put it, you know, list it in the real estate to comedy bracket under a million dollars. But really they knew that the house would end up selling for one and a half million dollars. And it did, which is just a crazy amount of difference. I was in Queensland, there's different rules on disclosure in Queensland. There is no auction guide. They just say it's up to the market and the agents will sometimes give them comparable sales. But as in that example there, those sales don't need to be directly comparable. It's a bit of a
00:07:48
Speaker
loose interpretation there is a lot of wiggle room like here's another great example this place in mona vale new south wales looks lovely if you have a look at the listing photos here it's well presented so you know you be pretty stoked to buy this property for a hundred thousand and they've got a price guide And then when you scroll down and take a look at the value guide here, one month ago, a place sold for 1.16 million. Three months ago, 1.25 and another place sold for 2 million. So I think your chances of getting this property for 7.95 is very
Concerns with Limited Listing Information
00:08:23
Speaker
slim. And so you've got to watch out for this stuff. You don't want to get overexcited about the chances of buying a property when it's outside of your price bracket. Now, good point. And another red flag to watch for is limited photos and descriptions. So when a property is listed and there's very few photos or a brief description can be a bit of a sign of the seller trying to hide some issues or definitely needs a bit more investigation. Yeah, and we've got some great examples here. So here is one from
00:08:49
Speaker
Murray Street and Perth. It's got plenty of photos, but when you dig into it, all the photos, there's not really many of the property itself. We get an external view of the property, you get the street view, you get the common area. There's one photo of the kitchen, one photo of the living area, one photo of the bedroom, and then we're straight back to the common areas and external views. There's three photos of the property itself out of the 13 plus photos that they've actually put onto the listing. so This is a red flag. You think there must be some issues there about the apartment itself, otherwise they'd show you more of the photos. They always want to show you the best parts of the property. And if the best parts of the outside, then you might be a bit worried. And see, this is a bit of a sneaky one because that was actually on one of the photos. It's a mantra, so it's a hotel, short-term accommodation, and there's very few banks that would actually lend to first-home buyers for this type of property. You're going to need a 20% or 30% deposit. So they've sort of flagged it below, but been sneaky about it because it's possibly not a one-bedroom apartment. It could be a studio which causes issues for banks.
00:09:46
Speaker
yeah Here's another great example of this property in Bellbird Park, Queensland. Another red flag to look for in general is when they say address available on request, it means that they're trying to hide something in most
Caution with 'Address Available on Request'
00:09:58
Speaker
cases. so Sometimes they're hiding it for a good reason, most of the times they're hiding it for not a good reason. This one they say is a brand new house in the heart of Bellbird Park with a rental return, you know quality inclusions, whole big list of things here. and Then when you take a look at these listings, you can see the size of this photo. It's about the size of a postage stamp. one photo of a bedroom and a bathroom and that's it. So do you think they would be trying to show off the better parts of the property? There's three photos of the property. I mean, I'd be concerned whether this is even actually a real property they're selling or probably, again, trying to sell a house and land package in some way. And that video is said Sydney Real Estate is a property in Queensland, so it's a bit of a mismatch there.
00:10:38
Speaker
The last one I want to show you is just another classic address available upon request and it has just one photo. So this is a massive red flag. I wouldn't be looking at this place in any kind of serious fashion despite what the description here looks like, which is a great description. If they're only showing you one external shot of the house, it's not worth proceeding with. Yeah. And it could be like that one. It's mid-build, it's not finished. So if you're trying to find a home now, it's not going to help. And even then, you know, it's mid-2024 and it said for completion by December, 2023. So there's probably submissions to the builder if it's that far delayed.
Home Staging Illusions and Flaws
00:11:13
Speaker
Another issue that's worth mentioning is overly staged homes. So like staging a home is when people will bring in new furniture and do a few things to dress up the property, make it look as nice as possible when you're selling it. And if it's done well, it just highlights the home and gives you a chance to see what the potential is. But if it's done the wrong way, you can use staging to cover up issues like mold and water damage, structural cracks, you know, you can paint over a water leak without fixing the water leak itself. And some of these staged homes can be made to just hide the issues. So if you're visiting a home and it looks like it's being professionally staged, especially if it's in a lower price bracket, I'd be looking at
00:11:50
Speaker
like signs of water damage, look behind the furniture for hidden cracks, definitely ask about updates or repairs and don't let the decorations distract you from looking at the property's true condition. Another example of a red flag is misleading listings. So those labeled with address available on request can be a bit of a waste of time for buyers because I've seen some like this where it might not have the address When you contact the agent, you go through that whole process, they put your name on the database. It's so frustrating, but the homes can be in a flood zone. They can be right next to the highway. I had one that was in Annerley once. I was looking at it. I thought, oh, this seems like a really good deal. It's in the right price point that the place literally looked onto the highway, the Bruce Highway. So it wasn't a great listing. It was just a frustrating experience to have to call up the agent, go on the data, you know, all
Agent Obligations and Due Diligence
00:12:34
Speaker
that stuff. It's not nice. So a little bonus here, if you are looking at buying a house in New South Wales is I found this information here from Fair Trading about
00:12:43
Speaker
pre-purchase inspection reports and what a real estate agent's obligations are to disclose these reports. What kind of blew my mind here is if you have somebody who's selling a property and they have paid for a pre-purchase report, so say the person who owns the property has done that, they don't actually have to tell the real estate agent that they've had that report. So if there are any major issues there, they don't have to tell the real estate agent and they certainly don't have to tell you as the buyer. Now, theoretically, the real estate agent is supposed to attempt reasonably to obtain any reports that have been completed by the selling agent. But the definition of a reasonable attempt is, hey, Jayden, did you get a building report for your property that you're selling? Yeah. No. If Jayden says no.
00:13:31
Speaker
Well, that's a reasonable attempt. Okay then, I guess we don't have any reports to show. So just a big bye beware here in this situation. Be careful if you are buying New South Wales. If they tell you that they don't have any building reports available, that might not necessarily be true. and we've covered this before especially when you go to auction it can be pretty tempting to use the billion-pest report that the seller is providing. I guess this is another example of yeah doing your own due diligence. You're potentially spending half a million, a million, like sometimes it's a big amount of money that you don't want to find out after the fact once it's your home and it's your problem that there are issues here. So you definitely want to take your time and do your
Key Tips for Avoiding Problematic Purchases
00:14:09
Speaker
homework.
00:14:09
Speaker
which takes us through, you know, some of the tips to avoiding problematic homes, sort of wrapping things up. Tip number one is that doing your homework research is key, you know, specifically on the values, understand the similar comparable sales, and it'll help you ultimately spotting underquoting because if a property is listed and it looks like it's in the sale for 100, 150, $200,000 less than the market, if it looks too good to be true, it probably is. yeah Tip number two is always visit the property in person. like Photos can be deceiving, so you've got to go out there and look at the property with your own eyes. and Not so much of an issue now, but a couple of years ago, there was a lot of people buying properties sight unseen, interstate, and they would go and rock up and they would find the home wasn't really what they thought they were buying. In fact, we recommend you take at least two looks of the property. So go out for the open home, have a walk around, see what the property looks like. And if you do like it, see if you can arrange for a second inspection with a more detailed walkthrough as well. It's going to make a big difference in terms of finding any issues with the property itself. Tip number three, get independent inspections. So always get an independent building and pest report, even if the seller provides a report for the reasons that I said, that the second set of eyes can potentially uncover problems that might have been missed in the initial report, you know, they're only human, but it can ultimately help you uncover costs that are going to be a huge issue for you in the future. Tip number four here, ask for and comprehensive information. So ask for anything that you can think of from the agent. So
00:15:30
Speaker
If the listing has some limited photos or the description isn't great, see if you can get some more information from the agent about this. Any additional photos, floor plans, inspection reports, you can even ask pretty pointed questions about the condition and the history of the house if you have any
Uncovering Hidden Property Issues
00:15:44
Speaker
concerns. know five beware of those staging tricks so when you visit a property try and look beyond just the stagings Pay attention to the conditions of the walls, floors, fixtures, turn on the taps, your lights, everything. Check the signs of water damage, cracks or craftsmanship, you know the gaps between the walls. Staging you know is designed to make a home look the best. So checking it out, like Simon said, more than once can help you uncover any issues. Tip number six is to check the property's history. So have a look at the sales history of the property. If it was sold recently and it's been back on the market with really no significant improvements,
00:16:17
Speaker
There's a couple of potentials here maybe it's a quick flip someone had just bought it and put a fresh fresh coat of paint on and they're selling it for a quick buck. Or it could be that there was some structural issues or some other big problems that have led to a quick resale and they're hoping that you don't find out about them. So, the property history can really reveal patterns about the property that might not be immediately obvious. Tip number seven, understand Strata and body corporate details. So, for units, townhouses, apartments, you really want to review thoroughly the Strata records and or body corporate records if there's high fees.
00:16:50
Speaker
If there's issues that are known like declining, like I mentioned, then they're potentially going to flag special levies in the future that you want to be aware of because again, once a home is yours, it's yours. So it's critical. You can get your solicitor or conveyancer to help you with reviewing these if they're a bit too full
Consulting Professionals for Home Buying
00:17:05
Speaker
on. And tip number eight here is think about consulting a professional. So working with the buyer's agent can be a really good thing. They can provide expert advice. I can help you to navigate the market and they can also identify potential issues with the properties so buyers agents will have seen hundreds thousands of different listings they're pretty good at picking out potential issues and if your first time buyer they can provide a lot of assistance so compared to a selling agent a buyer's agent will work in your best interest and they can save you a lot of time and stress.
00:17:36
Speaker
Alright, so to wrap things up, let's summarize the key points we've covered here. Firstly, over filtered images, check out if the photos look too good to be true, the grass is too green, it may be a red flag. Secondly, long time on the market, if properties have been listed for an extended period, there could be issues. They could have been asking for too much, but oftentimes there are issues there underlying. Third is under quoting, the listing looks too cheap, it could be. So make sure you do your due diligence and check out That fourth is limited photos and descriptions. So listing with few photos or descriptions definitely warrants extra questions when you're speaking with the agents. Five is overly staged homes. So staging for things like full layout, outdated fixtures and signs of damage should be careful of that. And six is just misleading listings. If there's no address available, some agents do this as a tactic to get you on in their database, but other times it could mean the property is in an industrial precinct. Who knows? Find out the address and make sure you're not wasting your time.
00:18:29
Speaker
And so we'll just quickly recap the tips in how you can really avoid any issues with the property you're buying. So number one, do your homework. Always have a look at recent sales in the area to look at the market values. Two is you've got to visit the property in person. You can't trust the photos. You've got to take a look at the property with your own eyes. Number three is to get independent inspections. So even if the seller has property reports and building and pest, you've got to get your own independent reports to make sure that there are no hidden problems. Tip number four is comprehensive information. So if there are missing details on the listing, just ask the real estate agent, check the property's history, take a look at the sales history to identify potential quick flips or any recurrent issues and consult a professional. If you're worried about buying a property with issues, buyer's agents can really help you through the process.
Hunter Galloway's Mortgage Services
00:19:15
Speaker
By following these tips, you can be well equipped to avoid any problematic houses and issues in the future. If you are thinking of buying a home, Hunter Galloway can help. We can offer a free assessment to help you through the property journey and make informed decisions. We've got plenty of tips to help you through the searching process. We're a mortgage broker based in Brisbane. We help phone buyers all across Australia. So visit us at huntergalloway.com.au or call us on 1300 08065. Until next time, see you guys.