Property Investment: Help My Property Won't Sell
It is commonly said that you make money when you buy
, not when you sell. However, often this lesson is not learned until you try to sell a property.
I remember the first property I tried to sell. It was a two-bedroom unit in a small complex of eight. A lovely unit ... only four years old in an upmarket growing suburb. I was moving to another state in Australia and wanted the property sold, to enable me to buy another home in Queensland.
The property took over 12 months to sell. Three contracts fell over due to finance issues for the purchaser. That was my first experience in selling a property. The emotional roller-coaster was challenging. Initial excitement when the offer was negotiated and accepted, followed by confidence when the contract was signed, followed by disappointment when finance was not approved for the purchaser. The final emotion was frustration when the contract fell over. This happened three times.
Prior to this experience I believed properties took on average three months to sell, depending on the current market conditions.
A few years later, we decided to sell one of our properties. This time it took close to two years to sell.
The property was a 2000 square metre property in a beautiful coastal holiday town. The property had zoning that allowed for the development of eight two and three-bedroom townhouses. The property was ideally located on the main road, a couple of hundred metres from the shopping precinct and beach, had two street access and was very close to community amenities such as a child-care centre, school and bus stop.
One month after we purchased the property we were offered $70,000 more than what we had paid for it. We had no intentions of selling the property at the time.
Later, on realisation that we did not have the experience, contacts or time to develop the property, we decided to sell it.
The first two offers we received were from developers. The offered a 12-month settlement contract. They would pay an upfront amount, with the balance paid in 12 months. This contract suited them. They got to hold the property with little money down. Negotiations could not get the terms of the contract suitable to both parties, and both contracts stalled.
In hindsight we should have accepted the contracts. These were the first two offers we received. We expected more offers to come in that didn't have a 12-month settlement term.
The market turned, developers pulled out of the market, residential construction slowed down and our property took an additional 18 months to sell.
Holding a property for an additional 12 months to two years is not good from a cash-flow perspective.
It is important to consider the type of investor you are, before you risk buying a property that is wrong for your investment strategy.
Don't assume you can just sell a property if you need to. When selling, the market is in control. The market determines when it wants to buy, what it wants to buy and for how much.
This experience provided one of our biggest lessons in property investing ... know what type of investor you are, and be that type of investor only.
by: Suzie Crawford
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