How to spot a bargain

We often get asked by clients and others, “How do you spot a bargain?”.  I pondered on this lately, as we had a recent situation with a property that was clearly underpriced.  It was a unit on Sydney’s lower north shore, with a fixed listing price that seemed to be too good to be true, at approx $50K under what similar units in this particular part of the suburb are generally advertised for.  It came onto our radar on a Tuesday (not an especially active day for home buyers to be out looking) and by the time we were able to arrange a first inspection two days later, the price had increased a further $30K from it’s listing price and had the dreaded “Offers over” now in front of the revised figure.  Obviously, the agent realised his error when enquiries over the 48hrs well exceeded his expectations!  Further investigations revealed an absent owner and a young new agent to the game (who was mysteriously “let go” by the agency a mere few days later…) – no surprises when the principal took over from negotiating and the property later sold for a much better and more realistic price.  In fact, the price was so much higher that we ended up purchasing something else for our client that represented fairer value.

However, this doesn’t always happen and we have had the opportunity in the past to pick up some very well-priced properties on behalf of our clients, because we recognised a good buy, acted quickly and were able to bring the deal together.  Unless you are in the market actively every day, it is much much harder to spot the bargain and act accordingly.