Overseas Buyers

Global clients, local expertise

If you are an investor from outside of Australia or an Australian expat abroad, it’s impossible to make the right property investment decisions without local help. But Tracey Chandler can be your eyes and ears even while you are stationed elsewhere, even on the other side of the world. 

It is never easy buying a property when you aren’t physically in the country. As if property investments weren’t challenging enough, there are other additional difficulties that overseas property buyers must face.

Some of those difficulties include:

• Not being able to personally inspect properties
• Lack of knowledge of current local market conditions
• Getting tricked into paying more than the actual value of the property
• Communication delays and other related problems associated with negotiating from overseas
• Different time zones are often inconvenient for dealing with the FIRB, agents and other professionals operating during Australian business hours
• Rapidly rising market prices that change within a matter of weeks (i.e., waiting for you to return to Australia before purchasing property could leave you completely priced out of your intended market by the time you arrive).

As an overseas buyer, you have three options:

• Wait until you arrive in Australia to purchase property – and risk missing out on current market conditions that still make properties within your reach (because property prices are rising by the day).
• Do your own property search online and rely on family or friends in Australia to do the legwork for you. Ask them to inspect properties for you, negotiate with the seller’s agent for the lowest price possible, then organise everything and everyone needed to complete the contract and settlement (including consulting professionals like solicitors, pest and building specialists, strata managers, mortgage lenders, etc.). Expect them to do all of that while competing with local property buyers who have the best agents working for them (including Tracey Chandler herself, whom your contacts will have to outsmart).
• Engage Tracey as your buyer’s agent and have her find and purchase property for you.

There is only one way you can face so many challenges, quickly and easily, get Tracey Chandler. Tracey regularly represents overseas buyers like yourself, whether they’re expatriates or foreign resident buyers.

Foreign investors, in particular, are often persuaded by real estate agents and marketing companies to believe that their properties will make fail-proof investments. However, many have failed. The reality is that some potential investments are overvalued and problematic, which are downplayed by their agents and not apparent to expats and foreigners who lack the local knowledge and expertise.

Thus, well-publicised property sales can still prove costly at best, if not financially disastrous. Without the guidance of someone like Tracey, you face serious risks. How could you be sure that the information you are hearing or reading about a particular property is true? And even if true, how accurate and complete are the property descriptions and accompanying photos? Who can tell you if its location is right for your needs and financial goals? Is it priced fairly? Is there enough to prove that it will be a sound investment?

All the more reason why you should get Tracey as your buyer’s agent in Brisbane’s Bayside. Let her handle your property purchase and you won’t need to worry about the risks, even while you’re far from Australia.

Tracey will facilitate the whole process for you, from start to finish:

• Contact her extensive network of seller’s agents working in the Bayside area to identify all available properties, including those still unlisted.
• Search and assess the best properties that fit your needs and goals.
• Conduct guided tours of the properties through Facetime/WhatsApp
• Take extra photos and videos of the actual property (to see if there is any difference from online photos or pictures provided by the vendor).
• Prepare meeting notes or communications reports, to help keep you remember every detail and stay fully informed.
• Coordinate all the steps to the purchase (i.e., whether by auction or negotiation); organise pre-settlement consultations with solicitors, pest and building inspections and reports, contract requirements, signatories, mortgage lenders, etc.
• Recommend professionals to help with any other issues with the property, including lawyers, tradespeople, property managers, etc.
• Facilitate pre-settlement and settlement.