I recently caught up with a mate who’s friend had bought what seemed like a special apartment- ocean views, a stroll to the sand. They moved in and soon after were hit with some expensive special levies which their solicitor hadn’t mentioned from the strata review.
You may have heard similar stories, about someone who bought a place and then found out about a serious issue afterwards.
Today’s tip can potentially help you to find out about these issues, and save you a lot of money and heartache- and it’s simple to do.
Before buying, chat to the neighbours! You can do this informally, maybe take your dog for walks around the street or building you’re thinking of buying, stop and chat to the locals. Or you can do some door knocking, or slip a friendly note in neighbours letterboxes.
Use a simple opener question like, “this seems like a great area, how have you found living here?”- then the trick is to let them do all the talking.
People love to share and be helpful and appear knowledgeable and with a little effort you can find out some critical insider information that might make the difference between you being very happy or very UNhappy with your purchase!
I hope you found this useful and look forward to bringing you another tip next week.
