30 Questions To Ask When Buying A House Or Investment Property

today let me share with you the 30 questions that you must ask the seller the next door neighbor and the estate agent before buying that next investment property hi my name is tony law from your first four houses and my channel is all about helping you replace a job based income with just a handful of investment properties so you can give up the day job if you wish and go and do something more interesting with your life if this is your first time here be sure to subscribe to the channel and click that bell notification icon so that you don't miss out on any of the free content i give you each and every week so in my online property masterclass program i have some very advanced negotiating strategies to deal with both sellers when you're doing dealing directly with the seller and also when you're working with estate agents but i wanted to give you some really good tips and some strategies here that will help you when you're dealing and negotiating on deals and in particular i want to give you 30 key questions that you should be asking the seller the neighbor and also the estate agent now these are going to reveal a lot of information so let's just quickly put these over here and let's dive straight into the questions that you should be asking the seller before we do so though your attitude here is going to be to build rapport with the seller you don't want to do anything that's going to annoy them that's going to bug them it's all about building a really good rapport with the seller so why don't you start off with so can i just ask you why are you selling maybe ed because it's a really lovely house that's a great way to kind of reveal their motivations for moving on and it might actually open up another thread of conversation so what's your time scale will obviously give you an indication of how quickly they're looking to move and they may turn around and say well actually we need to get this moving really rather quickly obviously in which case you're going to follow on with do you mind if i ask why or something like that now if you know that it's been sitting on the market for quite some time why don't you ask them so have you had much interest now i know that's generally a question that you would direct towards the estate agent but if you built up the rapport you can feel comfortable asking the seller and you may well get back um a negative on the amount of interest that they've had and you can then explore that thread of a conversation why do they think they haven't had much interest now if you've already downloaded the title deeds i think if you if you've got a property in mind and it's a really interesting property you should be downloading the title deeds and you see that there are two people's names at the top of the title deeds but you're talking to one person ask the question so um is this property just in your name i hope you don't mind me asking if they say yes then you've got to ask yourself some questions why is there two names on the title deeds but you're only talking to one person because if there are two names on there well frankly both parties have got to agree to the sale if it's tenanted why don't you ask so um do you have a copy of the tenancy agreement that i could have a look at please now you need to see a tenancy agreement you don't want to be purchasing a property where you have a tenant that's actually going to be sitting in that property and you can't get them out i've certainly come across properties like that now they may turn around and say oh i i actually don't have one to hand at the moment which might mean that they don't have one so you need to make sure that you've got it and it's passed to your solicitor before you go any further with a purchase on this property can i just ask you what are the neighbors like now honestly this is where you may all find that they uh tell a little bit of a porcupine and they say they get on with everybody or they might turn around and say well actually we got really really well uh with sally next door on the left here we don't really have much to do with the people on the right well i would want to be talking to the people on the right if that's the case if there's no obvious parking space or garage that you can see with the property ask them so is there any allocated parking and listen to what comes back because what you might get back is oh yes of course well we always park there well that's not the same as allocated parking the fact that they always stick their car there might actually be a massive bone of contention with the neighbors is not the same as allocated parking do you know that if there are any tree preservation orders on the property now you would want to ask this question obviously if there are trees but perhaps more importantly if you're thinking about building out any extension or developing the property in any way it's obviously easy to find this out on site but if you're there just ask the question have they carried out if they've carried out any extensions you might also want to ask so can i just confirm did you get planning permission for this and also do you have a copy of the building reg certificate now it's true to say that they may have carried out any extensions as part of permitted development on the site which is fine if so you need to check that but they must have a building regs document if they don't have one of those it kind of suggests that they might actually have maybe not done it competently so again you may need to pursue that line of conversation further this is always a bit of a cheeky one do you mind if i just turn on the taps just to check the water pressure bit cheeky but if you're turning this place into an hmo you need to know that there's the water pressure there one of my hmos is an eight bed hmo with all ensuite bathrooms frankly if i did not have the water pressure there i would really have struggled to actually get this place to work efficiently with all the showers going at the same time yes you can pump it but that's not ideal on the subject of pump when you turn the water on listen is there a pump going now if it's a flat you need to ask questions like who are the block managing agents you're then going to go home and google them find out a little bit more about them also ask them do you know if they've got a sinking fund now if you're not aware what sinking fund is every block managing agent should have a fund into which the leaseholders put money so when the roof blows off or when a fence comes down or when there's damp that needs to be remedied they don't come to each individual leaseholder with their hand out looking for funds they've got it pulled inside a sinking fund you need to ask what are the service charges again thinking about if it's a flat here now one of my properties is in london and the service charges are really very high dare i say maybe that's if i don't know it's a negative if you're looking at selling this property on maybe not so if you're just renting it out but the service charges if they're high should have an impact on how much you actually pay for this property now this is one that was given to me by simon zucci it's an awesome question and it is so let me ask you what's the lowest you'd be willing to accept and still be happy is a killer question and you've got to use it appropriately if you're dealing directly with the seller and honestly you might get back a lower figure than you actually had for buying the property in the first place so what sort of questions should be you be asking the neighbor now first of all your attitude with the neighbor naturally needs to be warm and friendly and you need to kind of go in from the perspective that you're seeking their advice you're really hoping that they can give you a little bit of advice on the property because you're going to be moving in probably next door people love to give advice and if you ask these types of questions you're probably going to get some really quite accurate answers maybe dare i say it in comparison to if you ask the seller these questions is it a nice area to live that may sound like a bonkers question to ask but it's a great one to start off with and you may get back some information that you weren't expecting do you know if there are any problems with any of the neighbors now that's a bit of a challenging question to ask but in certain instances if you build up some rapport and you're showing a level of concern about the area they may turn around and say oh no it's brilliant absolutely no problems in that regard or the other way so ask the question if you can and you can follow up with so what's the area like at night now again you may get some information back that you don't want to hear but you need to also by the way be traveling out to this place in the evening and kind of walking around it in the evening and finding out how it feels are there any traffic or parking problems around the place now in some parts of the country london or bristol we're going to be moving up to bristol and uh there are some beautiful properties in bristol but my goodness me parking in some areas is just ridiculous frankly so um ask the question and see what comes back and following on from there so what is that kind of public transport like around here you know what are the buses like now again you're probably going to get honest information or an honest answer that you might not again have got if you were asking the seller that particular question and again along the similar lines um do they know if there are any sort of new building works that are going on any sort of development going on now the seller might not want you to know about the new conversations that are currently being had about a new build that's going up close by but maybe it's the buzz that's going around the close or the road where you're looking to buy now i know that i've sort of charged through these questions but ultimately if you're having a chat maybe over 20 minutes for example you can kind of thread these questions in this one's really cheeky and i feel a bit weird even sharing it with you because when i give it to you now you're going to go what but um it does work and i have used it so here's a real cheeky question that you could ask maybe towards the back end of the conversation after you built up some real rapport um do you mind if i ask you i've heard kind of through the grapevine that there was a a little bit of a minor dispute between the neighbors can i just ask you about that now you could ask that question even if you've not heard of anything which is kind of what i'm implying here and if there is something that's been out there in the road that you're looking at you may get them come straight back to you and say well actually yes there was an issue where number 13 was was causing a big problem and we all had to have a word with them blah blah blah again i know it's a real cheeky question and i do recognize you're probably not going to answer it but i have asked it in the past and it's amazing what it can reveal so let's talk about the agent what kind of questions should you be asking the agent well let's start off with your attitude here you're talking to an estate agent they're a professional person you need to be professional you need to be reliable you need to do what you're going to you need to do what you say so if you say you're going to do something you need to follow through and do that thing you don't want to mess these people around they quite rightly have a livelihood that they need to earn and despite what some people think i think estate agents work bloody hard frankly for the money that they're being paid and so we should not be messing these people around but becoming across in a professional reliable way doing what you say will actually go a long way for them recommending you as a potential buyer so maybe you could start off by asking a question so do you mind if i ask you how long has this place been on the market now you should already know that to be perfectly honest with you um if you don't know that know that there are a couple of ways you can find that out but you do need to establish how long that property's been on the market ideally before asking that question if it has been on the market for quite a while why don't you ask them so why do you think it hasn't sold yet now the truth is the agent probably knows perfectly well why it hasn't sold yet it could be price it could be the configuration it could be the fact that it's very dated and they're still wanting quite high money for it maybe a little bit below would it be worth if it was perfect but they're still asking a little bit too much but they will know do you know um how keen are they to sell now that's not like saying are they a motivated seller which you would never ask a question like that but how keen are they to sell will actually get you some information that you may not be expecting well actually you know they do need to sell quite quickly maybe you can then follow a conversation up along that thread so how did they come up with the asking price is another great question to ask you're asking how did they come up with the asking price because it may actually be in them or that actually dictated the price to the agent so if you get a sense that that's what they're kind of thinking that they actually dictated a higher price you could follow it up with so do you mind if i ask you um what do you think it's really worth and in some instances if you build a high level rapport they will tell you so has anything sold recently that's similar will reveal the kind of research that they're aware of of other properties in the area that are close comparables it needs to be a close comparable so by that i mean a recent sale of a very very similar property and this will help you understand how they've actually got to their valuation is it freehold or leasehold now if it's a flat it's almost certainly going to be leasehold but not definitely and if it's not clear in the paperwork you need to be clear on that if it is leasehold always follow up with do you know how many years are left on the lease now the agent must know that if they're a competent agent they must be able to answer that question and if it's lower if it's lower than say 90 years 80 years well then that's going to have an impact on the offer that you're going to be putting forwards and you need to follow up with ways of extending the lease which i won't go into here can i just ask is it actually on with multiple agents or is it just yourself that's marketing this property now why would you want to ask that question well if it is on with other agents it does certainly suggest there's a higher level of motivation from the seller and they're going to perhaps have to acknowledge that maybe maybe subtly acknowledge it but acknowledge it nonetheless but it also tells you very clearly that you're aware that they're aware that you're aware that they need to sell this or maybe joe blog's houses down the road might sell it and of course the person that sell it is the one that actually gets the commission as of course you're fully aware you might want to ask this question as well and this isn't a a you're not going this isn't fake you need to be sincere about this can i just ask you if i buy it and hand it back to you to rent what kind of rent do you think that i would get now obviously um again i never mess agents around i don't like people that do mess agents around frankly so ask this question if you're sincerely thinking about handing it back to them um because you want them to manage it now i do feel quite strongly these people are business people so especially if you're dealing with independent estate agents and i'll always fly the flag for independence because often you're dealing with the owner of the business and so if they're thinking that they may actually genuinely get the property back to rent and therefore create another income from actually handling that property might they be more look at you more favorably than somebody who's actually just going to buy and live in it themselves so there you go there are 30 key questions that if you ask the seller the next door neighbor and the agent will honestly enable you to push your negotiating forwards as i say in our online property master class we go into a lot more depth on these subjects but i wanted to give you this because i sincerely hope that it will help you out the last thing i'm going to say before signing off if you haven't checked out my completely free mini course you've got to do so it will teach you exactly how to build a portfolio without needing to put loads of money into each deal and it's coming up on the right hand side of your screen right about now [Music] you

Channel: Your First Four Houses

Views: 79,743

Keywords: negotiation, investment property, property investing, property investment, negotiate, below market value property, real estate, property investment uk, buy to let, property investments, buy to let uk, your first four houses, real estate investing, Questions To Ask When Buying A House, questions to ask, questions, when buying a house, buying a house, buying an investment property, uk investment property, how to buy a house, questions to ask when buying real estate

Id: Ecii_3IYlwc

Length: 16min 56sec (1016 seconds)

Published: Sun Oct 18 2020