Am I lagging on submitting an Offer?

[Citylife]

Hey Guys,

New to property investing and have a few questions.

Over the last few month's I've been looking at property in a few locations around the north island and I'm having trouble submitting my offers in time... well I think I am anyway. My father was an investor and he always told me to do my due diligence and get a Lawyer involved before submitting an offer. The problem with this is I keep missing out on good properties. I looked at a house yesterday at it's first open home and I was planning to sit down tonight email my lawyer then do my research, I got a call from the agent today saying they already have an offer that got accepted.

The offer from yesterday's house was from a lady who was at the open home and it was her first time seeing the house, I'm guessing she did her research before hand.

My question is am I paranoid and lagging behind or am I battling against people who just don't care and throw offers around? This has happened to me at nearly every house I look at.

Should I really be wasting time consulting a lawyer before an offer or should I be getting the offer in as soon as possible?

Thanks in advance

[OneStepCloser]

Hi there, I normally don't get the lawyer involved before every single offer. I suggest that you put in the required clauses for your due diligent. You can also put a clause to say it subjects to solicitor review of the contract. You can get your lawyer to give you the right clauses to put in. Then you just need to make sure that the contract you sign is a standard contract, plus your clauses. The real estate agent is liable to clarify if there is any additional clauses the vendor has put in.

That said, don't worry if you miss out some deals. There is always a suitable one around, just need to be patient. Some people just don't do there due diligence, but they are taking big risk. And there is no need to compete with them...

[Nick G]

You can do Due Diligence after an offer is accepted, which probably happened for the house that other buyer bought. "Accepted" does not mean it was a cash unconditional offer. Just ask you lawyer for a DD clause for 5 working days that you can use.

[Bobsyouruncle]

You definitely need to change. What worked a few years ago doesn't now. I try to get an offer signed before viewing, as soon as I see it on trademe or hear about it. Do your due diligence after it's under contract or you'll never buy anything.