This snippet is from one of our previous episodes: Is Now The Right Time to Buy a High Rise Apartment? 

When it comes to buying an existing apartment or unit, doing the right due diligence can save you from years of costly surprises. 

In this TPC Gold snippet, Bryce and Ben break down the must-do checks every buyer should know before purchasing a strata or medium-density property.  

From digging into the body corporate minutes to having quiet chats with the neighbours, they share the practical (and often overlooked) steps that separate a smart buyer from a regretful one. 

“If you’re buying into a building, you’re buying into a community—and sometimes that community has stories you won’t find in the contract. – Bryce” 

Whether you’re a first-home buyer, upgrading, or planning your forever home, this is a must-listen if you’re considering purchasing an existing property. 

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If You Enjoyed TPC Gold | Property Due Diligence: What to Know Before Buying an Existing Unit, You Might Also Like:

• Ep 7 | Studio or One Bedroom Apartment as an Investment Property 
• Ep 18 | What is a Buyers Agent and Do You Need One? 
• Ep 311 | The Dummies Guide To Strata Properties & Body Corporates 

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Transcript

Ben Kingsley
So what’s the DD, what’s the due diligence we need to do, Bryce? What’s the number one thing?  

Bryce Holdaway
Number one due diligence is you go and have a look at the past track record of body corporate minutes, because what does that tell you? You’ve got a community of people coming together saying the body corporate’s got a responsibility for X, Y and Z and if there’s something wrong with the building they’re going to let you know, or if there’s something wrong with a defect or a person who’s living there or something that is affecting the peaceful enjoyment of that community, it is usually going to be in those minutes. And I would go back as many as you can possibly get your hands on, minimum two, but it’d be nice to see three, so you can see if there’s anything back in the past where there might have been an issue. Now I’ve got a beware on that Ben, because based on what we’ve been talking about today, would there be an incentive Ben for… 

Ben Kingsley
…the body corporate not to disclose, Bryce? 

Bryce Holdaway
Correct.  

Ben Kingsley
Yes. 

Bryce Holdaway
Because what’s one of the biggest challenges that you’re going to have with the current issue around the crisis is people protecting the value of their asset. And how do they protect the value of their asset? They have an off-record chat, Ben, about some issues that they do not put on the minutes because they know this is what the diligent people will do. But first of all, that’s what I would do, Ben. Notwithstanding there’s an issue.  

And secondly, I talked about it before, but do you have a body corporate that is proactive about realising that a building will need some maintenance done? And are they going to be reactive or proactive? And reactive means that they will just deal with stuff as it happens versus people who go: Hey here’s our 10-year maintenance plan. Here’s that divided by 10; here’s that divided by the 18, the 16, the 12, the 8 owners. Here’s your contribution each year, so that you make that. Have they got a sinking fund balance for a rainy day? 

Ben Kingsley
A healthy sinking fund balance is a good sign of a couple of things, Bryce; a well-built building as well. Because if they haven’t had to do anything with it, and I’ll give you a good example. Where was I? I was in Brisbane, and I was looking for an apartment for a client of ours and I came across this one in about six kilometres out of Brisbane and I went and had a look at it and I thought, okay, it’s really well-priced, good floor plan. I did notice a couple of cracks, so I’m like, okay. So everyone goes, well, can you still get a building and pest inspection on the building? I go, yes, you can. And you can even get them on high rises.  

Now, some building and pest inspectors will say there’s a limited scope in terms of the external work they do, especially if it’s 20 or 30 stories, they’re not gonna be able to get up on a scaffold and go and have a look at it. But they can still do the underground car parks, they can still do that, because most stuff comes from the foundation and works up. So in this particular case, I got a building and pest inspection done and I was like, oh, a couple of cracks there I’d like an engineer to have a look at. As soon as he said that, I said, no, no, don’t even worry about it. As soon as you say that I’m out. That’s it, I’m moving on to the next block because you can pay $400, $500, $600 and you get that and all of sudden it’s like, okay, if that’s worse than I thought it was because it’s structural in an area… I don’t even need to engage in an engineer; I’m not gonna buy that for my client. It’s like, next property please. Even though I thought it was a good buy, I’m moving on.  

Bryce Holdaway
That’s what we call self-selection, Ben.  

Ben Kingsley
I don’t need to spend a few grand to have the engineer tell me what’s wrong with it.  

Bryce Holdaway
Yeah, so there you go folks. And the last one is, I apply this particular one, Ben, even if it’s a house, if it’s a townhouse… I go and talk to the neighbours.  

Ben Kingsley
Yeah.  

Bryce Holdaway
Because they are only too willing to tell you.  

Ben Kingsley
Well, it comes back to that story about whether the body corporate is fully disclosing right? So if you are buying into a medium density; again, owner occupiers could be listening to this saying: I do want to live here and that is the price point to get me into that suburb and there are lots of apartments with 30 or 40 apartments in them now, so go and door knock. You know how they’ve still got the security that you can’t get through the front door? Just door stop them. I’ve done it before, my door stop is: Oh excuse me do you live here? 

Bryce Holdaway
But what happens if you’re not a Collingwood supporter…?  

Ben Kingsley
There’s a nice way of doing it, and here’s the approach. It is as simple as: Oh hi. Because what they do is: Oh do you need to get in? And it’s like: No actually, I’m interested in apartment number 31. But I would love to have a chat with you. Do you own or rent here?  

Bryce Holdaway
“Ohhh, you’re buying the one that Jessie’s divorcing in, eh?” 

Ben Kingsley
Thank you, tick; nice bit of information. “Oh lovely couple, didn’t know what happened there.” Especially the old folk who have been in the building forever. Some of them ask you up for a cup of tea. “Would you like to come up and have a look at my place as well? Are you a buyers agent? Oh you can probably value it, what is my property worth?” You get the whole thing right. And “are you on the body corp? Oh you’re on the body corp? What’s happening?” Oh it’s just unbelievable. I would stop three or four people to get the information that I need to get to. 

Bryce Holdaway
That could cause a crisis Ben because people are wondering if they’re gonna buy this they might get stopped by you for a little chat and they might not buy anymore, so yeah.