In a rising property market, finding Below Market Value (BMV) property deals can seem like hunting for a needle in a haystack. But note this, it doesn’t have to be that way. When you know what to look for you’ll come to realise that finding bargain BMV deals is simple. Follow these steps and if it’s local BMV deals you’re after you’ll be finding them on your doorstop.
What Are BMV Property Deals?
BMV property deals are deals where a property is purchased below market value. In property investing this is also called a discount.
Firstly.... making a shortlist
Create a nice short list of potential deals so you don’t have to rely on estates agents to pass you the opportunities that they 'THINK' might be the most appropriate deals.
We want to take matters into our own hands, get this shortlist drafted and then get out there and start doing some viewings.
Use search to maximum effect
Create a shortlist
Get out there and view properties
Secure the best possible bargain to buy
Secondly....getting your local agent
If you’ve been looking at any properties recently you probably know that Nigeria Property Center (NPC) is the main search portals for both property listings and estate agents. So, in NPC go to ‘find agents’, click on and then narrow it down to the specific location you’re interested in. For Ajah... asgafrealtors
Now, for Asgaf Realtors, we mainly cover locations in the Lagos Mainland and Highland. You’ll obviously want to be putting your preferred area in there.
So, a search for estate agents in your preferred area gives you many agencies.
You can now do the same search in other property listing sites. This is to see whether or not the number of agencies that comes up is different on either platform to your original search.
The larger brands will be on NPC. Some of the smaller agencies will only advertise on one or the other as it can be quite pricey. The take home message is this: smaller agents may only be listed on one of the sites and this is important to understand as you want to get a full picture of all the properties listed in your location of interest.
Thirdly...Optimising your Searches
So back to your search engine. So you’re looking for a property at Ajah. We’ve got a maximum price of a Twenty million Naira. Set it so you’re just looking at houses with a minimum of three bedrooms
This is where you’re going to be setting your particular search criteria based on the type of property you’re interested in. If you’re looking for property that will work as a straightforward rental that has good rental yield, then two or three bedroom houses are probably going to be your best option.
If you’re looking for properties that are going to be more suitable as multi-lets, room lets, then you’re going to want to be looking at four or five bedrooms plus and obviously this is going to require a higher price range for your search.
Fouthly... Narrowing Your Filters
The next step is to try and narrow things down using filters. You need to start getting into the specifics of what you’re looking for and drilling down into your investment criteria.
In NPC, if you look on the left-hand side of the screen you’ll see a few filter options that you can use to narrow down your search. Now, in the example, we’re working with (Ajah, set to a maximum price of a twenty million, three bedroom houses) it will coming up with results, which isn’t a great deal.
There’s going to be obviously going to be a lot more of two bedroom apartments in Ajah than that if you increase the price, but though, the results might have a sufficient number to use for the purposes of illustrating the different tools and techniques we use to try and find the best deals.
Fifthly...detecting the motivated sellers
Now, when it comes to spotting deals that are on the market in this data age the main thing to know is whether you’re looking at what are called motivated sellers.
The idea is to try and find properties and potential deals that have been put up for sale by vendors who need to sell their property as opposed to those who want to sell.
This distinction might sound inconsequential but it’s not. Finding motivated sellers is of paramount importance.
So, back to our example. you already have some property listings. All of these are on the market via estate agents. The owners of these properties have all decided at some point that they want to sell their property.
So, they all have that in common. They all want to sell. They will all be ambitious to sell. Now, it’s our job as property consultants and valuers (interested in good deals) to find out the why of it all. We need to know what the motivation is behind a vendor/homeowner wanting to sell. If we can work our why the property is on the market then it is going to be much easier, later down the line, when it comes to negotiating the deal.
Motivated sellers are usually under pressure by issues relating to space in time. The vendor may need to sell the property by a certain date (maybe a couple weeks, or a month, or whatever it might be). This could be because of financial reasons. It could be because of personal reasons. Maybe the property has been left in probate. Maybe there’s been a divorce. Maybe the homeowner is looking to emigrate for work or otherwise.
There are a whole host of reasons as to why a homeowner might need to sell a property quickly and what we’re trying to do in this search is to ascertain what those reasons might be.
to be continued...
For property consultation and valuation... free to contact us on 09098603663, 08065329702, 09098628047
contact@asgafrealtors.com