Property Development Experience with Caifu Property

LTheWiseMan on 25/06/2024 - 16:15
Last edited 25/06/2024 - 17:05 by 2 other users

Dear OzBargainers, Does anyone have any experience with building a home with Caifu Property?

I had a bitter experience with them recently where I have found myself to be in a tough situation after I signed a contract with them to build. I have found later that Caifu Property are basically the agent for the builder NCL Group, which they don't mention in any of their marketing policies. The team consists of (mod: removed personal info) who provided false information deliberately.

Below are some of the issues that I have faced with them:

  1. The construction started 8 months later than what was promised by Caifu Property team members, which resulted in huge holding cost.

  2. The valuation of the home after build was lower by $200K-$300K than what was proposed by Caifu Property. Surprisingly they used misleading appraisals letter from their friendly real estate agents only to attract clients at the time of sell. They even denied this over phone when I mentioned this to him, although I have all the written evidence. This has resulted in a huge loss for me. My intention was to sell the properly with a profit after the build, but now due to the lower valuation, I am stuck with it, and unable to sell, as the current selling price is lower by $150K than my cost to build.

  3. The build price was way higher than what would be a reasonable amount for that house, as they take huge commission from the build price. I made a mistake by falling into their evaluation and appraisal traps.

  4. Whenever I have raised these issues with them, they only give a call and provide some bogus explanations, and surprisingly they never reply to emails to protect their wrong doings.

  5. The build quality if quite poor. There have been numerous issues with the build quality with NCL and it has been very difficult to convince NCL to fix them as NCL would find many excuses not to fix them.

  6. Caifu Property claims that they never made any loss to any of their clients is totally false. If you look at their review in Google Maps and Facebook, they are all falsely made.

If you have any suggestions to how to overcome this loss, please feel free to advise.

Financial

Related Stores

caifuproperty.com.au
caifuproperty.com.au

Comments

  • Drakesy on 25/06/2024 - 16:17
    +10

    The valuation of the home after build was lower by 200K-300K than what was proposed by Caifu Property. Surprisingly they used misleading appraisals letter from their friendly real estate agents only to attract clients at the time of sell. They even deined this over phone when I mentioned this to him, although I have all the written evidences. This has resulted in a huge loss for me. My intention was to sell the properly with a profit after the build, but now due to the lower valuation, I am stuck with it, and unable to sell, as the current selling price is lower by 150K than my cost to build.

    Sounds like you're trying to play the victim when in reality you just made a poor financial decision…

    • Duckie2hh on 25/06/2024 - 16:27
      +7

      TLDR

      OP bought off the plan and complains the finished property didn't instantly appreciate in value.

      • star-ggg on 25/06/2024 - 16:37
        +1

        I honestly can't even see what Caifu do. They're not directly selling OTP (eg land and house package) developments on their website. They just have vague "investment deals" that promise you're going to make $$$. Has all the hallmarks of get rich quick scheme.

        • Duckie2hh on 25/06/2024 - 16:43
          +1

          GG EZY, GIVE US YOUR MONEY AND WE WILL DOUBLE IT

    • Jimothy Wongingtons on 25/06/2024 - 16:27
      +3

      gambled…and lost.

    • TheWiseMan on 25/06/2024 - 16:30
      -8

      Suggest going to Caifu's website see the deals yourself. Anyone would find them legit at the first impression.

      • Drakesy on 25/06/2024 - 16:52
        +4

        They went fishing and caught a big one.

        Gotchya hook line and sinker.

        If the returns were guaranteed, then wouldn't Caifu just undertake the build and make the profit themselves?

      • Ghost47 on 25/06/2024 - 18:02
        +1

        All they have on their website are some photos of houses (who knows if they even built them) with numbers saying 30% return, 34% return, 26% return. You click on "View Deal" and it shows no details except a photo of the house and the same numbers with some more houses underneath. Should I be impressed? They might as well call themselves Waifu Property.

        Everyone wants to get rich quick off property in this country and it's stuffing everything up.

        If you have any suggestions to how to overcome this loss, please feel free to advise.

        Buy a house in Sydney, somewhere around Vaucluse, Mosman, Manly, Point Piper etc. hold for a few years then sell. You'll easily make $100k per year doing that.

        • LFO on 26/06/2024 - 09:37
          +1

          Buy a house in Sydney, somewhere around Vaucluse, Mosman, Manly, Point Piper etc

          And remember to add the cost of Stamp Duty when assessing those final gigantic profits …

    • Sinnerator on 26/06/2024 - 09:21
      +2

      PSA; all marketing and advertising is full of lies, and if you read the fine print of your contract you signed away all their liability

      • TheWiseMan on 26/06/2024 - 16:57

        To the point. My bad I realised it too late!

  • Gdsamp on 25/06/2024 - 16:24

    Caifu more like SNAFU ….

  • Jimothy Wongingtons on 25/06/2024 - 16:25
    +3

    If you look at their review in Google Maps and Facebook, they are all falsely made.

    …so did the reviews exist when you did your initial research before investing? And if so, you didnt do any more due diligence in confirming how legit the reviews were?

    The build price was way higher than what would be a reasonable amount for that house,

    When you say reasonable, whats this based on?

    There have been numerous issues with the build quality with NCL and it has been very difficult to convince NCL to fix them as NCL would find many excuses not to fix them.

    What kind of issues? Perceived based on your expectations? Or actual issues eg leaks/ build not to minimum Australian standards/codes? Your next step for this part would be to take it to the applicable body for your state, and or . consulting legal professionals.

    • TheWiseMan on 25/06/2024 - 16:33

      -All the positive review was there, which made me think positively about them.
      -I am now building my own home, and I compared the prices and realised that what they charged me was way higher.

  • Duckie2hh on 25/06/2024 - 16:30
    +1

    Straight from their website, "When you build a property for less than its end valuation you instantly create your own equity"

    I mean… isn't that simple math?

  • Duckie2hh on 25/06/2024 - 16:31
    +11

    TheWiseMan

    Username does not appear to match description of said user.

  • JimB on 25/06/2024 - 16:43
    +4

    Realistically, there is no recourse.

    There are now only 2 options.

    If you think the property will do well in future and can afford to keep it, then rent it out.

    If you don't think the property will do well in future and/or can't afford to keep it, cut your losses and sell.

    Unfortunately there's no guarantee of instant profit buying/building off the plan. If it was guaranteed, the developers wouldn't sell the land without the complete house.

    • Ghost47 on 25/06/2024 - 18:09
      +2

      Unfortunately there's no guarantee of instant profit buying/building off the plan.

      Also no guarantee that the property will turn out anything like what the plan was lol.

  • freefall101 on 25/06/2024 - 17:28
    +6

    I use google reviews when buying a pizza. I do not use them when for investments of hundreds of thousands of dollars. That said, the costs involved in building properties has exploded the past few years. I'd be surprised if any houses are profitable after being built these days when it's entirely outsourced.

    The key lesson here is - getting independent advice is important. It's too late on the finance side of this one, but if you really think they breached the contract then talk to a lawyer, if you really think the house isn't up to code then talk to a building inspector.

    Side note: Asking Ozbargain or looking at google does not count as independent advice.

  • xuqi on 25/06/2024 - 17:42

    Op got Caifu'd and lived to tell the tale.

  • AndyC1 on 25/06/2024 - 18:59
    +1

    Looks like great marketing. OP did not do the homework and did not know that google existed until the marketing wore off.

  • randomusername2017 on 25/06/2024 - 19:20

    Thanks!

    Was trying to decide between Porter Davis and NCL 🤔

  • KaTst3R on 25/06/2024 - 20:09
    +1

    No one in the Caifu team is relevant to actual building or project management. On the website it says "Get Free Training".

    That should have been a big red flag.

  • garetz on 25/06/2024 - 22:55

    54 of the 58 reviews are 5 stars on google. Not sure if they are all legit though.

  • OzzyBoy1 on 26/06/2024 - 00:00

    Probably they get their clients to put positive reviews on google and do some testimonials to avail discounts. That way they’ll surely have 5 star reviews.

    • TheWiseMan on 26/06/2024 - 04:33

      Correct. I was offered $250 for a positive review. That's how they buy their reviews.

      Plus if you look at their Facebook reviews, they are all fake as the reviewers commented on share management which has nothing to do with property.

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