New Year, New Home: How to land your first property in 2024

Show Notes

New year, new home?

To kick off the year, we’re bringing you a very special episode of The Home Run. We’ve rounded up some of the best tips we heard in 2023, to help you gear up for the property market in 2024.

In this episode, you’ll hear from some of our favourites. Jarrod McCabe from Wakelin Property Advisory breaks down the property ladder. Amy Lunardi shares her tips for what you should do first when you’ve decided to buy a new home. And Veronica Morgan drops by to talk about one of our favourite subjects: Auctions.

Transcript

Michael 0:00
The information contained in this podcast is general in nature and is not to be taken as financial or personal advice.

Michael 0:06
It does not consider your objectives, financial situation or needs.

Michael 0:10
You should consider whether this information is suitable for you and your personal circumstances before acting on it.

Michael0:17
Hi and welcome to the home run your guide to buying your first home in Australia on the show, I’ll walk you through the home buying process from every angle.

Michael 0:24
We cover steps to take the pitfalls to avoid and the answers to all your questions you’ve been dying to ask no matter what stage you’re at, you’ll learn everything you need to know about buying your first home.

Michael 0:35
I’m your host, Michael Nasser and I’m a mortgage broker at Lendstreet and I really love helping people buy their first home.

Jack 0:45
Hey, there listeners.

Jack 0:46
My name’s Jack Trainer and I’m one of the producers here at the home run.

Jack 0:49
I’m just filling in for Michael today because with the New Year upon us, Michael and the team here at the home Run wanted to do something special for the next few episodes.

Jack 0:57
So welcome to our new year.

Jack 0:59
New Home series.

Jack 1:01
We’ve gathered the best tips and stories from the past year of episodes so you can refresh your memory while you gear up for the housing market in 2024.

Jack 1:09
So let’s get into it.

Jack 1:10
First up, you’ll hear from Veronica Morgan.

Jack 1:13
Now, Veronica is a heavyweight in the Australian property landscape.

Jack 1:16
She has a big media presence with two TV shows, multiple podcasts and in May.

Jack 1:21
Michael and Veronica caught up to talk all things auctions, which is one of Veronica’s specialities.

Jack 1:27
So Michael got things started by asking Veronica to share why auctions are a thing that she’s so passionate about.

Veronica 1:35
I find auctions fascinating and, and mainly because I, I find human behavior fascinating.

Veronica 1:41
So therefore, for me, auctions is bringing to a head a whole bunch of stuff because obviously I understand intimately the sales process and the purchasing process.

Veronica 1:52
So I’m sort of watching everything play out.

Veronica 1:53
So either I’m bidding for a client or I’m there as an observer.

Veronica 1:57
Either way, I’m reading things and seeing things that most people aren’t even noticing.

Veronica 2:02
And I just find it fascinating.

Michael 2:04
And what’s one of the biggest things you noticed?

Michael 2:06
I mean, there was just to be one real quick one to start it off with like what’s the biggest observation that you have when you’re at auctions?

Veronica 2:12
Yeah, my biggest observation at auction is really that people when they get there and they think they’re ready, they think they’re prepared.

Veronica 2:21
Some may even know that they’re not but those that think they are and they are so ill equipped and then it’s like under the pressure of an auction, you see what’s really going on.

Veronica 2:32
For example, quite often, I’ll see somebody, , you might have an alpha male there that’s being really confidently.

Veronica 2:38
And you’re thinking, wow, they’re good.

Veronica 2:39
They’ve got poker face, they’re really confident, they know what their limit is.

Veronica 2:43
They’ve done their due diligence.

Veronica 2:44
You know, you could read them in that way and think they know they are just formidable and then as soon as they hit their limit, they’ll give it away, they’ll absolutely give the game away.

Veronica 2:53
I’ll go.

Veronica 2:54
Right.

Veronica 2:54
They hit their limit.

Veronica 2:55
Now, it’s gonna be interesting to see whether they push themselves on their limit or not, whether they, you know what I mean?

Veronica 2:59
Like they just give all the signs away.

Veronica 3:00
So it’s just funny and I’ve seen this happen so often.

Veronica 3:03
That’s why I can talk about it.

Veronica 3:04
It’s not a rare occurrence that these people think they’re prepped and then it’s like, ok, gloves are off.

Veronica 3:10
Now, this is the real show.

Michael 3:12
And you can see it happen in front of your eyes and it seems to happen quite a bit by the sounds of it.

Veronica 3:15
Happens a lot, a lot.

Michael 3:19
The way that, you know, want to structure today’s chat is kind of before the auction day and some final thoughts.

Michael 3:23
So, I guess before the auction a lot of people, , would assume that being successful at auction is all about what happens on the day.

Michael 3:30
But in reality, the things that you do before the auction are probably just as important, if not more important.

Michael 3:34
So let’s go through the things that someone should do before auction day.

Michael 3:38
Can you walk me through?

Michael 3:39
What that prep work needs to look like if it’s an auction that you’re attending as a method of sale for a property?

Veronica3:45
Yeah, absolutely.

Veronica 3:46
And you’re spot on.

Veronica 3:47
I mean, a lot of people do they think, oh, it’s the person with the deepest pockets that wins the day or it’s the person who’s the most confident that wins the day.

Veronica 3:55
And I know people that go and get their mate or their cousin or their uncle or whatever to bid for them because they feel nervous and it’s like everybody’s nervous and some people when they’re nervous come out really bolshy as well.

Veronica 4:07
So it’s like everyone sort of, I guess reveals their nervousness in different ways, but being prepared is the best way to assuage those nerves.

Veronica 4:17
Right?

Veronica 4:18
And when I say being prepared, there’s so much that goes into that first and foremost, what most people think due diligence that they need to do on a property is just the tip of the iceberg.

Veronica 4:29
Most people think say it’s a house.

Veronica 4:31
They go, oh, I’ve had my building pest inspection done.

Veronica 4:33
I went to the mortgage broker and I got my pre-approval and I’ve had the contract looked at.

Veronica 4:37
Now, let me tell you, some people don’t even get the contract looked at.

Veronica 4:40
But anyway, that’s nuts.

Veronica 4:42
But those three things are nowhere near everything that needs to be done.

Michael 4:46
Well, I mean, you’d assume that that would be it.

Michael 4:48
Right.

Michael 4:49
So there’s more to that.

Veronica 4:50
Well, that’s it.

Veronica 4:51
People say I did all the due diligence and I went, tell me what did you do?

Veronica 4:54
And they go, oh, I had my contract reviewed.

Veronica 4:56
I had the building p and I went to the, and my mortgage broker and I went, oh, that’s good that you did that.

Veronica 5:00
So you can tick that one tiny box.

Veronica 5:02
What about what the neighbors are about to do?

Veronica 5:04
Could they build, could they block your view or your light or your privacy or whatever?

Veronica 5:08
Like what have you checked that?

Veronica 5:09
What do you mean?

Veronica 5:10
Well, it’s all discoverable.

Veronica 5:12
You know, it can be found out.

Veronica 5:14
What about if the house has been renovated?

Veronica 5:17
Have you checked whether it’s been approved?

Veronica 5:19
You know that the works that have been done have been approved?

Veronica 5:22
Have you looked into that?

Veronica 5:23
What about if you want to renovate?

Veronica 5:25
Have you looked into whether you can do what you think you’re gonna be able to do?

Veronica 5:28
Have you checked that out?

Veronica 5:30
And we haven’t even got to the price yet.

Veronica 5:32
This is the biggie.

Veronica 5:34
This is the thing where people set their limit in crazy ways and often they don’t properly understand what that property is worth.

Veronica 5:44
And there’s two things here, there’s two aspects to this.

Veronica 5:46
You gotta understand what it’s worth in the general marketplace and you gotta understand what it’s worth to you.

Veronica 5:51
And so what too many people do, they go to auction and they’re deciding what the property is worth based on what other people are doing.

Veronica 5:57
So it could be because of what the agents quoting or it could be what, because of what they see other buyers doing and they’re basing their decisions based on what those people are doing.

Veronica 6:06
And yet you take one second to think about this.

Veronica 6:08
What makes you think they know any more than you do?

Veronica 6:11
Like it probably done a little as prep work as you have, you know, and yet I see it all the time and I will ask people, I love talking to people after auction too if they bid particularly if they didn’t buy it and say, how did you arrive at your limit?

Veronica 6:24
Oh, well, I just added 10% to what the agent was guiding.

Veronica 6:26
And then I looked around and I saw other people were bidding, I thought must be worth it.

Michael 6:30
It’s sort of that like that social proof almost.

Michael 6:32
It’s like there’s no other logic than the fact that if they’re doing it well, then it must be the right thing to do.

Michael 6:36
So, let’s continue.

Veronica 6:37
Yeah.

Veronica 6:38
And you could argue.

Veronica 6:38
Oh, well, that’s what market value is, yes, you could argue that.

Veronica 6:41
But, you know, there are other times when I see people get locked into a competition and they pay way over because they got competitive and totally lost sight of what the property was worth.

Veronica 6:52
They were just focused on winning, you know, and so I think what people fail to do that probably the biggest thing.

Veronica 6:58
So yes, you got to do all that due diligence.

Veronica 6:59
Some of those things I just mentioned a few of them.

Veronica 7:02
If you don’t do that and you go to buy any property, you’re a nut, you know, you’re a total nut, especially at auction because there’s no cooling off, period.

Veronica 7:09
Right.

Veronica 7:10
You’re committed on the fall of the hammer if you’re the highest bidder over reserve, but to set your limit to work out exactly what you should pay for that property.

Veronica 7:18
Too many people go to auction and their limit is what they’d like to pay, what they’d feel good about paying.

Veronica 7:24
Not about they will pay under pressure if they have to.

Veronica 7:28
And the problem is by setting that beforehand, they, they obviously often don’t even just go down that path.

Veronica 7:32
But if they don’t set it beforehand, when they’re in the middle of the auction, when the pressure is on, they will make silly decisions, they’ll either pay too much or they’ll pull out too quickly and they’ll panic and they’ll stop bidding when they should continue to bid.

Veronica 7:47
But they don’t have the backup of that certainty around a, what it’s worth in the marketplace and b what it’s worth for them and it’s so important.

Michael 7:54
Yeah, something I sort of want to pick up on there is, is you mentioned a few times the pressure of the auction.

Michael 7:59
What does that look like?

Michael 8:00
But, I mean, I guess for you it’s different because you’re, I guess maybe you don’t feel the pressure because, yeah, it’s something you do so often.

Michael 8:05
But knowing say what a first home buyer might be going through or someone that is not used to going to auctions, how does that pressure manifest?

Veronica 8:13
It manifests a number of ways for starters you wanna win.

Veronica 8:17
There’s actually a, a behavioral bias called loss, aversion.

Veronica 8:21
The pain of losing or, or that fear of the pain of losing is greater than the anticipation of the pleasure you’ll get from winning.

Veronica 8:28
So that is running through your veins.

Veronica 8:31
When you’re at auction, you don’t wanna lose.

Veronica 8:33
You wanna win.

Veronica 8:34
Your rational mind is not really necessarily running the ship when you’ve got emotions running rampant like that.

Veronica 8:40
Right?

Veronica 8:41
And also that whole auction set up the way an auctioneer runs an auction is about pressure, they raise the hammer, they call it going once, going twice, going three times, even before it hits reserve.

Veronica 8:52
You know, all this is designed to basically get people acting and, and jumping in.

Veronica 8:57
I’ve seen people bidding against themselves when they’re the highest bidder because they’re so panicked.

Veronica 9:03
And also the fact is that if you take your family along, you’ve got a whole cast of thousands there supporting you and egging you on you feel the pressure of performance as well.

Veronica 9:12
So there, that’s just a handful of the pressures that you could be feeling during an auction.

Jack 9:20
Now, one of the most common things you hear people talk about is the property ladder.

Jack 9:24
But what is it?

Jack 9:25
How do you get on it?

Jack 9:26
And do they sell them at bunnings to answer all these questions?

Jack 9:30
And more, Michael was joined by Jared McCabe from Wakeland Property Advisory.

Jack 9:34
Michael got the ball rolling by asking Jared to explain what the property ladder actually is.

Jarrod 9:42
Yeah, we talk quite regularly about the property ladder and not having an expectation that you’re going to jump to the top rung on the first purchase.

Jarrod 9:49
It’s needs to be working your way up that ladder.

Jarrod 9:51
So starting on the bottom rung and that can be starting small and sometimes it might need, you need to purchase something that allows you to take steps up and build equity.

Jarrod 10:00
So it might be that looking at it from an investment lens rather than looking as though it’s just purely lifestyle and buying the first property that you see, that’s your dream home and it needs to have a all the bells and whistles in terms of fit out.

Jarrod 10:11
There might be other opportunities to buy something that perhaps needs a little bit of work.

Jarrod 10:14
It doesn’t need a full-blooded renovation, but it, there’s opportunities to add value in terms of improving the property as well and building equity through that, which then allows you to take steps up the ladder.

Jarrod 10:24
So you’ve built that equity up and you might then buy a slightly bigger property or a property in a location that’s more suitable to the next stage of life.

Jarrod 10:31
Not necessarily getting your ideal style, your ideal, and perhaps size upfront, but then allowing you to take steps up.

Jarrod 10:41
So then the next one is a little bit closer and the next one is a little bit closer.

Jarrod 10:44
Again.

Michael 10:45
One of the big things that the property will talk about is the property ladder.

Michael 10:48
I wanna break this down a little bit and the first important aspect of the property ladder is building equity.

Michael 10:53
Again, something that you’ve just mentioned the first home buyers who haven’t heard this term and don’t know what it means, what is equity.

Jarrod 10:59
So equity is the difference between the value of the property and the debt that you hold against it.

Jarrod 11:04
So if you owe have a property that’s worth $500,000 and you owe your mortgage against that is 400,000, then you’ve got a notional equity of about $100,000 in that property.

Jarrod 11:14
And so you want to try and build that and expand on that.

Jarrod 11:16
And there’s a numerous ways you can do that, you can pay down the debt, which will obviously, if you’ve got a property that holds its value, at least paying down the debt will continue to build your equity.

Jarrod 11:25
But obviously, the other way to do it is to increase the value of the property.

Jarrod 11:28
So if the market’s moving, then that helps.

Jarrod 11:30
But there’s obviously ways in which you can improve the value of a property.

Jarrod 11:33
And so sometimes first-time buyers can get caught up in buying something that’s got everything done and finished at purchase, which then limits the value increase to the only way that you can improve the equity.

Jarrod 11:45
Whereas if you buy something that perhaps needs a little bit of improvement doesn’t necessarily need to be a full-blooded renovation, but it can be paint carpet, window furnishings, adding Pergolas, perhaps if there’s an opportunity with some types of property to add car parking at the rear, there’s ways and means that you can add value to a property and that can help to build equity as well.

Michael 12:05
I’m assuming when you mentioned the example of the first home buyer that you’d help buy the apartment at the beginning of COVID, we’re referring to the equity, I imagine because when she bought it in 2020 it would have been worth X and now it’s worth Y and Y would be much higher than X because the market has shifted.

Michael 12:20
And is that what you were alluding to earlier?

Jarrod 12:21
That’s right.

Jarrod 12:22
And that’s been more about market movement at that stage than anything that she’s actually done to the property at this point in time.

Jarrod 12:27
But there certainly are opportunities for her to be able to improve that property as well down the track, which will further increase the equity over time.

Michael 12:35
Jarrod, you’ve mentioned about this concept of growing equity.

Michael 12:38
Can you explain that in an example perhaps?

Jarrod 12:41
Yeah, sure.

Jarrod 12:42
In terms of building equity in a property, if we look at say a property purchase of around say $500,000 and we’ve had to borrow $400,000 to be able to purchase that property.

Jarrod 12:52
We can build equity in a number of ways in doing that.

Jarrod 12:54
Now, the first one might be that we pay down $100,000 over a couple of years if we’ve good saver and we will perhaps have a bit of a windfall and are able to knock a bit off the debt.

Jarrod 13:03
So that pulls us back to only $300,000 of debt.

Jarrod 13:06
And perhaps we’ve managed to have some growth in the market over that two-year period as well.

Jarrod 13:10
So perhaps the property’s generally increased in value up to say $550,000.

Jarrod 13:15
But we’ve also carried out a bit of work ourselves and been able to increase the value of the property further from that 550 up to say $700,000 because we’ve renovated the bathroom painted it throughout, perhaps done some landscaping.

Jarrod 13:29
And we know that the work that we’ve done has been really beneficial to that property.

Jarrod 13:34
So all of a sudden, we had $100,000 worth of equity at the start, we’ve paid down a bit.

Jarrod 13:39
We’ve increased the value.

Jarrod 13:40
Now, we’ve got $400,000 worth of equity.

Jarrod 13:42
We’ve gone from a debt of 300,000 versus a property that’s worth 700.

Jarrod 13:46
So we’ve now got $400,000 worth of equity, which is how you can then build your process.

Jarrod 13:51
But you can also then take that $400,000.

Jarrod 13:54
And whether or not that means that you want to sell the property and take something higher up the ladder that meets your requirements because you could perhaps borrow a bit more.

Jarrod 14:04
You’re in a stronger financial position yourself.

Jarrod 14:06
You might be able to go out and buy a property that’s worth in excess of a million dollars.

Jarrod 14:10
But you might say, well, I would like to be able to retain this property because I’ve done my homework.

Jarrod 14:14
It would make a really good investment.

Jarrod 14:16
So perhaps I can’t get up over a million dollars, but I might be able to buy something at $900,000 because of the financial position that I’m in.

Jarrod 14:23
And so that’s how we build equity in a number of different ways.

Jarrod 14:26
But we also enable ourselves to take steps up like property ladder.

Michael 14:29
Yeah, the equity is the push that gets you up to the next level.

Jarrod 14:34
100% And that’s how you create wealth through property investment.

Jarrod 14:36
Is that equity?

Michael 14:37
And so now that we’ve defined equity, let’s talk about the property ladder.

Michael 14:40
What does it mean to get onto the property ladder?

Jarrod 14:42
It’s basically your first purchase takes you onto the property ladder.

Jarrod 14:46
Now, the issue that we sometimes have with first home buyers is that the expectation can be to be jumping onto the property ladder three or four rungs up as opposed to just stepping on to the first rung and then working your way up.

Jarrod 14:58
So that’s part of that discussion is what’s going to be the best opportunity for me to get onto that property ladder in the first instance.

Jarrod 15:04
But then how do I take steps up through my property journey and being able to understand that that’s what’s required and then how that can be done and achieved is really important.

15:15
And so it’s un to understand what’s going to build equity for you, what asset selection is going to help you build equity over an extended period of time so that you can step up year after year, you don’t have to buy a new property every year, but helping you to get to where you want to be, and that will change too.

Jarrod 15:30
I guess it’s not a matter of what you may think is your ideal property now, is probably not going to be your ideal property in 5, 10, 15, 20 years time.

Michael 15:41
Yeah.

Michael 15:41
As your circumstances change, obviously, your requirements will change as well.

Michael 15:44
So for people who are on the property ladder, it seems the ideal situation is that you buy a property, then you get another one and then you start to build this portfolio of properties, I guess in, in one way or another, is it always necessary to keep every property that you acquire or a crew over this journey?

Jarrod 15:59
Quite often hear people talk about keeping properties that they’ve purchased and that’s where I, I come back to that asset collection around.

Jarrod 16:05
What was the purpose of that purchase?

Jarrod 16:07
In the first instance?

Jarrod 16:08
Some people.

Jarrod 16:09
Yes, absolutely.

Jarrod 16:10
It’s a great thing to be able to do is to retain certain properties because that’s going to make a good investment going forward as well.

Jarrod 16:17
But for others, it may well be well, that property suited the purpose when I purchased it, but it’s not necessarily going to be the right type of property to retain as an investment property long-term.

Jarrod 16:28
And so it may well be a case of, I’ll step up the property ladder, I’ll sell that one that I’ve had.

Jarrod 16:33
And if I want to have an investment property, I need to go and buy something else that’s going to work well as an investment property.

Jarrod 16:40
So it’s something that needs to be.

Jarrod 16:42
And if possible, you should absolutely consider it.

Jarrod 16:44
And if you’ve got the financial capacity to be able to retain it and it’s the right type of property then.

Jarrod 16:49
Absolutely.

Jarrod 16:49
That’s a great thing to do, but it’s not a blanket rule of.

Jarrod 16:52
Yes.

Jarrod 16:52
Keep every single property that you purchase.

Jack 16:58
We love Amy Leonardi here at the home run and with good reason, she’s a superstar.

Jack 17:04
Amy runs her own buyer agency, Amy Lunardi property.

Jack 17:07
She hosts her own podcast and she’s just launched her own first home buyers.

Jack 17:11
Course, what can’t she do when Amy and Michael caught up, they discussed how to ensure you’re prepared to buy your first home.

Jack 17:18
So let’s go to Amy now.

Amy 17:21
Yeah.

Amy 17:22
So the first step is taking a step back actually and figuring out why you actually wanna buy, making sure that is coming from an internal place rather than external pressures, like feeling like this is just something that you have to do or your parents are telling you to do it or you see all of your friends buying, it doesn’t necessarily mean it’s the right option for you or the right time frame for you as well.

Amy 17:45
So figuring out your why and that will guide the entire rest of your strategy moving forward.

Amy 17:51
And then from there figuring out your when and that’s a combination of your personal situation.

Amy 17:56
So yes, maybe you’ve decided to buy a property.

Amy 17:59
But if you’re thinking about changing jobs or starting a business or traveling right now, might not be the best time for you and that’s in combination with then your finances.

Amy 18:10
So speaking to a mortgage broker and understanding what your capacity is and your limitations and then using those conversations to set some goals in place.

Amy 18:19
It’s all well and good to say, I wanna buy a property, I wanna spend 800 grand and buy this property in this location.

Amy 18:26
If that’s not achievable, then what’s the point when I say achievable?

Amy 18:31
That’s a combination of kind of three things which is, can you afford those mortgage repayments?

Amy 18:37
Can you service that loan?

Amy 18:40
Is the bank even gonna give you enough money and then how much deposit you need?

Amy 18:43
And can you save that up within the right timeframe?

Michael 18:46
We will talk about these steps relatively quickly.

Michael 18:48
But the reality of the length of time between steps can be a long one or it’s an indefinite one potentially.

Michael 18:54
And when you start obviously somewhere and then it’s like, well, hold on, I need to raise this much deposit and this is how much I’ve got.

Michael 19:00
So therefore you might have to do a subst step or it’s like, well, now we’ve got work to that particular strategy or even with your finances, we’ve mentioned about sort of, you know, that pre-approval and being able to borrow those amount of funds, it might be then trying to say, well, hold on.

Michael 19:13
I’m at this particular point, I need to earn this much to get the loan that I need.

Michael 19:17
So I need to work towards a pay rise and knowing what that may be.

Michael 19:20
I think.

Michael 19:20
So, mapping that out makes total sense.

Amy 19:22
And if you can’t, you’ve got to reassess.

Amy 19:25
So if the broker says, ok, well, you’ve got to either save this amount or be earning this amount and that’s not achievable for you, then that’s ok.

Amy 19:34
But you sit back and say, OK, what are my other options?

Amy 19:36
How can I get there or what can I change in the meantime?

Amy 19:39
Or what other, what other ways can I get there?

Amy 19:43
For example, considering first home government benefits.

Amy 19:47
So the first home guarantee which allows you to buy a property with as little as a 5% deposit and you don’t have to pay Linda mortgage insurance.

Amy 19:55
So a broker will be able to help you figure out these options.

Amy 19:58
That’s the great thing.

Amy 19:59
And in some cases help you apply for these things as well.

Michael 20:02
We’ve gone through those considerations.

Michael 20:04
We’ve figured out the why and the how and we’ve spoken to a broker and we’re working on that pre approval and we get the pre-approval.

Michael 20:11
So thumbs up, we’re good to go searching what happens at that particular point.

Michael 20:15
And how do you go about finding a place?

Amy 20:17
Yeah.

Amy 20:17
Well, I would say before you even get the pre approval, that’s the point in time where you need to be doing all of your research.

Amy 20:24
And I think that research is fun when it comes to property and when I use the word research, some people think, oh, that’s a lot of time and effort.

Amy 20:30
But it’s not like combing through graphs and data and statistics or anything.

Amy 20:36
It’s actually just first of all, spending time in the locations that you’re considering and checking out the public transport and the streetscapes and the amenities.

Amy 20:45
But then also using the sold section of real estate.com.au or domain spend hours and hours and hours in there.

Amy 20:52
That is all of the information that you actually need to understand what things are selling for in those locations you’re looking at and can you afford them?

Amy 21:02
And if not, if you can’t see anything that you like, you gotta change something.

Amy 21:06
So figuring out what you want and then importantly, making sure that you can afford it and that sold section will tell you that I’m making it sound easier than it is.

Amy 21:16
But the reality is, is the information is there at your fingertips rather than looking at things that are just for sale, that’s a small snapshot of things and the prices aren’t reflective of what they might necessarily go for.

Michael 21:28
I like the fact that you’re mentioning spend time in the location because you may think that you want to be there or for whatever reason, then you go and spend some time there and whether it’s I’d just say the general vibe of that suburb and see if that is really what you’re after, I think that’s a really massive point that perhaps not a lot of people think about.

Amy 21:45
Yeah, exactly.

Amy 21:46
And during that phase two, it can sometimes make you realise that what you think you want, you want something different.

Amy 21:52
And for example, sometimes I’ll have buyers tell me they have to be walking distance to a train station.

Amy 21:58
So that’s totally fine.

Amy 21:59
No problem.

Amy 22:00
But then once we stress, test it a little bit and they start looking at properties that are say a short drive to the station or they can get a bus in between, but their property itself is much bigger and better and more modern, et cetera.

Amy 22:10
And they realise, well, you know what, that’s probably not as important to me to be close to the station, actually value a bigger house more so that research process and starting to go to inspections and getting a feel for what your money buys, you can help you figure out your priorities that can change over time and that’s ok.

Michael 22:28
Yeah.

Michael 22:28
And I think that flexible mindset from the beginning in terms of what you’re planning to do and throughout the purchasing process potentially is something that you have to be mindful of.

Michael 22:38
And I guess it gets hard because when it comes to these types of purchases, we get quite emotional and so we can get caught up in a particular way of thinking or what we want and being mindful from the outset that I need to be flexible with.

Michael 22:49
This probably assists the process I would imagine.

Amy 22:51
Oh, absolutely.

Amy 22:52
And you are allowed to be emotional when it comes to buying property.

Amy 22:55
As long as that doesn’t override your rational thinking.

Amy 22:59
I think that emotion is important because this is your home that you’re going to live in.

Amy 23:04
If you aren’t emotional about it at all, then is it the right option for you?

Amy 23:08
Is it the right property for you?

Amy 23:10
But yeah, you always need to come back to say when you are approaching, how much you’re going to negotiate or bid at auction.

Amy 23:17
You know, working through the comparable sales analysis and figuring out what the market is doing and setting your limit that way, allowing emotion to come in a little bit, but then not overstretching yourself or paying a huge premium because you haven’t put the consideration into it and you get carried away and your emotions overrule that previous information.

Jack 23:41
So that’s it for today’s episode.

Jack 23:43
If you want to listen to the full interview with any of today’s guests, you can find the links to those episodes in the show notes on behalf of Michael Nasser and the entire podcast team.

Jack 23:52
I’m Jack Traynor and thanks for listening to another year of the home run.

Michael 23:58
You’ve been listening to the home run your guide for buying your first home in Australia.

Michael 24:02
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Michael 24:04
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Michael 24:10
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Michael 24:13
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Michael 24:19
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Michael 24:22
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Michael 24:27
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Michael 24:36
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