The Smart Home Buyer’s Guide to Finding “The One”

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
My name is Tatasha Bamblet. I'm a proud First Nations
woman and I'm here to acknowledge country t glennyan Ganya, Niana,
Kaka yah y and beIN Ahaka Nian our gay In Nibina,
yakarum Jar, Dominyamka Domaga, Ithawakaman, damon Imlan Bumba, bang Gadabomba,
in and now in wakah Ghana on yak rum Jar

(00:20):
water Nadaa. Hello, beautiful friends, we gather on the lands
of the Aboriginal people. We thank acknowledge and respect the
Abiginal people's land that we're gathering on today. Take pleasure
in all the land and respect all that you see.
She's on the Money podcast acknowledges culture, country, community and connections,

(00:40):
bringing you the tools, knowledge and resources for you to thrive.

Speaker 2 (00:44):
She's on the Money. She's on the Money.

Speaker 3 (01:07):
Hello and welcome do She's on the Money, the podcast
that helps you turn bigger money goals into everyday realities
and one of the biggest money dreams so many of
us in the community have. It's buying a home and
in twenty twenty five, it's exciting, it's emotional and let's
be honest it's basically like going to a warehouse sale.

(01:28):
Everyone is fighting over the last dress and you're just
trying to figure out if it actually fits and you
actually want it. So today we are giving you all
the tips and all the tricks and also a lot
of red flags, help you search smarter and buy with confidence.
I'm Victoria Devine and today with me isn't a regular beck,
but someone who's right in the thick of it, our

(01:51):
very own hopeful first home buyer, missus Jesse Garci. Hello,
welcome to this show.

Speaker 4 (01:58):
Thank you for having me back.

Speaker 3 (01:59):
Honestly, it's it's made sense because everybody always wants to
know what's just doing, how's it working, how she bought
her first home? Guys, why are you asking? Do you
really think that if Jess brought her first home I
wouldn't make six billion Instagram posts about it?

Speaker 4 (02:14):
No, don't worry, you.

Speaker 3 (02:15):
Would know suggests before we dive into the practical, helpful stuff.
The community. They they've been demanding an update. Oh also
think guys.

Speaker 4 (02:23):
Really is sorry much?

Speaker 5 (02:25):
It's so nice that you care, like it's really comforting. Sadly,
the update is there is no update. It is tough
out there. I have been kind of sharing a little
bit about some things that have happened on my TikTok,
and it is really lovely to just talk to other
people who have all like are experiencing the.

Speaker 3 (02:40):
Same And you know, we spoke on the podcast a
few weeks.

Speaker 5 (02:43):
Ago on a Friday episode about I was just saying, like,
how hard it just feels like you're running up here
against cost of living and inflation and rising house prizes
and da dada dua hh.

Speaker 3 (02:52):
And a lot of people.

Speaker 5 (02:52):
Messaged me and said, hey, like, it's not just you,
Like I'm feeling exactly the same, and there's something so
comforting in knowing that, yeah, like I'm not the problem.

Speaker 4 (03:00):
The world is the problem. So when we have an update,
we'll definitely tell you. Don't worry you. Guys Will were
the first people to.

Speaker 3 (03:05):
Know, Yeah, it's It's actually crazy because in the background
I get to kind of watch what's going on, and
I get to snoop on the house as you're looking
at It can be so disheartening because like I can
see you get your heart set on something and I'm like,
all of a sudden, it's going for one hundred thousand
dollars more than what they had listed it for, and
it just it just feels icky. It just feels gross.

(03:25):
It feels like, why bother spending money on a building
and pest inspection. It's like flushing a couple of one
hundred dollars down the drain for someone to say, yeah, Jess,
it is a great house, like there's nothing wrong with it,
and then bam, they've I don't know, obviously we can't
say oh, they've definitely been under quoting.

Speaker 4 (03:43):
But Life said that.

Speaker 3 (03:44):
I was going to say, we can't prove it because
like at the end of the day they've listed it
and said, oh, as a experienced real estate agently, let's
say I think this house is going to go for
six hundred thousand dollars. And then the beauty of an
action is like it don't have to go for the
listed price. You don't go, oh, okay, if it's listed for
six hundred grand, I'll give you that, and then wham bam,

(04:05):
thank you ma'am. Like it becomes a bidding war. But like, yeah,
they know, they know that the competition is there, and
they know that it's going to be driven up anyway.
It just makes me quite frustrated. Miss Jess good Reachie.

Speaker 4 (04:15):
I completely agree, and I think we're going to talk
about that a little.

Speaker 3 (04:17):
Bit later too, totally. And I feel like lots of
our community are listening to this going, oh my goodness,
like that's my experience as well. So let's zoom out
for a hot second, because house hunting in twenty twenty
five is fraught with I don't know things that we're
all tripping over and we're all feeling sick about, and
it's honestly just it's not just you, it's I would say,

(04:38):
objectively chaotic. And let me give you, I guess a
little bit of a zoomed out update as to what's
been going on because I embarrassed myself on social media
the other day. Did you see that where it's just like, yeah,
I think that the interest rate is going to drop
by point two five.

Speaker 4 (04:54):
It's fine.

Speaker 3 (04:55):
CBO is saying the same thing, like I think like
eighty percent of economists were like, yep, it's going to drop.
Should I have listened to them? Clearly not, because the
interest rate cut didn't happen when I thought it was
going to happen. But the RBA's interest rate cuts happened
in February and then again in May. It's actually made
money cheaper. So like that's the beauty if you have

(05:16):
a savings account, not a money win because you're losing
your interest rate there. But at the same time, on
the flip side, if you're a first home buyer, it
like opens up your borrowing capacity a little bit more
because if you're paying less for the money to borrow,
you can borrow more of it Jess, Which that sounds
good right in theory. What that does is that boosts
by a confidence, so like it gives people like you

(05:38):
a little bit more of a pep in your steps
so that you go, Okay, I've got a little bit
extra in the play with, Like I've got another twenty
thousand dollars that I was able to put on top
of my like borrowing capacity, I can get something else.
And what that does, unfortunately is pushes prices higher because
you and every other first home buyer are in exactly
the same situation. Yeah, the medium property price for our

(06:02):
combined Australian capital cities now sits at get this, nine
hundred and eighteen four hundred and eight dollars. I believe it.
It's crazy. It actually makes me so frustrated because this
means that a nine hundred plus thousand dollar house. Technically,
and I'm not saying this is true, but technically it's

(06:23):
not a luxury anymore.

Speaker 4 (06:25):
It's not home in the suburbs, you know.

Speaker 5 (06:27):
I'm looking well outside of the city and a lot
of the out like very stock standard, like not done up,
no big crazy upgrades. Maybe a four hundred square block yep,
I'm going for eight to nine.

Speaker 3 (06:38):
And that's like the new benchmark. Yeah, And I think
that's terrifying because I don't know, maybe I am a
little bit romantic about my childhood or my upbringing, but
do you remember like driving past houses and your parents
being like, what that would be a million dollar home
and it honestly looked like a mansion. You'd be like,
oh my god, like that's so big, get like the

(07:00):
big gates at the front. Sorry, that's like now just
just a urban home.

Speaker 5 (07:05):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (07:05):
It makes me so uncomfortable, and honestly because of population
growth and because it's now becoming even more I want
to say accessible, but people are going to go Victoria.
It's not accessible, but it actually is. There are more
people in the market with more borrowing capacity. Which means
that there are fewer homes on the market right now.

(07:26):
So advertised stock is currently sitting at sixteen point seven percent,
and this is below the five year average. And in
June twenty twenty five, which was literally like ten days
ago as of recording, only thirty three thousand new listings
went live across the entire country, which was the lowest

(07:49):
this time of year since early COVID days. And everyone
couldn't be bothered selling their house during COVID because you
couldn't do open for inspections, You couldn't do anything. What
is that saying about our economy? And that's scarcity and
you're probably feeling this if not many homes are going
on the market. Scarcity is driving up competition and it's
making you consider spending even more on that property because

(08:12):
it's basic supply and demand.

Speaker 5 (08:14):
Yeah, it's really interesting to see. I know that I'm
looking at like for my journey purchasing a very specific area.
So maybe it's not the best example of what's happening everywhere,
but it really does feel like so few homes are
coming onto the market. I think that vendor expectations are
also really high because they're seeing, oh, well, this house
down the streets sold for so much because if there

(08:35):
was a lot of competition or whatever. So they're setting
their price ranges higher, or they're setting their reserves.

Speaker 4 (08:40):
At auction higher.

Speaker 5 (08:41):
It feels like it's got to hit a ceiling, but
I don't know when it will.

Speaker 3 (08:46):
It definitely isn't just in your area. I think it's
happening everywhere. In fact, I've shared on social media recently
that I'm currently planning to sell my house and so
We've done a little bit of landscaping out the front.
We're about to paint the facade so that we can
get some pretty picture it's done. And I was talking
to my real estate agent literally yesterday. He gave me
a call and was like, Hey, I was thinking, what

(09:06):
we do is bring the auction up. And the reason
we're bringing the auction up is because there's not that
many other properties that are going to be on the
market during that period of time, which, from all intents
and purposes, means that me as a seller, it's actually
better for me. He's like, oh, are you sure to
be quite clear, we haven't moved the auction up because

(09:30):
it just doesn't work for me in terms of time frames,
but there's also that strategy going on in the background.
Like me, as a seller, I want to make sure
that the home that I purchased became a good investment
when I sold it. So like if my real estate
agent is saying, hey, Victoria, like it would make sense
to auction it here, Like I didn't realize how much.
And we can do a whole podcast on this later

(09:52):
from the vendor perspective, But I didn't realize how much
strategy goes in to selling a house. Like I said
to our real estate agent, Oh, well, you know, in
terms of time frames, it would actually be really good
for like us personally, We've got some life things going on.
End of September would be great, and he was like, oh, no,
you can't do. End of September. All of the private

(10:13):
schools are on holiday. All of the people that you
probably want to be looking at your house and considering
your house and have a little bit more borrowing capacity
there on holidays. Yeah, and September of school holidays, that's
when I would say most of my friends used to
go away, So that made sense in my head. Yeah, anyway,
it can be really really frustrating. So now that I

(10:34):
guess we know a little bit about what we're up against.
And I've mentioned strategy. Let's not talk about vendor strategy,
but let's talk about your strategy. Yes, because scrolling real estate,
dot com, dot you, I feel like it's like going
on Pinterest and sadly it's not gonna cut it. Like
you can't just do that and say that you've been
doing your research. So I thought that you and I

(10:56):
would sit down because you're really good at this. You
might not have secured your first home, but you're really
good at this. But we're going to give you our
tips for searching smarter, spotting red flags, and finding the
hidden stuff that lots of buyers miss. Jess, I need
you to be really honest. I'm not going to look
at your phone in your screen time, But do you
spend a lot of time on real estate website?

Speaker 5 (11:18):
I check them every day. I check real estate, dot comm,
doty and domain every day.

Speaker 3 (11:24):
And what would you say are your top tips when
you're opening up that app? Definitely don't overfilter.

Speaker 5 (11:31):
I feel like a lot of buyers really overfilter when
they're on those websites, and it means that properties are
falling outside of your catchment and you could miss them.
When I search, I actually don't put any filters on.
I don't even I'll search the suburb and.

Speaker 3 (11:46):
Then because just knows what's going on for the entire
suburb at this point, I'll search the suburb.

Speaker 5 (11:51):
I won't put bedrooms or bathrooms because often real estate
agents miss label too. It's really common for them to put, oh,
there's three bedrooms with that's actually or the block size
is this, but it's actually that. So I often actually
won't put any filters on at all. I'll just search
the suburb. I won't even differentiate because I'm looking at
buying and also considering building. I won't even differentiate between

(12:13):
like what property type. I'll just search the suburb, and
then I'll zoom in on the map. So if you're
on an app for real estate or domain, you can
adjust the map section that you're looking at. You can
zoom in and out and it will show you all
the properties. That's what I do to crease on my neighbors. Yeah, yeah,
exactly right, it's perfect, And I think by doing that
you can then you click on the dot and it'll

(12:34):
show you the preview and from there you go Okay,
well that house looks big enough. Well that house doesn't
look big enough. But by doing that, you're making sure
that you're not letting things fall through the cracks because
of filters. I also check both platforms because agents don't
have to list across both platforms. Sometimes the data doesn't
pull across to one properly.

Speaker 3 (12:52):
And it actually costs some money. So like it costs
a real estate money to list on real estate dot
com dot au and sometimes they'll only list on that
because they want to also pay the domain fee, which
makes sense. But yeah, as a buyer, you need to
know that because you might think that our real estate
and domain they're in competition, like they'll both have the
same stuff they do not.

Speaker 5 (13:11):
Correct, So I always check both platforms. I would really
recommend being that. I also, you know, up for debate.
Whether or not this is for you depends how crazy
you are. I check Facebook, Marketplace. We are also crazy.

Speaker 3 (13:22):
We are also like we are de Lulu and we
just want our first home and we don't want to
be taken advantage job genuinely check Facebook workplace.

Speaker 4 (13:29):
Check your local if there's like a Facebook.

Speaker 5 (13:31):
Page for your area or your state, or you know
where you want to be buying, because sometimes vendors will
try and avoid the marketing fees that do come with
taking beautiful photos.

Speaker 4 (13:39):
And listing on those websites.

Speaker 5 (13:41):
And you know, sometimes agents will say, oh, I have
a list of buyers that I can take this to,
and in the background they also want to get some
extra eyeballs on it, so they might throw it up
on a Facebook or a community group. You can search
by a suburb, you can add house or whatever. You
can do the same thing. You kind of look at
a map area. I've actually seen quite a lot of
properties pop up on there like it might be a

(14:01):
vendor wants to sell direct, they don't even want to
go through an agent, which is like a whole other thing.
But it's worth looking, I think, especially in this market.

Speaker 3 (14:08):
Where it's so hard. I'm always looking, and even when
I wasn't like in the market for buying, like I
run a mortgage broking business, I'm always looking at properties.
The thing I like about that map area is on
the first go, you're like, oh my goodness, this can
be quite overwhelming. But as time goes on, the ones
that you've already clicked at gray and the new ones

(14:29):
are red, so you kind of go, oh, look in
the exact area that I want, there are three new
property and you just click on the new ones and
it can be really I don't know, it can be
really helpful being like, okay, I have seen all of
those and then you can kind of like save your
favorites or whatnot. I feel like this has been a
big conversation, not just for you and I, but for

(14:51):
my team and our current clients. But as far as
price expectations go, how far off are the listings from
what you're actually seeing themselves or because like I could
do a deep dive into the data and tell you, yeah,
but like what are you actually seeing on the ground.

Speaker 5 (15:08):
So I know that we always, like you and I
have had a conversation about like always expect at least
ten percent over it. I think that's pretty standard for auction.
More and more I am seeing agents under quoting, particularly
with auction listings, and the way that you can check this.
I believe we have an episode of the Property Playbook
that you can go back and listen to you on
this topic. But you should be looking at sold listings,

(15:28):
finding compower properties. Theoretically, that is a real estate agent's
job in Victoria specifically, and this does vary very vastly
stay to state, but in Victoria specifically, where obviously I'm
looking to buy, they are required legally or to provide
three comparable sold properties on the SOI the statement information. Yeah,
the only reason they would not do that is if

(15:49):
they can't find three comparable properties, which in this economy
I think is quite rare. But a lot of them
are really sketchy with the way that they do that,
and they use it to justify a price, which you know,
as someone who has also worked in real estate, I've
seen it happen firstend, and I think that it's really
frushrating because the reason they do that is they want
to get as much interest as possible, and they know

(16:10):
that they can do that by making it more affordable
if it's going to auction, the ideas that you can
then get multiple buyers that are emotionally invested in buying
this house, who then bid competitively, drive the price up
and ultimately, you know, create a better result for the vendor.

Speaker 3 (16:24):
Yeah.

Speaker 5 (16:25):
So I feel like there's a lot of underquoting going on,
and people have you know, when I've spoken about it,
people have replied to me and said, I'm seeing the
same thing. Report it. There is a reporting process. You
can do it through Consumer Affairs and.

Speaker 3 (16:37):
You absolutely should.

Speaker 4 (16:38):
Yeah.

Speaker 5 (16:38):
It relies a lot on self regulation, so like we
want it to stop, let's stop them.

Speaker 3 (16:44):
Yeah, and you touched on something that I preach on
a daily basis, and that's going through the sold tab.
And obviously we're not going through the sold tab and
being like, wish I could have had that one, but
it's sold.

Speaker 4 (16:56):
I do do that.

Speaker 3 (16:57):
Yeah, it's the same same, But we're going to go
through the sold tab. And in a perfect world, I
want you to go through that sold tab and pick
out ten, yes, ten properties that you would have purchased yeah,
or that you think really nice. And the reason we're
going to do that is one, we're setting a clear
price expectation. Because it's going to say, this property sold

(17:20):
for seven hundred thousand dollars and that might be your budget.
We're going to look at what it was listed for.
Might've enlisted for six hundred and ten, but it went
for seven hundred. What we're also going to do is,
through that process, understand a bit more about us. You
might go, oh, that's really nice, and I go hold
on jest. Didn't you say that you wanted a three
bedroom house and you go, oh, yeah, but this is

(17:40):
true bedrooms and a study and like that study nook
actually does what I need it to do, so I
don't need three bedrooms, and I go okay, So that
could be a valid compromise you're willing to make in
the future. Or you might go, oh, I love this house, Victoria,
I was going to put it on my list. Had
no outdoor entertaining space, like no backyard at all, and

(18:01):
that's a hard no go for me. I want a dog,
Like the whole reason I'm purchasing property is that I
can get my own dog. That's the most beautiful home
I've ever seen, but it doesn't have a garden. Yeah.
So I think that's going to give you not only
a reality check when it comes to pricing, but also
give you a good idea on what you're willing to
compromise on. Because if I sat you down in isolation,

(18:22):
I said miss JESSCOTRICHI what are you willing to compromise on?
You'd be like, well, I mean I want three bedrooms,
and I'll be like any compromises You'd be like, no,
that's what I said, yeah, and it's so hard to
work out what you'd compromise on unless you're able to
be shown a few compromises that you'd be like, oh,
hold on, yeah, maybe it'd actually be fine. Yeah, that'd

(18:43):
actually be fine. So for me, that's really helpful. You
also before I feel like I'm like, oh my god,
you said this and this and this, and I'm trying
to keep up. You also said before in Victoria they
have to tell you the price. Money win for us
because to me, that contributes to more clarity. But that's
not Australia wide. So if you're in a different state,

(19:04):
I actually have a really sneaky hack for you. When
it says for sale but then it has no price listing.
So what the agent had to do to get that
property online is they still had to enter a price
range in the back end so that it shows up
in search results. So you know how you like filter
on real estate dot com dot un You go maximum

(19:24):
eight hundred thousand dollars or whatever, and then properties show up,
but they don't have a pricing. The reason they do
is because their back end is coded. So we are
going to hack the system. So I'm going to put
this obviously probably in the show notes or on our
website or on an Instagram or somewhere that you can
find them. What you're going to do is open the
property listing and you have to be on Google Chrome.

(19:45):
Can't be on your phone. You have to be on
Google Chrome. You're going to right click anywhere on the
listing and you're going to feel like a hacker because
you're going to click view page source and on the
right side is going to pop up like a whole
heap of code. Stress. I'll teach you how to be
the hacker. Right control F or command F on a Mac.

(20:06):
You're going to like control F is fined, so then
you don't have to like scroll through the code and
look for this. You're going to type in and this
is why it's going to go in the show notes
marketing underscore price, underscore range. Right, You're going to hit
enter and just like that, you're going to see in
the code that code that I just showed you, so

(20:27):
the marketing price range, and right beside it will be
the price range that that real estate agent picked. So
it might be like one point five m underscore two
M because they've picked that bracket, or it might be
like five hundred underscore six hundred. Bam, you have an
idea of what that real estate agent categorized that property as.

(20:49):
Even if they didn't put it on the listing, we
found it in the back end, and they're not going
to like that. I shared that, but sorry, was on
the internet and that was free information, and then that's
basically that's just research.

Speaker 4 (21:01):
Sorry, it's giving superspy.

Speaker 3 (21:03):
Yeah, and obviously that means that you can look at
a property and go, oh, actually I thought that was
going to be seven hundred grand. I can't believe it's
like listed for eight fifty to nine hundred. Yeah, I'm
not going to waste my time on that property. Or
it's really good for prepping your offer, Like if they're like, oh,
put in your best and fairest or whatever it is,
you can go, okay, well I know on the back

(21:24):
end that this real estate agent put this particular bracket.
It gives you a little bit of bargaining room, which
is really good. Jess, you talked about before as well,
Facebook Marketplace. I feel like, to me, obviously it's fine,
But at the start of this journey, had you been like, yeah,
I founded on Facebook Marketplace, so the baby's on a scam, like,

(21:45):
not sure it's legit. Lots of people are now turning
to Facebook, marketplace, but online searches are not the only
ways that you're able to find property, Jess, how are
you finding property that maybe isn't listed online?

Speaker 5 (21:57):
Looking off market is such a big thing because, as
I said, there might be people who are trying to
save marketing dollars. There's often people who have said, oh, like,
we're thinking about.

Speaker 4 (22:06):
Moving, but we're not sure.

Speaker 5 (22:08):
If the house were to sell, then sure, So they
might have listed with an agent, but they haven't committed fully,
so the property is off market. Around twenty percent of
homes actually never make it.

Speaker 4 (22:17):
To real estate dot com dot are you.

Speaker 5 (22:18):
They're snapped up off market and passed around between agents
and buyers behind the scenes.

Speaker 3 (22:23):
Because it's how I got my first home.

Speaker 5 (22:25):
It yeah, and it's great as a buyer because it
means that you're avoiding the competition right Like you're not
going to the auction with ten other invested people. It's
just you putting your best offer forward hopefully you know,
getting yourself a hot deal or making it work. So
if your strategy starts and ends with a real estate website,
you're missing out on theoretically one in five opportunities. And

(22:46):
often the off market properties go for less because the
owner might be wanting to sell quickly, or like I said,
there's just less competition.

Speaker 3 (22:53):
And that's what happened in my situation. So I'm sure
I've spoken about this comprehensively on the podcast, and I
I'm sure we're going to talk about it again because
I'm about to sell this property. But when I purchased
my property, it was September twenty twenty, so we were
kind of like in a lull of COVID, Like you
know how we came out of one big lockdown and
we were about to go into another one, but we

(23:13):
didn't know. So we were looking for our first home
and a real estate agent had this off market property
coincidentally because the owners they were Chinese and they had
actually moved back to China, so they were out of
the country and they had basically said to this real
estate agent, we actually don't care, just get rid of
the property. It was kind of like the perfect storm.

(23:36):
They moved because of COVID. They were like not very
happy apparently with the way that the Australian government was
dealing with COVID and the lockdowns. They weren't happy with that. Fine,
I totally get that. So they the second the lockdown ended,
they moved. So this house was not i would say,
not photo ready.

Speaker 4 (23:54):
Yeah, it was not stage or anything like.

Speaker 3 (23:56):
It wasn't staged. There was some old furniture left that
they had just left because they clearly didn't want to
take it with them, but someone had to do something
with it. And like she was not ready for sale.
Like there was a lot of things that I personally
would have done to that house just to like increase
how much I sold it for. But then said to
their real estate agent, who had helped them buy the

(24:17):
house in the first place, just get rid of it.
I don't care. And for her that made her job
a little bit hard because she doesn't have the beautiful
photos to put online. She's not gaining a heap of interest.
But she did have connections, so she just came directly
and said, I've got a property. I don't want to
have to style it. I don't want to have to
get it organized. The owners they live overseas now and

(24:38):
they just want this property gone. So if you offered X,
we'd take it cool, I'll offer X, I suppose. And
the reason we did that, and do you know what,
it was a really stressful process. Happened within twenty four hours, crazy,
and the reason we got it was because she didn't
want to have to go through that staging process. But
if she didn't find someone off market, she was just

(24:59):
going to high Some people get it all done obviously,
charge the owner and get it online. But she was like,
if you want it before it goes online, this amount
would be fine. Yeah, money win you you have a
hot deal. Honestly, it was really good. Thanks for moving
back to your country, Like see you. That worked for me.
And I think that your stat about you know, you're

(25:20):
basically missing one in five opportunities. That's where you need
to kind of like rub shoulders with the real estate
agents and make it very clear that you are a
first home buyer, you've got your pre approval, you're all
ready to go and this is what you're looking for.
There was actually a stat that came out so a
recent prop Track analysis showed that nationally, on averages, houses

(25:41):
sell for four point three percent less money when they
are sold off market. So in Sydney that can be
like a saving of sixty grand lesson in Melbourne up
to like thirty thousand dollars.

Speaker 4 (25:52):
Less say less, sign me up for that please, I know.
And like that was just from like.

Speaker 3 (25:58):
Rubbing shoulders with the right real ess state agent and
she knew so she'd been prepped. Hey, I've got this
local buyer in your area, because she only sold property
in the suburbs that I was looking. I've got this buyer.
They want a X bedroom house, they want this and that.
That's why she came forward and said, hold on, hold on,
I think I've got a property you might be interested in.
Put yourself in that position. Yeah, because not only are

(26:20):
you saving money, I can't think of anything worse than
an auction, Jessica. It gives me such bad anxiety. So
I want to know when it comes to, you know,
rubbing shoulders with real estate agents, putting yourself in the
best possible position, what is your strategy for gaining access
to off market properties? Because I know you haven't hired
a buyer's agent.

Speaker 5 (26:41):
No, so you've got to You've got to talk to
the agents when you go to open for inspections. Make
yourself known. There are a number of agents that have
you know, called or text me to be like, oh,
we've had this property doesn't fit your needs. Da da
da da.

Speaker 1 (26:52):
Let them know.

Speaker 5 (26:52):
Nice of them too, I know, and it makes their
job easier, right If they can sell something quickly at
a good price, they definitely want to do that. So
even if it's not an off market property, they'll also
often keep you in the loop with new things that
are coming on the market so that you can get
the first look, maybe beat the rush. I try and
be really specific when I speak to them, with you know,

(27:13):
you don't want to give away necessarily your whole budget,
but I'll often say, you know, this is the range
that I'm looking within. I'll usually reserve a little bit
off the top of that, knowing that they always try
and push you up, you know, so I'll be a
little bit conservative, but give them a rough range and
a rough idea of my non negotiables number of bedrooms,
number of bathroom block size. Even if a house isn't

(27:33):
the one, I'll often still go to the inspection because
it's a chance to chat to the agent, see what
they've been up to, build a bit of rapport. They
are human beings, even though sometimes they seem like they're not,
so it's nice to have a good relationship with them,
keep in touch with them. If it's been a while
since you've seen someone. I'll often slick out an email saying, hey,
like we met at XYZ property. Just wanted to let

(27:55):
you know I'm still in the market for my first home.
This was my list to refresh them. Just want to
put myself on your radar in case anything comes up.
I'd love to hear about it. It's kind of like
managing like a relationship almost. It's anything you can do
to keep yourself top of mind for them to make
them like you. You've got to play the game a
little bit.

Speaker 3 (28:13):
You're becoming a business development manager pretty much. Yeah, a
property So you're like hustling up these relationships and just
touching base. And I feel like some people feel a
little bit intimidated. They're like, oh, well, I only met
that real estate and I've heard this before. I've only
met the real estate agent once at an open They
won't remember me. It'd be so weird to email them no,
so so remind them, like send them a cute email,

(28:38):
because honestly, on the flip side, let's pretend I'm a
real estate agent. You're sending me a clean email of saying, hey,
here's my budget. I've actually got all the cash and
the finance ready to go. If a three bedroom house
comes up, could I please have it? Or if a
two bedroom apartment or whatever you're looking for comes up,
I'd love it. Yeah. They actually want to turnover properties

(29:01):
quickly like real estate agents. They don't want it to
be on real estate dot Com for a month, like
because they have to do open for inspections. They have
to go back and forth with that house. They're talking
to the owner about, Hey, so we're going to do
another open inspection on Thursday. Can you make sure you've
got your pets out? Can you make sure that it's
clean and ready to go? They don't want that. If
they've got a Jessica, they're like, okay, so we won't

(29:21):
even have to do open for inspections if it meets
her criteria. Yeah, sorry, they get their commission when bam,
thank you, ma'am. They can move on to the next
property and make even more money. So like you're making
their job easier. Stop thinking, not you, But lots of
people seem to think that they're a burden anyway. I
feel like I'm headed towards rant territory. So we're going

(29:41):
to take a very quick break, Jess, But stick around
because when we come back, I'm going to share the
rule that'll hopefully save you from waiting forever for a
perfect house that honestly doesn't exist. So don't go anywhere.
All right, we are back and let's get into it
our next tip. So tip number four that I've written

(30:03):
down is the tip that I promised would hopefully get
you into your first home when we're looking for a
perfect home. And this is something that I'm coming for
the perfectionists here. I'm actually coming for miss jessic Rici
two years ago when we really started aggressively looking for
property for you, right, And it's going to hurt some

(30:25):
Miss jessic Rici perfectionists, right. Unfortunately, no house is ever
going to tick one hundred percent of your boxes. What
we're going to do is aim for eighty percent. So
I tell our mortgage breaking clients this all the time
we talk. It's really hard, and at the very start

(30:45):
it can be a hard pill to swallow, but I
promised it is a very good rule. If your property
or the property hits eighty percent of your needs and
the other twenty percent are like livable or fixable. I'd
say it's a strong contender, and we do want to
go to that oction. So every extra month waiting for
your quote perfect home, it could mean that the market

(31:06):
climbs another four thousand dollars.

Speaker 4 (31:08):
I've seen it. It's true.

Speaker 3 (31:10):
Yeah, And like I remember when you were first looking
and it was definitely perfectionist territory, Like you were like, nope,
I'm not even going to consider that because it doesn't
have exrayoz. I can almost guarantee if I said, do
you want to go back there to those prices, and
you jump like you jump back there. But it can
be and like it sounds bad if I'm like, oh,
you do need to compromise, but we actually do when

(31:32):
it comes to property, like unfortunately someone else isn't thinking
about your terms and your conditions when they're building their property,
and you're never going to find the property that meets
one hundred percent of your criteria. And if you do,
I guarantee it's meeting other people's criteria and that property
is kind of like a little bit of a unicorn
and probably will go way over what you'd even anticipated

(31:56):
way over that ten percent. So I would get on
real estate dot com and look at the sold area
so that we can get very clear on what we
are actually considering non negotiables. And then also the oh
would be nice to have? Yeah, because like so many
of us, and I know you're in this situation, you
want a garden, like you want outside area be so

(32:16):
nice to have, like a big lawn. But also, Jess,
if you saw a property that was like just a
really nice outdoor entertainment area, I think you'd be like, oh, yeah,
that's that's fine. I don't need the big grassy area. Yeah,
but other people might be like me, sorry, I need grass,
and I need grass because I have a dog. So
for me, that's a non negotiable, and you need to
work out the difference between the two of those. Jess,

(32:40):
talk me through it. What are your non negotiables versus
the nice stabs?

Speaker 5 (32:45):
Yeah, the non negocials for me are the things that
are hard or impossible to change. So block size is
a big one. Ate three fifty is my minimum square block,
which is actually quite small.

Speaker 3 (32:55):
But you'd be surprised I have a three fifty square block.

Speaker 5 (32:57):
Yeah, I've lived on smaller, and it felt really really small,
and knowing that I'm hoping to live in this house
for the next five to ten years, and I think
that a three to fifty will grow with what I
hope to grow bedrooms. I'm looking for a minimum of
three because I run a business from a home.

Speaker 3 (33:16):
You need the space.

Speaker 5 (33:17):
Yeah, my partner also wants to have his own space,
which I think is very valid. Obviously we then share
a bedroom, So three is a minimum. Four would be
lovely to have, but that's something I'm flexible.

Speaker 3 (33:25):
And that's actually quite reasonable in your area. Like that's
like if we looked at my area. Okay, so do
you have two million dollars Jessica Hart, Yeah, I'm.

Speaker 5 (33:34):
Looking in suburbs like much outer suburbs. Yes, it is
like a it is pretty common. Most houses are three
to four bedroom, two bathroom, and a two car garage
is also something that's important to me, again from a
resale perspective as well as just from a lifestyle perspective.

Speaker 3 (33:50):
And then the last thing you need somewhere to put
all your containers of Christmas decorations.

Speaker 4 (33:53):
Our two car garage is almost fully I was going to.

Speaker 3 (33:56):
Say it's not because Jess is like, yeah, so I
really like parking my car indoors at night time. I
know that that's not the truth, miss jss gutty. She's
storage thing, Yeah, like I need somewhere to put all
of those tubs genuinely.

Speaker 5 (34:07):
And then the last to negotiate for me is ceiling high.
Because obviously to raise the height of a ceiling be
super expensive.

Speaker 3 (34:12):
We're also so many places it's not even an option.

Speaker 5 (34:15):
Yeah, And because I am looking at a smaller block
and there for a smaller house, I like that higher
ceilings make it feel bigger and also let in more light,
which is something that's important for me with like what
I do for work.

Speaker 3 (34:25):
Yeah, yeah, and I love that. What's something that would
be like nice to have? Then, like, what's something do
you're like, ooh so nice? But also if it doesn't
have it, I just don't care.

Speaker 5 (34:33):
I think, like pretty much just the style of the interior, Like,
I'm very open to buying something that's she's a little
bit ugger now, but down the track I can renovate it.

Speaker 3 (34:42):
Yeah, you know, I'm gonna call my friends at Kaboodle worry,
don't you worry?

Speaker 5 (34:46):
Yeah, I'll be like guys like there's a kitchen, there's
a bathroom, whatever, a code of pain, a change of flaws.
I can live in something that's ugly for a little
while while I save the money to update it down
the track, and you can do so much, I think,
cosmetically at a really reasonable price point, so I'm not
too fussy honestly with what it looks like on the inside.

Speaker 3 (35:04):
Let's talk a hot minute about I've written down tip
number five and it's not skipping inspections. And you spoke
about this before, Like you know, if the property is
not meeting the criteria, still go meet with the real
estate agent and like kind of show face. I would
say this is one of the best things that you
can do early on as well, not just for showing
face and building that relationship, but even before you're ready

(35:25):
to buy. It's go to some open homes because it
can be so intimidating. Like if your first hope and
home is what you have built up in your head
and we've all done this to be your dream home,
going into that, you're anxious, you feel sick, you're so
worried about what the real estate agent is thinking. You're
not thinking clearly about your checklist of what we're actually

(35:46):
looking for in an open home, because an open home,
I'm sorry, it's not to walk through and go oh
that's styled so well, like, oh look that double bed
is I love that doing to cover Like that's not
why we're walking through the house. Yeah, and we can
get really distracted. But going to open homes before you
have found, quote, the one or one that you're even

(36:07):
interested in bidding on or putting in an offer for,
it's going to help you build some confidence. It's gonna
help you learn what things cost, and you go, oh, well,
what's the difference between six fifty and seven hundred? Like
go see it, touch it, see it, like talk to
people about it, because sometimes online you go it's the same,
why would it be? And then you get there and

(36:28):
you're like, oh, this street is really nice, like it's
like a very close coulder sack instead of like a
main road or something. You go, Okay, I can see
why this might be a little bit more expensive, even
if the floor plans are identical. So what we're able
to do is what you like or you don't like
in real life versus in photos as well. How many times,
Jess have you been to an open for inspection and

(36:50):
you've seen the photos online and you're like, oh, that
room's massive, that would be perfect, and then you walk
in and you're like, this cannot be the same property.
Real estate photographers work, they you know, day are working
for their money.

Speaker 4 (37:03):
They really are.

Speaker 3 (37:04):
They are like they are always so you know how
when we try to take a selfie together, Jess, we
always do point five so that we get everything in.
They are the kings and queens of point five photography
to make sure that the room looks as big as possible,
because like, sorry, if they put a photo of the
room looking teeny tiny and it only fits a single
are you going to go to that inspection?

Speaker 5 (37:24):
A little bit of color grading, maybe a little bit
of AI furniture.

Speaker 3 (37:27):
They're doing the most I saw the other day on Facebook.
I actually will find it and send it to you
where a real estate agent had AI put in a
tree in the front garden and its honestly beautiful tree.
It was like really big and it was kind of
this like Californian bungalow style property in my area and
they put this bigger tree and it turns out that's

(37:49):
such an attractive feature in our area is to have
really large established trees. Yeah, and it actually added like
fifty thousand dollars to like sale price if the property.
But when people turning up, they're.

Speaker 4 (38:00):
Like, where's the tree?

Speaker 3 (38:01):
Was the tree? Like there's actually no street coverage, like
it's really barren. Yeah, and like the photo made it anyway,
it was I thought quite funny because I was like, sir,
you really tried your hardest and it looks beautiful, but
you've shot yourself in the foot, because that's like the
first thing people are asking when they're turning up, because like, sorry,
there was these big established oak tree in the front yard.

(38:22):
But what you're going to do if you start going
to open for inspections early, Jess, is you're going to
start to notice patterns which homes you go, look, this
is clearly being underquoted, which agents are maybe doing that,
Like which agents are talking a lot of talk and
maybe are over hyping properties, And then it's going to
give you a really good idea of what is normal

(38:44):
in a certain price range. Yes, you know what I
mean to throw you under rebut but how many house
inspections do you think you've been to god over the years.

Speaker 4 (38:53):
I reckon, I'd be pushing like seventy to eighty. Oh,
I'm getting close to one hundred.

Speaker 3 (38:59):
Talk to me when you go first things first?

Speaker 5 (39:02):
Is it just you? I will usually go to the
first one by myself, and then if i'm going, if
I like it enough to go back a second time,
I'll take my partner.

Speaker 3 (39:09):
And how many other people are turning up?

Speaker 5 (39:11):
They're so the markt right now. It's so busy, Like
there's always other parties there.

Speaker 4 (39:17):
I would say.

Speaker 5 (39:17):
Usually five or six groups a lot of the time,
and different groups every time too, And I.

Speaker 3 (39:22):
Find that so intimidating because like if you see another couple,
you're like, have you got the same budget as us?
Or like, what are you looking at? Why are you
saying that that kitchen's nice? You're my competition? Yeah, isn't it?
And Steve and I went to an open for inspection
the other day because, like, as I said, we're selling
our property, but we're hopeful to purchase in the same
area at some point in the future. You know what

(39:44):
intimidated me is like we turn up and like we
had a harvey with us, and so we're running like
five minutes late, which was fine because it wasn't half
like half an hour slot get there, and obviously everyone
had turned up at the right like on time. It
was the amount of shoes out the front of the property,
because like when you go through a house, by the way,
take off your shoes. You don't walk through an open

(40:04):
home with your shoes on. I was just I looked
at Steve and was like, are we sure we want
to go in there? Because that looks like there's like
thirty people in there. Yeah. Like it was just like
this shoe graveyard at the front door. So what are
we going to look out for at open homes? Like?
I feel like there are lots of things that we
should look out for that are making us like the
housemall jests.

Speaker 5 (40:25):
Yep, definitely. There's a lot of little tricks the agents
use when they're trying to sell, So keep an eye
out for things like candles and music. They'll try and
set the mood. The ambiance work. It works for me, Yeah,
the scent of cookies making it's like a it's a
scientific thing.

Speaker 4 (40:38):
It triggers you to feel like more at home, more comfortable.

Speaker 3 (40:41):
To like I'm going to try it. I'm going to
go get one of those roles of pre made cookies.
I'm going to make it before a house inspection and
see if people are more interested.

Speaker 4 (40:49):
It honestly will make a difference. It's how it's not
exactly right.

Speaker 3 (40:52):
The lights as well.

Speaker 4 (40:53):
Lighting is such a big thing. You'll notice when you go.

Speaker 5 (40:55):
They turn on every light in every room, every lamp,
every lamp, every They can so flick a few off.
What does it look like when the lights are a
little dimmer. Checking the compass on your phone is also
a good one, and maybe bringing a tape measure compass.

Speaker 3 (41:09):
Well, you know, if girl, you are turning up prepared,
what are you a scout?

Speaker 1 (41:13):
You know?

Speaker 4 (41:14):
If I get lost, I'm leading you home. But knowing
what orientation the block is on will let you know
how much light you're going to get.

Speaker 3 (41:20):
Okay, Yeah, so that I don't have to say to
the real estate agent, is this north facing?

Speaker 6 (41:24):
Yeah?

Speaker 5 (41:25):
You might find that things are listed as north facing,
but actually their northelk is correct, which is not the
worst thing, but it's also handy to know what those
patterns are going to look like. Yeah, if you can
come back on a rainy day or in a different
time of day, I'll usually try to do like a
daytime and an evening in so you can see what
the light's like, what the ambience in the street is like.

(41:45):
You know, are there people hooning up and down the
road at night time?

Speaker 3 (41:48):
The neighbors have I went to a hope and inspection
a while ago, and this is when we're looking for
our first home, and I said to Steve, I'm so sorry.
We haven't even gone into the house yet, but we're
not moving here. That neighbor has three upside down Cole's
trolleys in their front garden, and to me, that's just
giving chaotic neighbor. I don't know who we want to

(42:10):
live in this area, No, totally.

Speaker 5 (42:12):
And going back at different times of day, you'll see
things that maybe you didn't see the first time. The
golf ball trick is a really popular one popular. Take
a little golf or any kind of ball. You'd have
a golf balks here. I have so many golf falls,
absolutely popping it down on a floor in different rooms.

Speaker 4 (42:27):
If it rolls, it's on a slap.

Speaker 3 (42:29):
So you're doing your own building and pest inspections, little pretests, Okay.

Speaker 1 (42:34):
I like it.

Speaker 5 (42:35):
Chatting to the neighbors as well. I feel like when
there's opens neighbors often around.

Speaker 3 (42:40):
I didn't want to talk to the neighbor the trolleys.

Speaker 4 (42:43):
No, actually that's very fair, but that.

Speaker 3 (42:45):
Makes sense because like I'm a sticky beak.

Speaker 5 (42:47):
Exactly, they will often want to see what's going on.
Neighbors on an auction day are off and around.

Speaker 4 (42:52):
Just saying, oh do you like the area? Have you
lived there long?

Speaker 5 (42:55):
People want nice people to move in next door to them,
so they're often pretty happy to tell you what's going
on and what they think if they like your vibe.
And then lastly, I would say use local Facebook groups
to check you know what.

Speaker 3 (43:07):
The area's like.

Speaker 5 (43:08):
Are there people complaining a lot putting up camera footage?

Speaker 3 (43:12):
Oh that's Youmart, You'll move in the streets doing xyzed
Like the area that you live in has like lots
of different housing estates, and I believe that then you've
mentioned this on the show before you're in like one
of your house or were back when you're in your
old house in one of the housing estate Facebook groups. Yes,
join it before you buy there have a little sus
everyone's complaining about the kids on the bikes knocking over

(43:33):
the letterboxes with cricket bats.

Speaker 5 (43:36):
Genuinely, I feel like, take you with a grain of salts.
People love to complain in those groups, so it gives
you a really good sign of what's happening. Are there,
community events, are there, you know, people saying hey, like
free to a good home. It'll give you an idea
of what the vibe is in the area.

Speaker 3 (43:49):
That's quite smart, especially if it's not an area that
you already live. Like for me, that's not going to help,
just because I have lived in the area for the
last nearly ten years, which is crazy and that's why
I want to stay. But if you're moving suburbs, it
can be so overwhelming. If you're like, oh, we're thinking
about moving suburbs and like we drive through this area
and it looks nice enough, but like that's not going

(44:09):
to give you a proper vibe check. So that's quite
especially if you're moving states or something as well. I
would say. The other thing is you can contact the
council for free, so like you can contact Sorry just
to add that in, but flood overlays and things like that,
if there are big buildings going up in the area,
you know what the types of people that work at council.

(44:31):
They're nice eggs, Like call them up and be like, Hi,
my name's Jess, Like, I hope I'm not wasting your time.
But I'm a first home buyer in the area and
I just wanted to inquire I'm buying on this particular street.
Is there anything I need to know? Girl, if you
get old Mary, who's worked for the council for the
last thirty years, she tell you, she's going to tell
you she's got all the goss, she'd be like, oh, yep,

(44:53):
so been nights on Thursday and she's going to tell
you call her. She wants to hear from you. I mean, please,
don't waste her time, Like promise that's a good idea.

Speaker 5 (45:02):
Speaking of Facebook, there was actually a post really recently
in our Facebook group where a community and mother was
asking for advice on what to look out for at
inspections and there were so many fantastic comments. I feel like,
if you're not already in there, a little shameless plug,
join the Facebook group because know what's going on and
they are sharing it in there.

Speaker 3 (45:20):
And we were born to yap as well, and like,
I mean, we don't endorse real gossip, but like when
it comes to gossip about buying first home or what
overs we need to hear. We're here for it and
we're all just sharing in the Facebook group. Also, I
would say, Jess, you said that you turn up with
a compass and a golf so I don't think that

(45:41):
this is a tip that I need to give you.
But for a lot of other people, they'll be like, oh,
I don't know if I want to do that. That
feels a little bit embarrassing. Sorry, this is the biggest
financial decision you're ever going to make in your entire life,
and you're embarrassed of somebody seeing you put a golf
ball on the ground. Absolutely sorry, look crazy? Like look
crazy because I can't think of another investment or purchase

(46:04):
that you're going to make that is this large. It's
a massive commitment and it can be really overwhelming. And
if you're really serious about a particular property and you say, oh,
it's a Thursday twelve and you're like, damn, I have work,
and then like Saturday at like one, you've got netball
or something, ask for a private inspection, call the real
estate agent and say, hey, I'm actually really really keen

(46:26):
on this property. Could I please organize a private inspection
someone like me. I'm sorry, I saw all the shoes
at the door. I was thinking about the shoes the
whole time I was looking at this particular property, Like
I was anxious. I was a little bit overwhelmed, Like
there were so many people. But they're busy and they're noisy,
and they're rushed, and a private inspection is just going
to be you, maybe your partner if you're going to

(46:48):
let them come, and the real estate agent. And I
don't think you should ever purchase a property off just
like one inspection.

Speaker 4 (46:57):
I completely agree.

Speaker 3 (46:58):
Sorry, Like even if it's going up for that, we're
asking for private inspections. We are seeing what is possible.
And then also, Jess, you and I have written a checklist,
So not only are you going to take your golf
ball and your compass, you're actually going to take this checklist.
You can print it or you can have it on
your phone. We're going to link it in our show notes.

(47:19):
It's free. You can also just jump on the She's
on the Money website and download it. But it's like
everything that we would check in a first home, So
it's you know, if you're buying a house, what type
of stumps. Is the house on Jess, Is it on
concrete or is it on wood. If it's on wood,
there might be the probability of that house needing to

(47:39):
be re stumped at some point. Like we are dotting
all our i's and crossing all our t's, and I
promise most of these things aren't just going to be
in the listing. There are things that you have to
look out for in person at your first home inspection.
The other thing that I want to talk about here, Jess,
and it's like a pivot because it's not free. So
I'll give you the free checklist and you can do
absolutely everything. But if you are very serious about purchasing

(48:01):
your first home, and I know that you are on
the side of caution here because you're like, oh my god,
this house is probably going to go over, I don't
want to spend a couple of hundred dollars and flash
it down the toilet. But before you buy, Jess, what
am I going.

Speaker 4 (48:15):
To say, get a building a section.

Speaker 2 (48:18):
Yes.

Speaker 3 (48:19):
And the reason you need to do that is because
you can take your golf will, you can take your compass,
you could take the checklist that I've made for you,
and I know will help, but you don't know how
to check for damp. You don't know how to check
for water damage that's just been painted over. You don't
know how to get up into the roof and check
whether there's termites in the eves.

Speaker 4 (48:40):
No would I want to, But you know what we're
going to do.

Speaker 3 (48:43):
Pay someone to do that, because that's going to save
you a lot. Like the difference between getting a building
and pest inspection and then finding out that there is
water damage in your floor could mean thirty thousand dollars
on moving in because you have to replace all the floors. Yeah,
you want to know, I want to know, so boring,
but please do it. Building in pest inspections, they're honestly

(49:04):
going to vary depending on the type and size of
your property. Like if you're buying a mega mansion on
a couple of acres, I promise it's going to be
a couple of grand But if you're buying a regular
sized property like house and land kind of deal, it's
probably going to cost you anywhere between I'd say four
hundred to eight hundred dollars, And I'm so sorry that

(49:24):
it is, from my perspective, worth every cent, I wouldn't
be doing it for every house. You just go and
inspect and you're like, well, I want the building in
pest infection unless you're really serious about bidding or trying
to purchase that house. And just twenty twenty four Australian
Housing and Urban Institute research actually found that about seventy
percent of households have reported building quality problems.

Speaker 5 (49:46):
When I wage in real estate, we were selling a
brand new house that had just been built by a developer,
and the buyer you would think, oh, it's brand new.
It's the problem they did a building a pest and
there was so much wrong with that build. So it
doesn't matter how new it is.

Speaker 3 (50:00):
Checked, get it checked because not only people are sneaky, right,
So it's not just like oh, we actually had no
idea we had rising damp in the walls. It can
actually be things like your house doesn't meet code. Yeah,
and then all of a sudden you have to spend
fifteen thousand dollars on having the whole roof ree gutted
because it didn't meet code and your gutters weren't up

(50:23):
to standard, and the council for some reason was doing
random checks. Yeah, I have seen that happen and it
is heartbreaking. And I don't know a building and pest inspection.
We're not looking for a flawless property. It's actually about
knowing what needs fixing, what's going to be urgent, and
then like what you can leave with Bill, who's my
building and pest inspector. It's who we use as much

(50:43):
as possible through Zella. If you're buying in Victoria, we
usually try and use him. He did my building in
pest inspection for my first home and he found that
one of the showers was leaking into the wall. And
that didn't mean it was like a no go zone
for me. I was like, oh, okay, well what does
that mean? And then you know, having a like a
follow up phone call with Bill, he was like, look,

(51:05):
doesn't matter that much. You've got some damp plaster. They've
clearly not like waterproofed it properly. I said, well, you know,
do I have to fix it the second I move?
And he's like, oh, like no, it's going to need fixing.
You've got at least eighteen months though, like you're not
going to notice it. It's just he did this like
monitor on the wall and realized anyway, that was great
for us we were going to renovate anyway. For me,

(51:29):
I was going to be redoing that whole bathroom. So
I was like, Okay, well, I can live with that
for eighteen months. It's a non issue. But for other
people that might be like, I'm sorry, I don't actually
have in budget a bathroom renovation, so therefore that might
be a no go zone for you. Yeah, I want
you to have that opportunity. I want you to have
the ability to know what you're kind of up for.

(51:52):
Another thing that we looked into, and I've again spoken
about this on the podcast. Steve and I were looking
at an apartment. We're looking at like this betiful three
bedroom apartment, and I was so excited for it. And
then we read the minutes of the meeting for their
annual general meetings like Body Corporate, and found out that
the cladding on the front of the building didn't meet

(52:14):
fire coat and that meant that every single resident in
this building, and it wasn't like a massive, like fifty
apartment block, it was like I think it was like
fifteen or something. Every resident would be up for between
forty and fifty thousand dollars. Crazy did you have the
entire building recladded? According to Body Corporate, it's a no
from me. It was a no from us. But like,

(52:36):
if you don't have someone inspecting, if you don't have
someone who could point these things out, we could have
purchased this apartment and then six months down the track
got a knock on our door or a letter under
the door that said, hey, cool, Body Corporate needs you
guys to cough up forty grand. Sorry what Yeah, absolutely not.
So I guess every single property it's going to be

(52:57):
a little bit quirky. There's going to be some things.
But it's better to know that you're buying a home with,
you know, a dodgy retaining wall, then find out six
months later when it collapses and you didn't see it.

Speaker 4 (53:06):
Coming, definitely, and you can negotiate down based on those things.

Speaker 3 (53:09):
Too, exactly. And also this is cheeky, and I've been
telling people to do this recently. I think I told
you to do this the other day, kind of like
a money saving hack. Ask the real estate agent if
a building and pest inspection has already been done, because
often they will tell you maybe who did it, and
then they'll on sell it to you, So instead of
spending four hundred dollars, they might go, oh, we actually

(53:30):
inspected that property recently. The reports to here under fifty bucks. Yeah,
what a coincidence that I happen to want to buy
that specific report. Who'd you win? Right, Jess, I'm going
to fly through this because I feel like I could
yap about this all day. I've got it written down.
Tip six is be ready to move in, but don't rush.
And I know you're not at this stage yet, but

(53:52):
I also know, miss jessic Ricci, the second you get
your house, you're gonna want to move in immediately, right
like you're going to want to move in before settlement. Yeah,
I'm onto you. We're not doing that. So the average
days for a property to be on market nowadays is
thirty five days nationally. So if you like something, unfortunately,
it's not going to be a really long process like fores. Yes,

(54:14):
it is, because we're finding things, we're not getting them.
If you find something and you've put in an offer,
that is usually going to take less than a month
from you seeing the property online to you handing over
a deposit, which can be really intimidating. But that does
not mean that we are panic buying. That does not
mean that we're jumping up and down. What we want

(54:35):
to do is make sure that we know what our
finance is doing. So we want to have our pre
approval ready. We want to be in a position where
we know what we can spend. And jess you've been
doing this through Zella money, so that's obviously my mortgage
breaking business. But we're absolutely looking after you. But it's
interesting because once you have your pre approval, we have
one client. So funny, if you're listening, I do love you.

(54:56):
I just think it's quite funny. Who has had con
assistant pre approval for the last three years. That's crazy. Yes,
they want it, and we have said, hey, we've done
your pre approval. Your situation hasn't changed, ip your credit
score exactly. So pre approval is really important if you're
going to buy, because we can tell you what you

(55:18):
can borrow, and we can get the bank to basically say, yep,
we would absolutely give miss Jessica Ricci money. And you've
been through the pre approval process before. But that pre
approval on average, depending on the bank, is only going
to last for ninety days. So if you get pre approval,
then you don't buy your first home. Very likely your
pre approval can lapse, and a lot of people are

(55:38):
going to run straight back to their broker and say,
oh my god, my pre approval laps. Can you please
do it again? We can do it again. That's fine,
it's free, Like, I'm not going to charge you for that.
But every time you do your pre approval, I am
inquiring on your credit score, and every time we inquire
on your credit score, it could impact your credit number,
and we don't want to do that. So have your

(56:00):
pre approval ready, but being consistent communication with your broker
around okay, cool, Like I am really ready to buy
if there's one that you'll like, super be these properties
come up on Monday. Really want to go to auction
on Saturday. I'm not saying every single time we can
get it done. Yeah, most of the time we can, though,

(56:21):
but we want to make sure that we're not just
keeping ourp pre approval in the back in case we
want to buy, because I don't want it to negatively
impact your credit score definitely. The next is knowing your brief,
having your checklist and checking it twice, but also knowing
your non negotiables versus you're nice to tas. How many
times have you seen people go to open for inspections
because you're like, Oh, it's in my area and I

(56:41):
think I could spend that. Yeah. No, Like, we want
to be quite clear on what we're purchasing. Again, it
is the biggest financial decision you are very likely to
make in your entire life. And we're not skipping steps.
I'm so sorry. I want to cut to the chase
as well, but we're not skipping in space. We're not
skipping our due diligence. We are not skipping our building

(57:02):
and pest inspections just because you're tired, just because you're
over it and we're a little bit desperate, we can't
skip these things. I'm so sorry. So, Jess, any other
tips and tricks to leave us with?

Speaker 6 (57:15):
No.

Speaker 3 (57:16):
I think that's been great.

Speaker 5 (57:16):
Like I said, if you haven't already joined the Facebook group,
that's where all the.

Speaker 3 (57:20):
Where we're hanging out, that's where we're yapping the most
about property. So I guess that's probably a really good
place to leave it. Jess, thanks for hanging out on
the show with me today. That has been really fun
and sharing literally everything that you have learned. I know
so many people are listening to this and they're like, no, Jess,
I thought you would have purchased your first property. So like,
we're all in your corner and we are all so

(57:40):
excited for you. But also there are so many people
listening to this and they're like, low key, thank god
Jess hasn't brought our first home, because like, neither.

Speaker 4 (57:48):
And I'm glad it's not just me no, And it's
nice to know that we're all in the same boat.

Speaker 3 (57:52):
And if you've got a friend who's house hunting right now,
you know what I think you should do. You should
send this episode their way. It might save them a
lot of heartache and hopefully a few thousand dollars. And
as always, please don't forget to subscribe, leave us a
cheeky little review, and we're going to see you on
Friday for another juicy episode. Bye guys. Hye.

Speaker 6 (58:16):
The advice shared on She's on the Money is general
in nature and does not consider your individual circumstances. She's
on the Money exists purely for educational purposes and should
not be relied upon to make an investment or financial decision.
If you do choose to buy a financial product, read
the PDS, TMD and obtain appropriate financial advice tailored towards

(58:36):
your needs. Victoria Divine and She's on the Money are
authorized representatives of Money.

Speaker 3 (58:42):
Sheper Pty Ltd ABN three two one IS six four
nine two seven seven zero eight AFSL four five one
two eight nine

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