"I've Made a Mistake": Cherie Barber's Worst Case Scenario

Welcome to Worst Case Scenario, a new bite-sized episode from Home Beautiful’s The Edit podcast, where we ask our guests about their biggest ‘oh-no’moment in the home.  

Today, renovation expert Cherie Barber shares the story of her Byron Bay holiday home, bought as a retirement escape and then sold on a whim when an agent offered a million dollars over its value. But once she signed the contract, she had some concerns. 

Haven't caught Cherie’s episode of The Edit yet? Listen/watch the full episode with Cherie here. 

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Credits: 

Host: Elle Lovelock  

Guest: Cherie Barber 

Edited by: Leah Porges  

Head of Vodcasting: Rachel Fountain  

With thanks to our wonderful Home Beautiful team.  

The Edit is a production of Home Beautiful and Are Media. 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
I've made a mistake. I don't want to sell this house.

(00:02):
I shouldn't have signed this. I wasn't looking to sell.
I just got caught up in the million dollars extra.

Speaker 2 (00:10):
Welcome to worst case scenario on the edit by Home Beautiful.
It's where I ask our guests about their own no
moment at home. It could be a design decision that
went wildly wrong, a guest moment they still think about,
or something their family will never let them forget. Let's
get into it.

Speaker 1 (00:31):
I think the worst thing that hasn't actually been in
a renovation project. It's actually something that I did. So
I bought a holiday house in the watergoes and beautiful position,
you know, in Byron Bay, so like posh part of
Byron and I bought that as my retirement home. Oh
it wasn't an overly big house, but it was right

(00:51):
sort of like above rays at what it goes. It's
a beautiful position looking the beach, and so I rented
it out on Airbnb because obviously I'm based in Sydney.
And then I think it was just just after COVID,
or it might have been before COVID, I can't remember exactly,
but I had a local real esset agent that rang
me and offered me a million dollars more for the

(01:13):
property than what it was worth. I wasn't looking to
sell it, so just somebody door knocking, canvassing, and so
I was like, I wasn't looking at selling the property,
and the agent's like, he's willing to give you a
million dollars more for it than what it was worth.
So I thought, okay, I'll sell. And it was the
biggest regret of my life, like it was actually my
happy home, like it was my happy space. I sold

(01:36):
it to him for five and a half million, yeah,
and was only worth about four and a half million.
So at the time I was like, great, I'm a
million dollars up. Yeah, But then I when I signed
the contract, I realized I actually don't want to sell
this I don't want to sell this house, like I've
made a mistake. So I said, I rang my lawyer
and said, look, I don't want to sell it, and

(01:56):
he said, too bad, like you've signed a contract. So
I didn't know that as a seller, when you sign
a contract, you can't get out of it. So I said,
I don't. I don't. I've made a mistake. I don't
want to sell this house. I shouldn't have signed this
I wasn't looking to sell. I just got caught up
in the million dollars extra. I had to let that
property go, and it was absolutely heartbreaking. I'm not getting emotional,

(02:17):
I just I got a twitch in my throat. And
then they've just recently stucked the property. So it was
about four or five years ago, and they've just recently
stuck the house back on the market. And how much
twelve million dollars.

Speaker 2 (02:31):
Oh yeah, Oh that's pretty bad.

Speaker 1 (02:38):
Yeah, yeah, that was worst case scenario.

Speaker 2 (02:45):
You can dive into this guest full episode wherever you're
listening to this one. We'll chuck a link in the
show notes, or just scroll up in your podcast or
YouTube feed. I'll see you over there.