July 12, 2023 • 21 mins
This week's diarist has been on a real journey. She bought her first property on her own, another home with her partner and an investment property. Plus, some renovation and house flipping along the way! When you do a bit of everything, you learn a thing or two from the experience. So, tune in for all the details.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
The Property Playbook would like to acknowledge the traditional custodians
of the lands of where this podcast is recorded. There
were wondry people of the cooler nations acknowledging the culture,
the history, and the connection to the lands of what
we call home. Let's get into it.
Speaker 2 (00:27):
Hello everybody, and welcome back to The Property Playbook, the
podcast where we take you from A to V of
all things property. My name is Jessica Ricky, and I'm
a hopeful first home a buyer, but before I can
afford to purchase myself, I'm asking for tips and tricks
from our community and experts to help me along the way. Today,
I'm back with another Property Diary where we chat to
(00:47):
one of our beautiful community members to learn a little
bit more about their story. And today's diarist sounds like
she's been on a bit of a journey, so let
me tell you all about her, she said, Hello, Property Playbook.
I've read both she's on the money books and would
love to share my experience and help the community. I've
bought three houses, one through a first home owner's grant
on my own that my partner then brought into a
(01:08):
second home, and an investment property we've since sold our
first house and flipped and rented out the investment. We
also renovated our second home and used the equity to
buy again, which we intend to do with our investment
property divis. Thank you so much for joining me. It
sounds like you've done a little bit of everything.
Speaker 3 (01:25):
Yes, we've been busy the last couple of years.
Speaker 2 (01:28):
Oh my goodness, it sounds like it. I already have questions,
but before we get to them, let's start at the start.
Can you tell me when and where did you make
your first purchase?
Speaker 3 (01:38):
Yeah? So my first purchase was in twenty seventeen. It
was a townhouse in Canberra.
Speaker 2 (01:44):
Amazing and at the time, how much were you earning
and what we're doing for work?
Speaker 3 (01:47):
At the time, I was earning about sixty five thousand
and I worked in external recruitment, so kind of sales.
Speaker 2 (01:55):
Now. Did you make that first purchase by yourself or
did you do it with anyone else?
Speaker 3 (01:59):
I did just by myself and I was lucky enough
to get the first homeowners grants, so that saved me
about twenty thousand dollars at the time. And then about
six months later, my partner brought into the property with me.
Speaker 2 (02:12):
Oh, I'm very interested to hear what that process was like.
But before I get there, can you tell me a
little bit about what your non negotiables were when looking
for a property.
Speaker 3 (02:21):
So, for the first property, I always planned for it
to be an investment down the track. So I was
looking for something that was close to schools, easy to
rent out, had a second bedroom. If it was to
be rented by two people, or if I couldn't afford
the mortgage by myself, I was going to try and
get someone to rent with me. But I was pretty
flexible with what I was looking for, just whatever was
(02:42):
in my budget at the time.
Speaker 2 (02:43):
I feel like when you're buying on your own, that's
how you've got to be a little bit like You're like,
I'll take what I can get. I'm not going to
be fussy, and I will be very thankful for it. Now,
how much did you spend on that first property?
Speaker 3 (02:54):
That one was three hundred and ninety thousand.
Speaker 2 (02:57):
And how much did you have in your deposit to
make that purchase.
Speaker 3 (03:01):
I had ninety thousand.
Speaker 2 (03:02):
That's a big deposit. That's twenty percent, isn't it.
Speaker 3 (03:05):
Yeah, So I avoided the lender's mortgage insurance, which I
was very lucky.
Speaker 2 (03:10):
Yeah, that's incredible. You said you use the first home
owner's grant. Did you use any other government grants or
schemes to help you?
Speaker 3 (03:17):
No, that was the only one that I had.
Speaker 2 (03:19):
Amazing And now looking back on your journey, it's been
a lot over a very short period of time. Is
there anything that you feel like you would want to
change about it? Now?
Speaker 3 (03:29):
Probably selling the unit that we had, So we got
some advice from a financial advisor tax accountant, and essentially
we were told that people renting it wouldn't look after it,
and we're probably better off selling. And I was emotionally
invested in the house and so I couldn't bear the
(03:49):
idea of renting it out, even though I had bought
it with that intention. So we panicked and we sold. Yeah,
but we were approved to keep it. So I do
regret that now.
Speaker 2 (04:00):
And when you say the unit that was that very
first house, wasn't it that you.
Speaker 3 (04:03):
Bought the first house? I bought yeap, So we used
the equity from that to buy another house, and so
we were always planning on keeping it. But once we
bought another house, panicked and sold early and we missed
out on getting a lot more money than we could
have if we just waited a little bit longer.
Speaker 2 (04:19):
Oh, that's so frustrating. You said financial advisor and then
you said accountant. Which were they because we speaking or
one or the other.
Speaker 3 (04:26):
Yeah, I don't actually know. He was my accountant, but
he always said he could do financial advice, and so interesting.
We took his advice on face value. We didn't do
any further investigating. You're sort of just dipping our toes
into wanting to invest, and it all seemed a bit
too scary at the time.
Speaker 2 (04:45):
Oh no, that's so frustrating. I'm so sorry to hear
that that went that way. It was a good lesson, Yeah,
one hundred percent. Even when you think you like someone,
when you think you know someone, check their qualifications, maybe
get a second opinion deding on what you're doing as well.
Oh that's such a shame. But I do want to
hear a little bit more. I guess about how that
led you onto the next stage of your journey. When
(05:06):
we come back from the other side of the break,
don't go anywhere. Welcome back everybody. Today, I'm chatting to
a property diarist who has bought three houses in the
space of five years, which is wild six years actually,
quick maths there from me, now, Property Diarist, you were
just telling me about how you sold that first home
on some advice which now is looking back you feel
(05:28):
ac was not maybe the best advice for you, and
you did that to then purchase your second home. It's
obviously been quite a few years since you made that
first purchase, Property Diarist, can you tell me a little
bit about how your financial position has changed since that
first property?
Speaker 3 (05:45):
Yep, so I have changed careers and I now earn
about double what I was initially earning, so wow, just
over one hundred and twenty six thousand. And of course
having a second income has helped us to save a lot,
which has helped us to get equity and things in
the house.
Speaker 2 (06:02):
Absolutely. What do you do now for work?
Speaker 3 (06:04):
I work in HR within the government.
Speaker 2 (06:08):
Incredible. How did I suppose approaching a second purchase feel
compared to that first one.
Speaker 3 (06:15):
I think we went in with a little bit more
knowledge of what we wanted. We were definitely clearer on
our non negotiables for the second property, and it took
us a little bit longer. I also bought with my husband,
so it was easier to have support rather than buying
by myself. And we spent about three to four months
(06:35):
looking for a property, so we were at open homes
every single weekend afternoons. We looked at so many properties,
so I feel like we went in with a lot
more knowledge.
Speaker 2 (06:46):
And you're still living in that home now, aren't you.
We are, yes, yeah, So were you looking for I
guess a bit more of a forever home rather than
something that you were going to kind of step along from.
Speaker 3 (06:56):
Yeah, the plan was to be our forever or at
least ten year home. We went in with the hopes
of buying a ready to go property, something that had
been renovated or that was ready to live in. We
ended up buying something that was pretty dated and old
and needed a lot of love. But it sparked this
(07:16):
love for renovation for us. So it's been actually a
nice little turn.
Speaker 2 (07:20):
That's very fun. I want to talk about that because
I also have always loved the idea of renovating. But
we had interior designer Alison Lewis on the show. She's
done two episodes with us now talking about the process
of renovating and flipping. How did you I asked this
of her, and I'm curious to know your response as well.
How did you figure out where to start? Because you
can obviously walk into a home and go not the vibe,
(07:42):
don't like it at all, feels dated, feels crusty, feels musty.
But then from there, how did you go about figuring
out Okay, well we need to take out the carpets,
maybe because they're old and gross. Those things seem very obvious.
But then when you renovate your it's not just a
matter of necessarily pay the walls like you can do
(08:02):
things far beyond that cosmetic kind of upgrading. Did you
do more in depth renovations?
Speaker 3 (08:08):
Most of our renovations have been cosmetic. We haven't been
knocking down or changing the layout. And I'm very lucky
that my husband is a trade as is his whole
family and friends, so we have been able to lean
on them for guidance. When we bought the house, we
as soon as we saw it we knew what we
wanted to do, so we had started purchasing tiles and
(08:33):
vanities and things like that before we even moved in.
Speaker 2 (08:36):
Wow, that's cool. We had a real head start.
Speaker 3 (08:39):
Yeah, yeah, we knew how we were going to do it,
so we broke it into sections, which made it hard
to live in when we were renovating living areas. Yeah,
but we've kind of done it bit by bit and
we've done everything ourselves.
Speaker 2 (08:50):
That's very cool. So you're obviously your husband is a
trade so he definitely had experience. Had you tackled any
kind of project like this before? Are you fully leaning
on him?
Speaker 3 (08:58):
Fully leaning on him?
Speaker 2 (09:00):
Yeah? Do you feel like you've got a bunch of
new skills now?
Speaker 3 (09:03):
Like?
Speaker 2 (09:03):
What have you done? What type of things have you
done by yourself?
Speaker 3 (09:05):
I do. We tiled with really big tiles in the
house and it was just he and I doing it,
so lifting and placing tiles, learning how to glue them
down with him painting. Pretty much everything was new to me.
But I've loved all of it.
Speaker 2 (09:22):
Have you found do you know how people say Ikea
furniture is like a relationship test. I feel like renovating
a house together is like Ikea furniture on steroids? Have
you found it a relatively easy process or have you
had a couple of moments here and there.
Speaker 3 (09:36):
It's been relatively easy for us, but we've certainly had hurdles.
We also six months into renovating. We got engaged, and
then twelve months in we got married. So we've had
a lot on top of renovating, but somehow we've made
it work. I'm not sure. It's been pretty easy for us.
Speaker 2 (09:55):
Wow, that's so impressive. I want to step backwards just
for a second, back to that house because of this one.
You guys bought together, which is a little bit more
of a straightforward process. What was it like having your
partner at the time buy into the house that you
already owned. How did you come to the decision that
he was going to, I suppose, buy into your property.
Did hear in any property before?
Speaker 3 (10:16):
So he was still living at home and saving and
he had a full deposit for a house, so he
had about twenty percent saved, and he was looking at
buying his own house, and it just made sense that
we lived together. We'd only been together for about three months,
but we were both like all in or nothing.
Speaker 2 (10:34):
Aw when you know, you know, yeah, pretty.
Speaker 3 (10:37):
Much, So he moved in with me. We agreed that
he would pay like a rent towards the mortgage and
test it out for a few months, and we both
just knew it was working. So we immediately wanted him
on the mortgage as well. He put into my account
part of his deposit, and then we got a scheme
(10:58):
through the government that was I think it was called
a Care and Compassion which meant that he didn't have
to pay stamp duty when he brought into the property
as well.
Speaker 2 (11:07):
Yeah, okay, amazing. Did you guys put any I suppose
formalized agreement in place? Did you have a BFA or
anything like that, or did you just kind of go,
we're going to make this work and figure it out.
Speaker 3 (11:20):
Pretty much, We're just going to make this work and
figure it out. We didn't have any legal advice or
put anything in place beforehand. It was really one of
those things when you know, you know, and it just
made sense to us.
Speaker 2 (11:31):
There was a lot of trust there. And so did
you guys end up contributing I suppose because obviously he
put a deposit in, you'd already owned it, you'd put
down a deposit, and you've been paying the mortgage for
a while. Did it kind of come out to be
around equal contributions or was it more heavily weighted towards
you because you had obviously been paying for it for
a bit longer.
Speaker 3 (11:51):
To be honest, we never really did the maths. I
think it was pretty even contribution from both of us
once he gave me that deposit.
Speaker 2 (11:57):
Yeah, and now that you're married, I'm assuming you just
share your finances and it's kind of all all come
out in the wash.
Speaker 3 (12:04):
Yeah, everything is shd Yeah.
Speaker 2 (12:06):
Wow, that's so interesting. I'm really glad that that worked
out for you, because there's definitely was the potential for
that to go the other way, but it seems like
it's really all been for the best. And so you
sold that house together, you purchased the home that you've
moved into, and you've renovated and been doing all of
those really fun things. And then somewhere along the way,
you've also purchased an additional investment property. So tell me
(12:28):
about that.
Speaker 3 (12:29):
Yes, So earlier this year, we have quite a bit
saved in our bank account, and I was actually reading
the shoes on the money book, and we've been thinking
for a little while that we wanted to do something
more with the money that we had sitting there, and
one day we just said, why don't we buy another house?
And so we started looking at what our options were
(12:51):
to use the equity that we had built in our
current house, and we were really lucky that we had
built quite a bit of equity that we were able
to use in buying the investment property.
Speaker 2 (13:02):
Yeah, did you talk to I know you obviously had
that accountant slash financial advisor you is verke to for
the first house. Did you talk to anybody before getting
set up in an investment property? Were there any resources
you looked into, because obviously having an investment property is
very different from having something that you're living in yourself.
Speaker 3 (13:19):
We didn't go to a financial advisor or get professional advice,
but we did go to a broker and at first
it was kind of let's just see if we would
even get approved, and then it escalated quite quickly, and
about a month later we were making an offer and purchasing.
Speaker 2 (13:35):
Wow, it very very fast. It sounds like, what kind
of things were you looking for in your investment property?
Did they differ from the things that you were looking
for in your own occupier.
Speaker 3 (13:47):
It definitely differed. We were looking for something that was
in a good location, something that we thought would be
easy to rent out, and initially we were looking at
something we were going to renovate. It was something that
we wanted to set and forget, and we actually had
an offer on something paid the deposit. The day before
we were meant to exchange, we were told that we
(14:09):
were gazumped and that we had lost the property.
Speaker 2 (14:13):
Oh my gosh.
Speaker 3 (14:14):
And we ended up with the place that we did buy,
which was a much better property in the end, so
it ended up working out for the better.
Speaker 2 (14:23):
I had to, Yeah, adjust your expectations. So what level
of renovation did you do to that investment property?
Speaker 3 (14:29):
So we ripped out all the flooring and put new
flooring in, painted a lot of it, and then just
some like painting out the front to make it look
neat again.
Speaker 2 (14:40):
Yeah, putting all your newfound skills to work. Yeah, that's awesome.
How long ago did you purchase that investment property?
Speaker 3 (14:49):
In April twenty twenty three, so we're only a couple
of months.
Speaker 2 (14:52):
In very new How are you finding being a landlord?
Are you liking it?
Speaker 3 (14:56):
It's really easy. We're also fortunate that we know our
ten so we're renting it privately.
Speaker 2 (15:02):
Yep.
Speaker 3 (15:03):
And they're really easy to work with, so it makes
it a lot easier on us.
Speaker 2 (15:07):
How did you know them before they moved in?
Speaker 3 (15:10):
They are friends of friends.
Speaker 2 (15:13):
Okay, incredible. How has the process been, because I think
it's really interesting. You're doing it yourself, so you don't
necessarily have those super structured, formalized processes in place, like
if you were to have a property manager or something
like that. How has the experience been for you? Firstly
learning how to be a landlord because it's very different
from being a tenant or just owning your own home.
(15:34):
And then how has the experience been knowing those tenants
directly as well? Because I feel like sometimes if that's
the case, do you feel like you have to handle
situations a little bit differently because you do know them,
they're not just like random people.
Speaker 3 (15:49):
So far, it's been pretty good. One of my friends
was a property manager before, so I got a lot
of advice through her on how to set it up.
We still downloaded a contract off the Act government website,
so we have a tendency agreement in place. We were
really upfront. We still have bond and all of those
things that you would normally do, and it sort of
(16:12):
feels like I set and forget. They've got an automatic
payment into our account. We automatically move it into a
different account. There's not a lot of thinking behind it.
So so far it's been really.
Speaker 2 (16:22):
Good, all very self sufficient. It sounds like, is that
property positively gared? Is it all being covered at the moment,
You're not having to think about it at all?
Speaker 3 (16:30):
Unfortunately not. It's yeah, the opposite. It's costing us about
three hundred dollars a week just for the mortgage, and
then we've got rates, insurances and things like that on top,
so we are pretty negatively gid and we're hoping that
will help us at tax time.
Speaker 2 (16:48):
Yeah, it's tough out there with the rates being what
they are at the moment, isn't it? But good that
you can obviously leverage it at tax time to kind
of figure things out. With all of the different properties
you've gotten that you've had so your three homes in
at this point, what do you feel like your biggest
learning has been Because you've had three kind of different
(17:10):
kinds of purchases almost You've got one where you did
it by yourself and then you had your partner come in.
You've done one where you've purchased with your partner, and
then you've obviously purchased as an investment specifically as well.
So you've got a very broad range of experience, which
is really impressive considering your young and your fresh faced
and you've done this all in the past, you know,
six or seven years. What do you feel like is
(17:32):
your biggest kind of learning across all three of those processes.
Speaker 3 (17:36):
I think probably the relationships that you build with real
estate agents, brokers, accountants. I think that that is a
big part of what got us to where we are
is having a good relationship with real estate agents. We
bought the house we're in now off market, and we
(17:56):
probably wouldn't have got that if it wasn't for keeping
in touch with people, and it's also the reason we
got gazumped in and other property. So I think that's
probably the biggest learning, is to keep in touch with
people and build strong relationships and make sure you have
a strong network, whether it's a good broker or a
good solicitor, yeah, real estate agents, things like that.
Speaker 2 (18:16):
Yeah, it pays to have a dossier of your property
experts that you can lean on when you're looking to purchase.
The one other thing I wanted to ask you, and
it's a little bit selfish, that purchasing that first home
by yourself as a young female is obviously very inspiring
at something I'm hoping to do, in something that I
know a lot of other listeners in our community are
hoping to do. Did you run into any roadblocks doing
(18:40):
that or was it all relatively easy?
Speaker 3 (18:43):
Yes? I did have some roadblocks. It was a brand
new build and the builder was very old school, and
unfortunately when I moved in, I did have some defects
that I needed help getting repaired, and he actually refused
to speak to me and would only speak to my
(19:03):
partner when my partner would come over.
Speaker 2 (19:06):
Are you joking? No, that makes me so mad.
Speaker 3 (19:11):
It would make me really frustrated too. And the real
estate agent that I bought from ended up moving to
Melbourne and blocked my number. I couldn't contact anyone, so
I had to go through a lot of legal battles
to get them to repair a few things at the
property through my partner because they wouldn't talk to me.
So I definitely face challenges.
Speaker 2 (19:34):
That is crazy to me that you're the sole purchaser,
like you're the person on the contract, You're the person
that they've built this house. For the fact that he
wouldn't even talk to you, I can't imagine. Did you
end up providing feedback or anything to that company when
you were done about your experience.
Speaker 3 (19:51):
My understanding is that the company went into liquidation and
they are no longer.
Speaker 2 (19:56):
Yeah, okay, a little bit of carmor. It sounds like
coming around there. Oh no, wow, it's so hard. I
obviously haven't gotten anywhere near as far along as you have,
But it's really crazy to me that we live in
twenty twenty three and there definitely are still people out
there who have these assumptions or these old school mentalities
(20:16):
around women owning property, being in charge of property, doing
anything significant like that for themselves. It's just crazy that
people are still experiencing that level of discrimination. Really is
what it is, isn't it.
Speaker 3 (20:30):
Yeah, it's frustrating, but it's also rewarding to know that
you can do it on your own.
Speaker 2 (20:36):
Yeah, you're killing it, and you really truly are. It
sounds like you've done some amazing things, and I love
that you've gotten to try a little bit of all
the different kinds of processes that we've been talking about
this season. That's really fun and really cool. Well, thank
you so much for taking the time to share your
story with us today. Property Darist. I'm feeling very inspired
hearing from another woman who has done some incredible things
(20:58):
all on her own and then partner as well, which
you love to see it. Guys, if you've enjoyed the episode,
we would love for you to join us on Facebook.
We have a group where people are sharing tips and
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If you've enjoyed the episode, we'd love a little review,
(21:20):
tell me I'm doing a good job. I'll take any
and all compliments and softly worded kind feedback as well
if you have any of that. But until next time,
thank you so much for listening and we'll see you
on Tuesday. Bye.
The Property Playbook would like to acknowledge the traditional custodians
of the lands of where this podcast is recorded. There
were wondry people of the cooler nations acknowledging the culture,
the history, and the connection to the lands of what
we call home. Let's get into it.
Speaker 2 (00:27):
Hello everybody, and welcome back to The Property Playbook, the
podcast where we take you from A to V of
all things property. My name is Jessica Ricky, and I'm
a hopeful first home a buyer, but before I can
afford to purchase myself, I'm asking for tips and tricks
from our community and experts to help me along the way. Today,
I'm back with another Property Diary where we chat to
(00:47):
one of our beautiful community members to learn a little
bit more about their story. And today's diarist sounds like
she's been on a bit of a journey, so let
me tell you all about her, she said, Hello, Property Playbook.
I've read both she's on the money books and would
love to share my experience and help the community. I've
bought three houses, one through a first home owner's grant
on my own that my partner then brought into a
(01:08):
second home, and an investment property we've since sold our
first house and flipped and rented out the investment. We
also renovated our second home and used the equity to
buy again, which we intend to do with our investment
property divis. Thank you so much for joining me. It
sounds like you've done a little bit of everything.
Speaker 3 (01:25):
Yes, we've been busy the last couple of years.
Speaker 2 (01:28):
Oh my goodness, it sounds like it. I already have questions,
but before we get to them, let's start at the start.
Can you tell me when and where did you make
your first purchase?
Speaker 3 (01:38):
Yeah? So my first purchase was in twenty seventeen. It
was a townhouse in Canberra.
Speaker 2 (01:44):
Amazing and at the time, how much were you earning
and what we're doing for work?
Speaker 3 (01:47):
At the time, I was earning about sixty five thousand
and I worked in external recruitment, so kind of sales.
Speaker 2 (01:55):
Now. Did you make that first purchase by yourself or
did you do it with anyone else?
Speaker 3 (01:59):
I did just by myself and I was lucky enough
to get the first homeowners grants, so that saved me
about twenty thousand dollars at the time. And then about
six months later, my partner brought into the property with me.
Speaker 2 (02:12):
Oh, I'm very interested to hear what that process was like.
But before I get there, can you tell me a
little bit about what your non negotiables were when looking
for a property.
Speaker 3 (02:21):
So, for the first property, I always planned for it
to be an investment down the track. So I was
looking for something that was close to schools, easy to
rent out, had a second bedroom. If it was to
be rented by two people, or if I couldn't afford
the mortgage by myself, I was going to try and
get someone to rent with me. But I was pretty
flexible with what I was looking for, just whatever was
(02:42):
in my budget at the time.
Speaker 2 (02:43):
I feel like when you're buying on your own, that's
how you've got to be a little bit like You're like,
I'll take what I can get. I'm not going to
be fussy, and I will be very thankful for it. Now,
how much did you spend on that first property?
Speaker 3 (02:54):
That one was three hundred and ninety thousand.
Speaker 2 (02:57):
And how much did you have in your deposit to
make that purchase.
Speaker 3 (03:01):
I had ninety thousand.
Speaker 2 (03:02):
That's a big deposit. That's twenty percent, isn't it.
Speaker 3 (03:05):
Yeah, So I avoided the lender's mortgage insurance, which I
was very lucky.
Speaker 2 (03:10):
Yeah, that's incredible. You said you use the first home
owner's grant. Did you use any other government grants or
schemes to help you?
Speaker 3 (03:17):
No, that was the only one that I had.
Speaker 2 (03:19):
Amazing And now looking back on your journey, it's been
a lot over a very short period of time. Is
there anything that you feel like you would want to
change about it? Now?
Speaker 3 (03:29):
Probably selling the unit that we had, So we got
some advice from a financial advisor tax accountant, and essentially
we were told that people renting it wouldn't look after it,
and we're probably better off selling. And I was emotionally
invested in the house and so I couldn't bear the
(03:49):
idea of renting it out, even though I had bought
it with that intention. So we panicked and we sold. Yeah,
but we were approved to keep it. So I do
regret that now.
Speaker 2 (04:00):
And when you say the unit that was that very
first house, wasn't it that you.
Speaker 3 (04:03):
Bought the first house? I bought yeap, So we used
the equity from that to buy another house, and so
we were always planning on keeping it. But once we
bought another house, panicked and sold early and we missed
out on getting a lot more money than we could
have if we just waited a little bit longer.
Speaker 2 (04:19):
Oh, that's so frustrating. You said financial advisor and then
you said accountant. Which were they because we speaking or
one or the other.
Speaker 3 (04:26):
Yeah, I don't actually know. He was my accountant, but
he always said he could do financial advice, and so interesting.
We took his advice on face value. We didn't do
any further investigating. You're sort of just dipping our toes
into wanting to invest, and it all seemed a bit
too scary at the time.
Speaker 2 (04:45):
Oh no, that's so frustrating. I'm so sorry to hear
that that went that way. It was a good lesson, Yeah,
one hundred percent. Even when you think you like someone,
when you think you know someone, check their qualifications, maybe
get a second opinion deding on what you're doing as well.
Oh that's such a shame. But I do want to
hear a little bit more. I guess about how that
led you onto the next stage of your journey. When
(05:06):
we come back from the other side of the break,
don't go anywhere. Welcome back everybody. Today, I'm chatting to
a property diarist who has bought three houses in the
space of five years, which is wild six years actually,
quick maths there from me, now, Property Diarist, you were
just telling me about how you sold that first home
on some advice which now is looking back you feel
(05:28):
ac was not maybe the best advice for you, and
you did that to then purchase your second home. It's
obviously been quite a few years since you made that
first purchase, Property Diarist, can you tell me a little
bit about how your financial position has changed since that
first property?
Speaker 3 (05:45):
Yep, so I have changed careers and I now earn
about double what I was initially earning, so wow, just
over one hundred and twenty six thousand. And of course
having a second income has helped us to save a lot,
which has helped us to get equity and things in
the house.
Speaker 2 (06:02):
Absolutely. What do you do now for work?
Speaker 3 (06:04):
I work in HR within the government.
Speaker 2 (06:08):
Incredible. How did I suppose approaching a second purchase feel
compared to that first one.
Speaker 3 (06:15):
I think we went in with a little bit more
knowledge of what we wanted. We were definitely clearer on
our non negotiables for the second property, and it took
us a little bit longer. I also bought with my husband,
so it was easier to have support rather than buying
by myself. And we spent about three to four months
(06:35):
looking for a property, so we were at open homes
every single weekend afternoons. We looked at so many properties,
so I feel like we went in with a lot
more knowledge.
Speaker 2 (06:46):
And you're still living in that home now, aren't you.
We are, yes, yeah, So were you looking for I
guess a bit more of a forever home rather than
something that you were going to kind of step along from.
Speaker 3 (06:56):
Yeah, the plan was to be our forever or at
least ten year home. We went in with the hopes
of buying a ready to go property, something that had
been renovated or that was ready to live in. We
ended up buying something that was pretty dated and old
and needed a lot of love. But it sparked this
(07:16):
love for renovation for us. So it's been actually a
nice little turn.
Speaker 2 (07:20):
That's very fun. I want to talk about that because
I also have always loved the idea of renovating. But
we had interior designer Alison Lewis on the show. She's
done two episodes with us now talking about the process
of renovating and flipping. How did you I asked this
of her, and I'm curious to know your response as well.
How did you figure out where to start? Because you
can obviously walk into a home and go not the vibe,
(07:42):
don't like it at all, feels dated, feels crusty, feels musty.
But then from there, how did you go about figuring
out Okay, well we need to take out the carpets,
maybe because they're old and gross. Those things seem very obvious.
But then when you renovate your it's not just a
matter of necessarily pay the walls like you can do
(08:02):
things far beyond that cosmetic kind of upgrading. Did you
do more in depth renovations?
Speaker 3 (08:08):
Most of our renovations have been cosmetic. We haven't been
knocking down or changing the layout. And I'm very lucky
that my husband is a trade as is his whole
family and friends, so we have been able to lean
on them for guidance. When we bought the house, we
as soon as we saw it we knew what we
wanted to do, so we had started purchasing tiles and
(08:33):
vanities and things like that before we even moved in.
Speaker 2 (08:36):
Wow, that's cool. We had a real head start.
Speaker 3 (08:39):
Yeah, yeah, we knew how we were going to do it,
so we broke it into sections, which made it hard
to live in when we were renovating living areas. Yeah,
but we've kind of done it bit by bit and
we've done everything ourselves.
Speaker 2 (08:50):
That's very cool. So you're obviously your husband is a
trade so he definitely had experience. Had you tackled any
kind of project like this before? Are you fully leaning
on him?
Speaker 3 (08:58):
Fully leaning on him?
Speaker 2 (09:00):
Yeah? Do you feel like you've got a bunch of
new skills now?
Speaker 3 (09:03):
Like?
Speaker 2 (09:03):
What have you done? What type of things have you
done by yourself?
Speaker 3 (09:05):
I do. We tiled with really big tiles in the
house and it was just he and I doing it,
so lifting and placing tiles, learning how to glue them
down with him painting. Pretty much everything was new to me.
But I've loved all of it.
Speaker 2 (09:22):
Have you found do you know how people say Ikea
furniture is like a relationship test. I feel like renovating
a house together is like Ikea furniture on steroids? Have
you found it a relatively easy process or have you
had a couple of moments here and there.
Speaker 3 (09:36):
It's been relatively easy for us, but we've certainly had hurdles.
We also six months into renovating. We got engaged, and
then twelve months in we got married. So we've had
a lot on top of renovating, but somehow we've made
it work. I'm not sure. It's been pretty easy for us.
Speaker 2 (09:55):
Wow, that's so impressive. I want to step backwards just
for a second, back to that house because of this one.
You guys bought together, which is a little bit more
of a straightforward process. What was it like having your
partner at the time buy into the house that you
already owned. How did you come to the decision that
he was going to, I suppose, buy into your property.
Did hear in any property before?
Speaker 3 (10:16):
So he was still living at home and saving and
he had a full deposit for a house, so he
had about twenty percent saved, and he was looking at
buying his own house, and it just made sense that
we lived together. We'd only been together for about three months,
but we were both like all in or nothing.
Speaker 2 (10:34):
Aw when you know, you know, yeah, pretty.
Speaker 3 (10:37):
Much, So he moved in with me. We agreed that
he would pay like a rent towards the mortgage and
test it out for a few months, and we both
just knew it was working. So we immediately wanted him
on the mortgage as well. He put into my account
part of his deposit, and then we got a scheme
(10:58):
through the government that was I think it was called
a Care and Compassion which meant that he didn't have
to pay stamp duty when he brought into the property
as well.
Speaker 2 (11:07):
Yeah, okay, amazing. Did you guys put any I suppose
formalized agreement in place? Did you have a BFA or
anything like that, or did you just kind of go,
we're going to make this work and figure it out.
Speaker 3 (11:20):
Pretty much, We're just going to make this work and
figure it out. We didn't have any legal advice or
put anything in place beforehand. It was really one of
those things when you know, you know, and it just
made sense to us.
Speaker 2 (11:31):
There was a lot of trust there. And so did
you guys end up contributing I suppose because obviously he
put a deposit in, you'd already owned it, you'd put
down a deposit, and you've been paying the mortgage for
a while. Did it kind of come out to be
around equal contributions or was it more heavily weighted towards
you because you had obviously been paying for it for
a bit longer.
Speaker 3 (11:51):
To be honest, we never really did the maths. I
think it was pretty even contribution from both of us
once he gave me that deposit.
Speaker 2 (11:57):
Yeah, and now that you're married, I'm assuming you just
share your finances and it's kind of all all come
out in the wash.
Speaker 3 (12:04):
Yeah, everything is shd Yeah.
Speaker 2 (12:06):
Wow, that's so interesting. I'm really glad that that worked
out for you, because there's definitely was the potential for
that to go the other way, but it seems like
it's really all been for the best. And so you
sold that house together, you purchased the home that you've
moved into, and you've renovated and been doing all of
those really fun things. And then somewhere along the way,
you've also purchased an additional investment property. So tell me
(12:28):
about that.
Speaker 3 (12:29):
Yes, So earlier this year, we have quite a bit
saved in our bank account, and I was actually reading
the shoes on the money book, and we've been thinking
for a little while that we wanted to do something
more with the money that we had sitting there, and
one day we just said, why don't we buy another house?
And so we started looking at what our options were
(12:51):
to use the equity that we had built in our
current house, and we were really lucky that we had
built quite a bit of equity that we were able
to use in buying the investment property.
Speaker 2 (13:02):
Yeah, did you talk to I know you obviously had
that accountant slash financial advisor you is verke to for
the first house. Did you talk to anybody before getting
set up in an investment property? Were there any resources
you looked into, because obviously having an investment property is
very different from having something that you're living in yourself.
Speaker 3 (13:19):
We didn't go to a financial advisor or get professional advice,
but we did go to a broker and at first
it was kind of let's just see if we would
even get approved, and then it escalated quite quickly, and
about a month later we were making an offer and purchasing.
Speaker 2 (13:35):
Wow, it very very fast. It sounds like, what kind
of things were you looking for in your investment property?
Did they differ from the things that you were looking
for in your own occupier.
Speaker 3 (13:47):
It definitely differed. We were looking for something that was
in a good location, something that we thought would be
easy to rent out, and initially we were looking at
something we were going to renovate. It was something that
we wanted to set and forget, and we actually had
an offer on something paid the deposit. The day before
we were meant to exchange, we were told that we
(14:09):
were gazumped and that we had lost the property.
Speaker 2 (14:13):
Oh my gosh.
Speaker 3 (14:14):
And we ended up with the place that we did buy,
which was a much better property in the end, so
it ended up working out for the better.
Speaker 2 (14:23):
I had to, Yeah, adjust your expectations. So what level
of renovation did you do to that investment property?
Speaker 3 (14:29):
So we ripped out all the flooring and put new
flooring in, painted a lot of it, and then just
some like painting out the front to make it look
neat again.
Speaker 2 (14:40):
Yeah, putting all your newfound skills to work. Yeah, that's awesome.
How long ago did you purchase that investment property?
Speaker 3 (14:49):
In April twenty twenty three, so we're only a couple
of months.
Speaker 2 (14:52):
In very new How are you finding being a landlord?
Are you liking it?
Speaker 3 (14:56):
It's really easy. We're also fortunate that we know our
ten so we're renting it privately.
Speaker 2 (15:02):
Yep.
Speaker 3 (15:03):
And they're really easy to work with, so it makes
it a lot easier on us.
Speaker 2 (15:07):
How did you know them before they moved in?
Speaker 3 (15:10):
They are friends of friends.
Speaker 2 (15:13):
Okay, incredible. How has the process been, because I think
it's really interesting. You're doing it yourself, so you don't
necessarily have those super structured, formalized processes in place, like
if you were to have a property manager or something
like that. How has the experience been for you? Firstly
learning how to be a landlord because it's very different
from being a tenant or just owning your own home.
(15:34):
And then how has the experience been knowing those tenants
directly as well? Because I feel like sometimes if that's
the case, do you feel like you have to handle
situations a little bit differently because you do know them,
they're not just like random people.
Speaker 3 (15:49):
So far, it's been pretty good. One of my friends
was a property manager before, so I got a lot
of advice through her on how to set it up.
We still downloaded a contract off the Act government website,
so we have a tendency agreement in place. We were
really upfront. We still have bond and all of those
things that you would normally do, and it sort of
(16:12):
feels like I set and forget. They've got an automatic
payment into our account. We automatically move it into a
different account. There's not a lot of thinking behind it.
So so far it's been really.
Speaker 2 (16:22):
Good, all very self sufficient. It sounds like, is that
property positively gared? Is it all being covered at the moment,
You're not having to think about it at all?
Speaker 3 (16:30):
Unfortunately not. It's yeah, the opposite. It's costing us about
three hundred dollars a week just for the mortgage, and
then we've got rates, insurances and things like that on top,
so we are pretty negatively gid and we're hoping that
will help us at tax time.
Speaker 2 (16:48):
Yeah, it's tough out there with the rates being what
they are at the moment, isn't it? But good that
you can obviously leverage it at tax time to kind
of figure things out. With all of the different properties
you've gotten that you've had so your three homes in
at this point, what do you feel like your biggest
learning has been Because you've had three kind of different
(17:10):
kinds of purchases almost You've got one where you did
it by yourself and then you had your partner come in.
You've done one where you've purchased with your partner, and
then you've obviously purchased as an investment specifically as well.
So you've got a very broad range of experience, which
is really impressive considering your young and your fresh faced
and you've done this all in the past, you know,
six or seven years. What do you feel like is
(17:32):
your biggest kind of learning across all three of those processes.
Speaker 3 (17:36):
I think probably the relationships that you build with real
estate agents, brokers, accountants. I think that that is a
big part of what got us to where we are
is having a good relationship with real estate agents. We
bought the house we're in now off market, and we
(17:56):
probably wouldn't have got that if it wasn't for keeping
in touch with people, and it's also the reason we
got gazumped in and other property. So I think that's
probably the biggest learning, is to keep in touch with
people and build strong relationships and make sure you have
a strong network, whether it's a good broker or a
good solicitor, yeah, real estate agents, things like that.
Speaker 2 (18:16):
Yeah, it pays to have a dossier of your property
experts that you can lean on when you're looking to purchase.
The one other thing I wanted to ask you, and
it's a little bit selfish, that purchasing that first home
by yourself as a young female is obviously very inspiring
at something I'm hoping to do, in something that I
know a lot of other listeners in our community are
hoping to do. Did you run into any roadblocks doing
(18:40):
that or was it all relatively easy?
Speaker 3 (18:43):
Yes? I did have some roadblocks. It was a brand
new build and the builder was very old school, and
unfortunately when I moved in, I did have some defects
that I needed help getting repaired, and he actually refused
to speak to me and would only speak to my
(19:03):
partner when my partner would come over.
Speaker 2 (19:06):
Are you joking? No, that makes me so mad.
Speaker 3 (19:11):
It would make me really frustrated too. And the real
estate agent that I bought from ended up moving to
Melbourne and blocked my number. I couldn't contact anyone, so
I had to go through a lot of legal battles
to get them to repair a few things at the
property through my partner because they wouldn't talk to me.
So I definitely face challenges.
Speaker 2 (19:34):
That is crazy to me that you're the sole purchaser,
like you're the person on the contract, You're the person
that they've built this house. For the fact that he
wouldn't even talk to you, I can't imagine. Did you
end up providing feedback or anything to that company when
you were done about your experience.
Speaker 3 (19:51):
My understanding is that the company went into liquidation and
they are no longer.
Speaker 2 (19:56):
Yeah, okay, a little bit of carmor. It sounds like
coming around there. Oh no, wow, it's so hard. I
obviously haven't gotten anywhere near as far along as you have,
But it's really crazy to me that we live in
twenty twenty three and there definitely are still people out
there who have these assumptions or these old school mentalities
(20:16):
around women owning property, being in charge of property, doing
anything significant like that for themselves. It's just crazy that
people are still experiencing that level of discrimination. Really is
what it is, isn't it.
Speaker 3 (20:30):
Yeah, it's frustrating, but it's also rewarding to know that
you can do it on your own.
Speaker 2 (20:36):
Yeah, you're killing it, and you really truly are. It
sounds like you've done some amazing things, and I love
that you've gotten to try a little bit of all
the different kinds of processes that we've been talking about
this season. That's really fun and really cool. Well, thank
you so much for taking the time to share your
story with us today. Property Darist. I'm feeling very inspired
hearing from another woman who has done some incredible things
(20:58):
all on her own and then partner as well, which
you love to see it. Guys, if you've enjoyed the episode,
we would love for you to join us on Facebook.
We have a group where people are sharing tips and
tricks and ideas every single day. You can search Property
Playbook to find us. We're also on Instagram. Property Playbook
a US where we're sharing content every day. And that's it.
If you've enjoyed the episode, we'd love a little review,
(21:20):
tell me I'm doing a good job. I'll take any
and all compliments and softly worded kind feedback as well
if you have any of that. But until next time,
thank you so much for listening and we'll see you
on Tuesday. Bye.
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