June 7, 2023 • 22 mins
Today's diarist didn't always have home ownership at the top of their agenda. But after buying an apartment, with their parents going guarantor, their property is now worth $200,000 more than what they paid - and they're also considering an investment property to add to their portfolio.
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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 wondering 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 and welcome to The Property Playbook, the podcast where
we take you from A to V of all things property.
My name is Jesse Ricky and hopefully one day I
will own my first home. You will well, I'm on
the journey. I want to talk to some of our
friends from our community and learn what things will like
for them. Exactly right, give us the goss in case
you couldn't tell today, I've got between Divinia.
Speaker 3 (00:48):
What's up?
Speaker 2 (00:49):
Welcome, I have a really fun one today, all about apartments.
Would you like to hear what our diarist has to say?
Oh yeah, let me ask you to know already they said.
I bought my current one my dream apartment in mid
twenty nineteen in Melbourne's Bayside area, after relocating from South
Australia a year before. Rooted more in my parents' desire
for me to pay off my own mortgage. They generously
(01:10):
offered to go guaranteur for the deposit portion of the loan.
During COVID, I diverted most of my extra pay into
knocking my mortgage down to release my parents from the
loan as soon as possible. Fast forward to three is on.
I have recently refinanced my mortgage and as a part
of that process, had the property valued. And the valuation
came in at almost two hundred thousand dollars more than
I paid for it. Oh money, we pretty good between
(01:32):
savings and the equity I have accrued. I mean the
process of looking for an investment property back in South
Australia that I could live in later down the line.
Speaker 3 (01:39):
Oh my gosh, from one step to another, I know
love this property doaris.
Speaker 2 (01:43):
Thank you so much for joining us. How are you.
Speaker 4 (01:46):
I'm well, Thank you, thank you for having me.
Speaker 2 (01:48):
Oh my goodness. I'm so excited to hear all about
this because I feel like we spend a lot of
time talking about houses, so I'm very interested to know
how things are a little bit different with apartments. But first,
let's start at the beginning. Can you tell me a
little bit about your buying journey?
Speaker 4 (02:01):
Absolutely, As I said in my email to you, ladies,
property probably wasn't on my radar initially, but coming from
an ethnic background, it was very much one of my parents'
goals for myself and my siblings to all get into
the property market. I had moved from South Australia about
(02:23):
a year and a half before I bought because I
couldn't get a job back at home, so once I
moved here, it was all focus on getting some experience.
There was definitely sort of no sort of priority to
buy property, but my parents very much said we want
you to be paying your own mortgage. We don't want
(02:45):
you paying someone else's rent. We will help you get there,
and very luckily we're in the position where they could
go guarante for me. That's what they did.
Speaker 2 (02:54):
That's really cool.
Speaker 3 (02:55):
I have a few friends that have similar backgrounds to you,
and I feel like, you know you said before for like, oh,
having a thick background, I feel like parents with that background,
they're so adamant. They're like, no, you are definitely doing this.
This wouldn't have been a property direst would you like it?
We'd love to do this. They were like, oh no, no, no,
sit down, this is what's happening.
Speaker 4 (03:12):
Is that how it worked a hundred percent, I think
for them and still is in the way that they
see the world.
Speaker 2 (03:22):
Yeah, that's so funny.
Speaker 3 (03:23):
How kind of them though, that's so exciting.
Speaker 2 (03:26):
Yeah, one hundred percent.
Speaker 4 (03:27):
Well, it was so generous of them, and it's definitely
set me up for my future, so I couldn't be
more grateful.
Speaker 3 (03:33):
I mean it's twofold too, though, Like you've got to
be able to pay that mortgage. It's not just the
you know, there's obviously a lot of privilege in a garranteur,
and that's fantastic and we recognize that here at the
Property Playbook. However, it's also about being able to pay
a mortgage, and that's a massive responsibility in itself. So
I think it's like, great, now you're in the door,
but a lot of people, even if they got in
(03:53):
the door, couldn't afford to then pay the mortgage as well.
So I just think it's you did really well. I'm excited.
I would get into the structured questions though, because Jess,
there's just so many things I need to know.
Speaker 2 (04:03):
I know you touched on this before, but can you
remind us property dearist, when and where did you purchase.
Speaker 4 (04:08):
Sure, I bought a one bedroom apartment in Bayside, Melbourne
in mid twenty nineteen.
Speaker 2 (04:14):
Yep, And did you purchase with anybody else?
Speaker 4 (04:16):
No, it was just me, but as I've mentioned, my
parents went guaranteed for the deposit portion of that loan.
Speaker 2 (04:21):
Strong independent woman ween behavior. I love to see it.
How much do you earn and what do you do
for work?
Speaker 4 (04:28):
I guess this is probably twofold because at the time
I bought the apartment, I was on about seventy thousand
dollars a year, but I currently now earn significantly more
than that. I'm a lawyer and currently earn one hundred
and sixty thousand a year.
Speaker 2 (04:41):
Oh my, oh my gosh, it's a couple of years.
That's incredible.
Speaker 3 (04:45):
But my favorite part about that is, yes, you're on
one sixty nowl so it's obviously going to be less
stress paying off the mortgage. However, seventy grand that's a
pretty normal salary and you got into a property, Like,
how exciting is that?
Speaker 4 (05:00):
It was definitely I guess one of the factors in
choosing an apartment that it was what I could afford
at the time, and now I guess it's set me
up for I guess being able to dive the savings
to other things now that I do have higher earning.
Speaker 3 (05:14):
Yeah, one hundred percent.
Speaker 4 (05:15):
I love that.
Speaker 2 (05:16):
How much did you spend on that apartment?
Speaker 4 (05:18):
The apartment was three hundred and seventy five thousand dollars.
Speaker 3 (05:21):
That's a good start point.
Speaker 2 (05:22):
Yeah, And how much did you have in your deposit
for that one?
Speaker 4 (05:25):
I had zero dollars.
Speaker 2 (05:26):
Oh, so you use the full amount of a guaranteur
for it?
Speaker 4 (05:29):
One hundred percent for that. I guess I was lucky
though that at the time. Obviously in Victoria there's no
zero ELLA stamp duty for first time buyers under a
certain amount, so I was able to at least take
advantage of that.
Speaker 3 (05:40):
Yeah, epic, I want to be creepy. Did you have
any savings at all? Or who do you like created
as savings pattern before doing it? Or was it kind
of like now you have a mortgage, this is forced.
Speaker 4 (05:51):
I had an emergency fund.
Speaker 3 (05:52):
Good.
Speaker 4 (05:53):
We love to hear it always had that. I've sort
of moved across with that from Adelaide. There's no way
I could have sort of lived my own out out
of home without sort of that buffer behind me, and
also sort of had a couple of thousand dollars of
sort of other savings. Definitely was nowhere near enough for
a house deposit epic.
Speaker 3 (06:12):
But still I love to hear that you had good
savings behaviors and you had already established an emergency fund,
because I think, especially in the guaranteur space, people often like, oh,
it doesn't matter, like my parents will guarantere it, but
you just need some level of safety cushion, like you
never know what's going to happen.
Speaker 2 (06:28):
Absolutely, Now, you obviously used the guaranteur process. Did you
have any additional government schemes or grants that you had
access to.
Speaker 4 (06:35):
No, I couldn't access any sort of government grants or
schemes because I was buying an established apartment. Yeah, but
I was able to take advantage of the zero dollars
to mpguty.
Speaker 2 (06:44):
Really, and when you were looking around, what were your
non negotiables? What things were like, this is I must
have it. It's not an option. If it doesn't have it,
I don't want it.
Speaker 4 (06:53):
When I first started looking, I think I was much
more focused on the aesthetics of the place, and I
was going on, that's a nice kitchen, that's a beautif bathroom,
I like this, I like that. But as I continue
to look, my non negotiables really became that if I
was buying an apartment, that I wanted a separate bedroom
from the living space, and I wanted it to be
close to public transport shops because I do live on
(07:15):
my own and at the time especially had quite a
few late nights in the city and didn't want to
have to travel too far to come home.
Speaker 2 (07:22):
Yeah. Amazing. And the last question I have for you,
Property Direst before we go to a quick break is
looking back, would you change anything about your journey?
Speaker 4 (07:30):
I don't think I would. Maybe the only thing might
be to find a place that I could have a
separate study set up if I knew COVID was coming
but from home.
Speaker 3 (07:39):
Yes, yeah, that would have been really helpful.
Speaker 4 (07:41):
But I don't think i'd change anything. I think going
through the process really made me more accountable for my spending.
I think because I sort of had my parents over
my shoulder, who checking in on how my repayments are going,
how much longer it might be until I could get
them off the loan, and those sorts of things, I
think it really made me clean up my spending habits.
At the time as well, and really made me more responsible,
(08:04):
which was a good thing. I was in the position,
I guess with COVID that couldn't go anywhere, couldn't do anything,
So paid down the mortgage as quickly as I could
to get them off the loone, and I got them
off the loone about eighteen months after.
Speaker 3 (08:17):
Oh, epic. So you don't even have a guaranteur overarching
it anymore.
Speaker 2 (08:21):
No, that is incredible. Let's go to a quick break
because when we come back, I want to ask you
a lot more about what it's like living in an
apartment and all of those fun things don't go anywhere.
Speaker 4 (08:29):
Guys.
Speaker 3 (08:30):
All right, we are back, and I want to know
more about the guaranteur side of things. Obviously, most of
the conversation we have on you know, shehes all the
money and the property playbook around guaranteurs is getting your
foot in the door. But we don't speak a lot
about getting rid of the guaranteur once you've got enough
equity in the property. Did you have a plan going
into buying the property to get rid of your parents
(08:52):
as a guaranteur really quickly or how did that end
up eventuating?
Speaker 4 (08:56):
When I was having a discussion with my parents before
I had gotten into the mortgage. They had asked me
to be in the position to discharge them with it
in sort of three years of getting the mortgage based
on my current earnings at the time. They wanted to
be able to yes, not have that hanging over them
(09:16):
in case they wanted to then be able to do
the same for one of my siblings or wanted to
then subsequently sell the property that was used as part
of that process. But it was one of those things
that the idea of having that hanging over was just
I hated the feeling of that, so I wanted to
get it out of the way as quickly as possible.
Speaker 2 (09:36):
What was it like for you? You said that your
parents were you know, obviously you really wanted to get
them off the loan because you know that's what you
felt personally. They also wanted that, and they were kind
of supervising your habits relatively closely. You said, before the break,
how did you find that experience? Because on one hand,
you're moving out, you've got your own place, like you're
living this independent life, and then on the other hand,
(09:58):
on some level, you're kind of answering to your parents
which I think as we all get older and take
that independence on, we're pretty happy to generally leave that
feeling behind. So what was that like for you?
Speaker 4 (10:09):
It actually didn't feel too different to day to day life.
I think I have very intrusive ethnic parents as it is.
They'd like to ask a lot of questions, so it
didn't actually feel all that different. At times, it was
a little bit frustrating when it was they might might
have wanted to bring up the conversation where I wasn't
in a position.
Speaker 2 (10:26):
To have it.
Speaker 4 (10:27):
But overall it wasn't too painful, I guess because I
have that physical distance from I guess living nine hundred
kilometers away from home as not as though they could
just come and knock on the door and sort of
start that conversation out of the blue. In person. It
very much was more of that distance I think helped.
Speaker 2 (10:46):
Speaking of being away from home, how long were you
in Melbourne before you bought here because you moved for work.
And then obviously you've purchased in a city that isn't
your home, which arguably makes it a lot harder to
narrow down what suburbs you want to live in because
you haven't had that exposure to the areas. What was
that like, what was the gap and how did you
kind of figure out what place felt like home for you.
Speaker 4 (11:08):
That's a really good question. I moved about eighteen months
before I bought and at the time picked to live
in a suburb that was where the two people I
knew and Melbourne lived, which is in Balaclava, about two
suburbs away from where I am now, and really liked
that area, but found that when I was looking, a
lot of the apartments around there were quite run down
(11:29):
and needed a lot of work to get them to
the standard that I wanted to buy at. So it
sort of ruled that suburb out specifically of my search.
But then I draw a ring around there and said,
I think I'd be happy to live within this area
because it's still close enough to the city, close enough
to public transport and to the shops and those sorts
(11:50):
of things. And I'm in Elston week now and it's
just the best.
Speaker 2 (11:55):
It is a really nice area in Elston Wick.
Speaker 4 (11:57):
Beach, fifteen minutes away. It's great.
Speaker 3 (12:00):
It has such a nice location. Like I'm a little
bit envious because I'm further out when it comes to
purchasing as a solo female. How did you combat that conversation?
I feel like so many times, you know, even though
your parents were like, look, we're going to get you
into property, this will be great, were you like, oh,
I don't have a partner, or what was your mentality
around that? Because I think that so many women, especially
(12:21):
in circumstances like yours, maybe just didn't even know what
was possible. I feel like sometimes a seventy thousand dollars
salary just doesn't go as far as you want it to,
and then the added pressure of the idea that you'd
have to pay for a mortgage might have been overwhelming.
I just want to know more about that process because
there are going to be some people listening who are like,
whoa hold on, This could be possible for me?
Speaker 4 (12:42):
Absolutely. I think it was one of those things that
it sort of sat in the back of my mind.
But I went through the process with an amazing mortgage
broker who was so supportive of the process and really
sort of took it into her stride to make sure
that all the decisions we were making around it were
financially viable. Without that support, I don't know how insecure
(13:07):
I would have felt in the process. I imagine that
if you've got some old white man telling you that
you need a partner to afford a mortgage, I'm sure
that would be quite deflating. But I was really lucky
I didn't have that experience.
Speaker 3 (13:18):
Well, I'm glad, So tell me about the mortgage broking process.
Did you start with a mortgage broker and then see
what was possible or were you talking with your parents
and decided we're one thousand percent buying property?
Speaker 2 (13:28):
Like?
Speaker 3 (13:29):
How did you then engage the broker? Where did you
find them? I just want to know so many things.
Speaker 4 (13:33):
Initially, my parents found the broker because they were doing
some refinancing through their business, and then as that sort
of process was underway, then the conversation turned to do
you think we could go guarantee for our daughter on
a property? And that sort of spurred the process on
from there. So as far as finding the broker again,
(13:54):
my parents found them initially, but felt super comfortable with
the broker I had. She was based in Adelaide. I
guess with my parents being over there, their business being
based over there, to keep that process off, it just
made sense that she was there. But she had lived
in Melbourne before, so it was at least somewhat familiar
with the market here, which really helped as well.
Speaker 3 (14:15):
Yeah, totally helpful. And to be honest, you can work
with anyone from anywhere when it comes to mortgage breaking,
as long as they've got their head screwed on. Like
these days, especially post COVID, everything's online, and to be honest,
it's so much easier not having to travel to an office.
You can just jump on zoom, have a chat, organize it,
text them, call them, email them. It's super super easy.
Speaker 4 (14:37):
Made it so much easier. It was quite funny through
the process as well, because I had engaged a lawyer
for my conveyancing and as it turned out, the person
doing macnvancing was in Adelaide as well.
Speaker 2 (14:48):
Oh my gosh, that's really funny.
Speaker 4 (14:49):
It ended up with all these connections back.
Speaker 2 (14:52):
It's one of the best things to come out off
the back of COVID is how accessible these resources and
things are to us. Now. I want to pick your
brain about apartment living because, like I said at the
top of the show, we talk a lot about houses
on this podcast, but so many people live in apartments
or want to live in apartments. Had you lived in
an apartment prior to buying the one that you're in now.
Speaker 4 (15:12):
Yes, only the apartment I was living in when I
had first moved to Melbourne. So when I first moved over,
I was just living in a one bedroom apartment by
myself there, so that, I guess was my trial of
living solo.
Speaker 2 (15:23):
Yeah, how did you find the transition of going from
house to apartment?
Speaker 4 (15:27):
It was interesting initially, I guess because when I moved
over to Melbourne, I moved out of my parents' home
as well, so I moved out from having, I guess,
all of home's comforts and coming home to mom cooking dinner,
to then just walking into a place by myself and going, oh,
that's my job. Now I need to do a lot myself.
But overall, I really enjoyed having that space and pre
(15:50):
COVID as well as every weekend there was someone visiting
from Adelaide, so it was nice to be able to say, hey,
I've got a catch you can sleep on if you
need to, and have all those sorts of things. The
other I guess the other thing was my previous lawyer
role was a really high stress environment, so it was
really nice as being able to come home and decompress
without having to then talk to anybody if I didn't
(16:12):
want to.
Speaker 2 (16:13):
Having your own space is so nice. One of I
think the big differences if you're living in an apartment
complex versus you know, living in a standalone property is
the overarching fees and stuff, your strata fees and all
of those. How did you go about factoring those in?
Is there anything you want to flag for people who
are maybe considering living in apartments who might not have
(16:35):
taken those kinds of costs into account.
Speaker 4 (16:37):
Definitely. I think it's one of those things that I
was conscious of asking real estate agents at open inspections
what the owner corporation fees were, because there was sometimes
emenities and apartments that I just didn't need. I wasn't
looking for a place that has a pool or a
gym or a spa or all of those, I guess
more luxurious types of things, and I didn't want I
(17:00):
want to have to sit here and alloc eight thousands
of dollars a quarter to things that I wasn't using.
So as I was looking, I was factoring that into
my budget as well, that I didn't want to pay
any more than sort of seven to eight hundred dollars
a quarter and the place that I'm in now is
less than that, which is great, brilliant, but it's very simple.
(17:21):
It has an elevator, but other than that, it's just
sort of bare bones.
Speaker 2 (17:26):
Yeah, did you find that there was a lot of
variation between you know, when you're having these conversations with
the agents, Which is a great tip, by the way,
to ask the agents when you're looking at these properties,
because they should be able to get that information for
you if they don't have it on hand already. But
were you finding that there was a lot of variance
between the different places in terms of what that costing
looked like.
Speaker 4 (17:45):
Definitely there were some places where it might have only
been a few hundred dollars a quarter. But I never
forget going to look at an apartment that they wanted
something like three and a half thousand dollars a quarter
for body corpr and I.
Speaker 2 (17:59):
That's like a whole rental property just about like over
the cos Yeah, it's crazy.
Speaker 4 (18:04):
Its three and a half thousands of a year, sure,
but not a quarter.
Speaker 3 (18:08):
Yeah, Oh my gosh, I know. I remember looking for
our property and we inspected a fancier apartment and I
was shocked at how much it was going to cost
each year to live there and have body corporate fees.
But you said before, you're a little bit nervous to
like ask them in hindsight, should we just walk straight
in and be like, all right, here's this, this, this
and this what is it like? What would you say
(18:29):
to other people who are looking at apartments to potentially
buy and who are going through that process you've been through.
Speaker 4 (18:35):
I definitely built more confidence as my I guess my
property hunt continued and found later on in the process
that I would walk in with a list on my
phone and have fire a million questions at the real
estate agent to answer. I think there's a lot of
power in that, and I would encourage anyone that is
on that I guess, on their property search to not
(18:55):
be afraid to ask questions, because it's well within your
right to know all of these things before where you
get yourself into something.
Speaker 3 (19:01):
I agree, And I think the overlaying I guess thing
to that as well is if you come prepared with
a heap of questions and you say to the agent, hey,
like I've got all these questions, You're going to be
taken more seriously as well, because they're gonna look at
you and go, oh, property Diarist, Obviously you have done
a bit of research, you know what to ask. You're
probably far more serious about buying than the person that's like, oh,
(19:22):
does the dishwasher work? Like do you know what I mean?
Speaker 4 (19:25):
Like?
Speaker 3 (19:25):
I just think it's money. Can be a fickle conversation,
but agents are so used to it, and they're going
to be able to go all right that Diarist obviously
serious about buying, or follow up with them later.
Speaker 2 (19:35):
No t her stuff. The last thing I wanted to
ask you about Property Direst before you let you go,
is you're looking at getting an investment property back home now,
which is very excited. That's so exciting. Are you considering
apartments or are you looking at houses and will you
fly back to look at them or are you going
to do it site unseen? What's that process looking like
for you, because it's obviously interstate.
Speaker 4 (19:57):
Yes, it's slow, little bit up in the air as
to what I'm looking for, but I would probably be
looking for something a little bit bigger than an apartment,
because realistically, if I moved back home, I would be
by myself. I don't think I need sort of the
expanse of a house, but i'd probably been looking a
little bit all onlines of a townhouse or something like
that that still has a bit more space without being
(20:18):
this becoming a huge burden as far as its gardening
and all that other maintenance that a house requires. I
guess the really good thing about Adelaide is that prices there,
although they've gone up quite a bit during COVID, is
still far more affordable than Melbourne to buy sort of
something similar within sort of the same distance of the city. Yeah.
(20:39):
I guess as far as the hunt goes though, I
am going home for a visit in a few weeks time,
and if there are any properties to look at then
then I might sort of pop into some inspections. But
I've also got parents and siblings and friends who have
all sort of already put their hand up to sort
of help with that process if I end up sort
of following it. So I'm really like in that sense
(21:00):
as well.
Speaker 2 (21:01):
They'd be excited to get you home. They'd be like, yep,
whatever we can do, what do.
Speaker 3 (21:04):
You want, I'll go. I'll go to every inspection, Come
home please.
Speaker 4 (21:07):
Pretty much by parents going please, does this means you're
moving home sooner.
Speaker 3 (21:11):
God, that's literally so sweet. But also I love that
you get to go home and be part of the
process in a way, even if it's not the house
that you end up buying, Like looking is just such
a fun process and embracing it going well, like I'm
literally buying another property. This is so cool, Like, I'm
so proud of you. Please keep us in the loop.
We want to know what happens.
Speaker 2 (21:32):
Absolutely, I'm really invested. Sure, amazing. I think that's about
all we've got time for today. Propriaris, thank you so
much for joining us and for sharing your story. I
was very excited to learn a little bit more about apartments,
and I feel like now I am like more confident
going in and going in and asking those questions and
having my list prepared and not really embarrassed or shy.
(21:53):
So thank you for that. Thank you amazing. Now, guys,
don't forget before we go. The advice of the Property
place Book is generally in nature and does not consider
your individual circumstances. The Property Playbook exists purely for educational
purposes and should not be relied upon to make an
investment or a financial decision. If you want to, we'd
love for your join us on Facebook. We've got a
(22:13):
group of people sharing tips and tricks and stories and
asking questions every single day. You can find us by
searching the Property Playbook. We're also on Instagram, where we're
having a lot of fun. You can search Property Playbook
aus to find us there. And lastly, if you're enjoying
the content, maybe leave us a review and really appreciate it's.
Speaker 3 (22:29):
A kind thing to do. Turn out at ten good
come and coming your way.
Speaker 2 (22:33):
Absolutely. But that's all for today. Guys, thank you so
much for joining us, and we'll chat to you in
the next episode.
Speaker 3 (22:38):
See you soon. Bye.
The Property Playbook would like to acknowledge the traditional custodians
of the lands of where this podcast is recorded. There
were wondering 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 and welcome to The Property Playbook, the podcast where
we take you from A to V of all things property.
My name is Jesse Ricky and hopefully one day I
will own my first home. You will well, I'm on
the journey. I want to talk to some of our
friends from our community and learn what things will like
for them. Exactly right, give us the goss in case
you couldn't tell today, I've got between Divinia.
Speaker 3 (00:48):
What's up?
Speaker 2 (00:49):
Welcome, I have a really fun one today, all about apartments.
Would you like to hear what our diarist has to say?
Oh yeah, let me ask you to know already they said.
I bought my current one my dream apartment in mid
twenty nineteen in Melbourne's Bayside area, after relocating from South
Australia a year before. Rooted more in my parents' desire
for me to pay off my own mortgage. They generously
(01:10):
offered to go guaranteur for the deposit portion of the loan.
During COVID, I diverted most of my extra pay into
knocking my mortgage down to release my parents from the
loan as soon as possible. Fast forward to three is on.
I have recently refinanced my mortgage and as a part
of that process, had the property valued. And the valuation
came in at almost two hundred thousand dollars more than
I paid for it. Oh money, we pretty good between
(01:32):
savings and the equity I have accrued. I mean the
process of looking for an investment property back in South
Australia that I could live in later down the line.
Speaker 3 (01:39):
Oh my gosh, from one step to another, I know
love this property doaris.
Speaker 2 (01:43):
Thank you so much for joining us. How are you.
Speaker 4 (01:46):
I'm well, Thank you, thank you for having me.
Speaker 2 (01:48):
Oh my goodness. I'm so excited to hear all about
this because I feel like we spend a lot of
time talking about houses, so I'm very interested to know
how things are a little bit different with apartments. But first,
let's start at the beginning. Can you tell me a
little bit about your buying journey?
Speaker 4 (02:01):
Absolutely, As I said in my email to you, ladies,
property probably wasn't on my radar initially, but coming from
an ethnic background, it was very much one of my parents'
goals for myself and my siblings to all get into
the property market. I had moved from South Australia about
(02:23):
a year and a half before I bought because I
couldn't get a job back at home, so once I
moved here, it was all focus on getting some experience.
There was definitely sort of no sort of priority to
buy property, but my parents very much said we want
you to be paying your own mortgage. We don't want
(02:45):
you paying someone else's rent. We will help you get there,
and very luckily we're in the position where they could
go guarante for me. That's what they did.
Speaker 2 (02:54):
That's really cool.
Speaker 3 (02:55):
I have a few friends that have similar backgrounds to you,
and I feel like, you know you said before for like, oh,
having a thick background, I feel like parents with that background,
they're so adamant. They're like, no, you are definitely doing this.
This wouldn't have been a property direst would you like it?
We'd love to do this. They were like, oh no, no, no,
sit down, this is what's happening.
Speaker 4 (03:12):
Is that how it worked a hundred percent, I think
for them and still is in the way that they
see the world.
Speaker 2 (03:22):
Yeah, that's so funny.
Speaker 3 (03:23):
How kind of them though, that's so exciting.
Speaker 2 (03:26):
Yeah, one hundred percent.
Speaker 4 (03:27):
Well, it was so generous of them, and it's definitely
set me up for my future, so I couldn't be
more grateful.
Speaker 3 (03:33):
I mean it's twofold too, though, Like you've got to
be able to pay that mortgage. It's not just the
you know, there's obviously a lot of privilege in a garranteur,
and that's fantastic and we recognize that here at the
Property Playbook. However, it's also about being able to pay
a mortgage, and that's a massive responsibility in itself. So
I think it's like, great, now you're in the door,
but a lot of people, even if they got in
(03:53):
the door, couldn't afford to then pay the mortgage as well.
So I just think it's you did really well. I'm excited.
I would get into the structured questions though, because Jess,
there's just so many things I need to know.
Speaker 2 (04:03):
I know you touched on this before, but can you
remind us property dearist, when and where did you purchase.
Speaker 4 (04:08):
Sure, I bought a one bedroom apartment in Bayside, Melbourne
in mid twenty nineteen.
Speaker 2 (04:14):
Yep, And did you purchase with anybody else?
Speaker 4 (04:16):
No, it was just me, but as I've mentioned, my
parents went guaranteed for the deposit portion of that loan.
Speaker 2 (04:21):
Strong independent woman ween behavior. I love to see it.
How much do you earn and what do you do
for work?
Speaker 4 (04:28):
I guess this is probably twofold because at the time
I bought the apartment, I was on about seventy thousand
dollars a year, but I currently now earn significantly more
than that. I'm a lawyer and currently earn one hundred
and sixty thousand a year.
Speaker 2 (04:41):
Oh my, oh my gosh, it's a couple of years.
That's incredible.
Speaker 3 (04:45):
But my favorite part about that is, yes, you're on
one sixty nowl so it's obviously going to be less
stress paying off the mortgage. However, seventy grand that's a
pretty normal salary and you got into a property, Like,
how exciting is that?
Speaker 4 (05:00):
It was definitely I guess one of the factors in
choosing an apartment that it was what I could afford
at the time, and now I guess it's set me
up for I guess being able to dive the savings
to other things now that I do have higher earning.
Speaker 3 (05:14):
Yeah, one hundred percent.
Speaker 4 (05:15):
I love that.
Speaker 2 (05:16):
How much did you spend on that apartment?
Speaker 4 (05:18):
The apartment was three hundred and seventy five thousand dollars.
Speaker 3 (05:21):
That's a good start point.
Speaker 2 (05:22):
Yeah, And how much did you have in your deposit
for that one?
Speaker 4 (05:25):
I had zero dollars.
Speaker 2 (05:26):
Oh, so you use the full amount of a guaranteur
for it?
Speaker 4 (05:29):
One hundred percent for that. I guess I was lucky
though that at the time. Obviously in Victoria there's no
zero ELLA stamp duty for first time buyers under a
certain amount, so I was able to at least take
advantage of that.
Speaker 3 (05:40):
Yeah, epic, I want to be creepy. Did you have
any savings at all? Or who do you like created
as savings pattern before doing it? Or was it kind
of like now you have a mortgage, this is forced.
Speaker 4 (05:51):
I had an emergency fund.
Speaker 3 (05:52):
Good.
Speaker 4 (05:53):
We love to hear it always had that. I've sort
of moved across with that from Adelaide. There's no way
I could have sort of lived my own out out
of home without sort of that buffer behind me, and
also sort of had a couple of thousand dollars of
sort of other savings. Definitely was nowhere near enough for
a house deposit epic.
Speaker 3 (06:12):
But still I love to hear that you had good
savings behaviors and you had already established an emergency fund,
because I think, especially in the guaranteur space, people often like, oh,
it doesn't matter, like my parents will guarantere it, but
you just need some level of safety cushion, like you
never know what's going to happen.
Speaker 2 (06:28):
Absolutely, Now, you obviously used the guaranteur process. Did you
have any additional government schemes or grants that you had
access to.
Speaker 4 (06:35):
No, I couldn't access any sort of government grants or
schemes because I was buying an established apartment. Yeah, but
I was able to take advantage of the zero dollars
to mpguty.
Speaker 2 (06:44):
Really, and when you were looking around, what were your
non negotiables? What things were like, this is I must
have it. It's not an option. If it doesn't have it,
I don't want it.
Speaker 4 (06:53):
When I first started looking, I think I was much
more focused on the aesthetics of the place, and I
was going on, that's a nice kitchen, that's a beautif bathroom,
I like this, I like that. But as I continue
to look, my non negotiables really became that if I
was buying an apartment, that I wanted a separate bedroom
from the living space, and I wanted it to be
close to public transport shops because I do live on
(07:15):
my own and at the time especially had quite a
few late nights in the city and didn't want to
have to travel too far to come home.
Speaker 2 (07:22):
Yeah. Amazing. And the last question I have for you,
Property Direst before we go to a quick break is
looking back, would you change anything about your journey?
Speaker 4 (07:30):
I don't think I would. Maybe the only thing might
be to find a place that I could have a
separate study set up if I knew COVID was coming
but from home.
Speaker 3 (07:39):
Yes, yeah, that would have been really helpful.
Speaker 4 (07:41):
But I don't think i'd change anything. I think going
through the process really made me more accountable for my spending.
I think because I sort of had my parents over
my shoulder, who checking in on how my repayments are going,
how much longer it might be until I could get
them off the loan, and those sorts of things, I
think it really made me clean up my spending habits.
At the time as well, and really made me more responsible,
(08:04):
which was a good thing. I was in the position,
I guess with COVID that couldn't go anywhere, couldn't do anything,
So paid down the mortgage as quickly as I could
to get them off the loone, and I got them
off the loone about eighteen months after.
Speaker 3 (08:17):
Oh, epic. So you don't even have a guaranteur overarching
it anymore.
Speaker 2 (08:21):
No, that is incredible. Let's go to a quick break
because when we come back, I want to ask you
a lot more about what it's like living in an
apartment and all of those fun things don't go anywhere.
Speaker 4 (08:29):
Guys.
Speaker 3 (08:30):
All right, we are back, and I want to know
more about the guaranteur side of things. Obviously, most of
the conversation we have on you know, shehes all the
money and the property playbook around guaranteurs is getting your
foot in the door. But we don't speak a lot
about getting rid of the guaranteur once you've got enough
equity in the property. Did you have a plan going
into buying the property to get rid of your parents
(08:52):
as a guaranteur really quickly or how did that end
up eventuating?
Speaker 4 (08:56):
When I was having a discussion with my parents before
I had gotten into the mortgage. They had asked me
to be in the position to discharge them with it
in sort of three years of getting the mortgage based
on my current earnings at the time. They wanted to
be able to yes, not have that hanging over them
(09:16):
in case they wanted to then be able to do
the same for one of my siblings or wanted to
then subsequently sell the property that was used as part
of that process. But it was one of those things
that the idea of having that hanging over was just
I hated the feeling of that, so I wanted to
get it out of the way as quickly as possible.
Speaker 2 (09:36):
What was it like for you? You said that your
parents were you know, obviously you really wanted to get
them off the loan because you know that's what you
felt personally. They also wanted that, and they were kind
of supervising your habits relatively closely. You said, before the break,
how did you find that experience? Because on one hand,
you're moving out, you've got your own place, like you're
living this independent life, and then on the other hand,
(09:58):
on some level, you're kind of answering to your parents
which I think as we all get older and take
that independence on, we're pretty happy to generally leave that
feeling behind. So what was that like for you?
Speaker 4 (10:09):
It actually didn't feel too different to day to day life.
I think I have very intrusive ethnic parents as it is.
They'd like to ask a lot of questions, so it
didn't actually feel all that different. At times, it was
a little bit frustrating when it was they might might
have wanted to bring up the conversation where I wasn't
in a position.
Speaker 2 (10:26):
To have it.
Speaker 4 (10:27):
But overall it wasn't too painful, I guess because I
have that physical distance from I guess living nine hundred
kilometers away from home as not as though they could
just come and knock on the door and sort of
start that conversation out of the blue. In person. It
very much was more of that distance I think helped.
Speaker 2 (10:46):
Speaking of being away from home, how long were you
in Melbourne before you bought here because you moved for work.
And then obviously you've purchased in a city that isn't
your home, which arguably makes it a lot harder to
narrow down what suburbs you want to live in because
you haven't had that exposure to the areas. What was
that like, what was the gap and how did you
kind of figure out what place felt like home for you.
Speaker 4 (11:08):
That's a really good question. I moved about eighteen months
before I bought and at the time picked to live
in a suburb that was where the two people I
knew and Melbourne lived, which is in Balaclava, about two
suburbs away from where I am now, and really liked
that area, but found that when I was looking, a
lot of the apartments around there were quite run down
(11:29):
and needed a lot of work to get them to
the standard that I wanted to buy at. So it
sort of ruled that suburb out specifically of my search.
But then I draw a ring around there and said,
I think I'd be happy to live within this area
because it's still close enough to the city, close enough
to public transport and to the shops and those sorts
(11:50):
of things. And I'm in Elston week now and it's
just the best.
Speaker 2 (11:55):
It is a really nice area in Elston Wick.
Speaker 4 (11:57):
Beach, fifteen minutes away. It's great.
Speaker 3 (12:00):
It has such a nice location. Like I'm a little
bit envious because I'm further out when it comes to
purchasing as a solo female. How did you combat that conversation?
I feel like so many times, you know, even though
your parents were like, look, we're going to get you
into property, this will be great, were you like, oh,
I don't have a partner, or what was your mentality
around that? Because I think that so many women, especially
(12:21):
in circumstances like yours, maybe just didn't even know what
was possible. I feel like sometimes a seventy thousand dollars
salary just doesn't go as far as you want it to,
and then the added pressure of the idea that you'd
have to pay for a mortgage might have been overwhelming.
I just want to know more about that process because
there are going to be some people listening who are like,
whoa hold on, This could be possible for me?
Speaker 4 (12:42):
Absolutely. I think it was one of those things that
it sort of sat in the back of my mind.
But I went through the process with an amazing mortgage
broker who was so supportive of the process and really
sort of took it into her stride to make sure
that all the decisions we were making around it were
financially viable. Without that support, I don't know how insecure
(13:07):
I would have felt in the process. I imagine that
if you've got some old white man telling you that
you need a partner to afford a mortgage, I'm sure
that would be quite deflating. But I was really lucky
I didn't have that experience.
Speaker 3 (13:18):
Well, I'm glad, So tell me about the mortgage broking process.
Did you start with a mortgage broker and then see
what was possible or were you talking with your parents
and decided we're one thousand percent buying property?
Speaker 2 (13:28):
Like?
Speaker 3 (13:29):
How did you then engage the broker? Where did you
find them? I just want to know so many things.
Speaker 4 (13:33):
Initially, my parents found the broker because they were doing
some refinancing through their business, and then as that sort
of process was underway, then the conversation turned to do
you think we could go guarantee for our daughter on
a property? And that sort of spurred the process on
from there. So as far as finding the broker again,
(13:54):
my parents found them initially, but felt super comfortable with
the broker I had. She was based in Adelaide. I
guess with my parents being over there, their business being
based over there, to keep that process off, it just
made sense that she was there. But she had lived
in Melbourne before, so it was at least somewhat familiar
with the market here, which really helped as well.
Speaker 3 (14:15):
Yeah, totally helpful. And to be honest, you can work
with anyone from anywhere when it comes to mortgage breaking,
as long as they've got their head screwed on. Like
these days, especially post COVID, everything's online, and to be honest,
it's so much easier not having to travel to an office.
You can just jump on zoom, have a chat, organize it,
text them, call them, email them. It's super super easy.
Speaker 4 (14:37):
Made it so much easier. It was quite funny through
the process as well, because I had engaged a lawyer
for my conveyancing and as it turned out, the person
doing macnvancing was in Adelaide as well.
Speaker 2 (14:48):
Oh my gosh, that's really funny.
Speaker 4 (14:49):
It ended up with all these connections back.
Speaker 2 (14:52):
It's one of the best things to come out off
the back of COVID is how accessible these resources and
things are to us. Now. I want to pick your
brain about apartment living because, like I said at the
top of the show, we talk a lot about houses
on this podcast, but so many people live in apartments
or want to live in apartments. Had you lived in
an apartment prior to buying the one that you're in now.
Speaker 4 (15:12):
Yes, only the apartment I was living in when I
had first moved to Melbourne. So when I first moved over,
I was just living in a one bedroom apartment by
myself there, so that, I guess was my trial of
living solo.
Speaker 2 (15:23):
Yeah, how did you find the transition of going from
house to apartment?
Speaker 4 (15:27):
It was interesting initially, I guess because when I moved
over to Melbourne, I moved out of my parents' home
as well, so I moved out from having, I guess,
all of home's comforts and coming home to mom cooking dinner,
to then just walking into a place by myself and going, oh,
that's my job. Now I need to do a lot myself.
But overall, I really enjoyed having that space and pre
(15:50):
COVID as well as every weekend there was someone visiting
from Adelaide, so it was nice to be able to say, hey,
I've got a catch you can sleep on if you
need to, and have all those sorts of things. The
other I guess the other thing was my previous lawyer
role was a really high stress environment, so it was
really nice as being able to come home and decompress
without having to then talk to anybody if I didn't
(16:12):
want to.
Speaker 2 (16:13):
Having your own space is so nice. One of I
think the big differences if you're living in an apartment
complex versus you know, living in a standalone property is
the overarching fees and stuff, your strata fees and all
of those. How did you go about factoring those in?
Is there anything you want to flag for people who
are maybe considering living in apartments who might not have
(16:35):
taken those kinds of costs into account.
Speaker 4 (16:37):
Definitely. I think it's one of those things that I
was conscious of asking real estate agents at open inspections
what the owner corporation fees were, because there was sometimes
emenities and apartments that I just didn't need. I wasn't
looking for a place that has a pool or a
gym or a spa or all of those, I guess
more luxurious types of things, and I didn't want I
(17:00):
want to have to sit here and alloc eight thousands
of dollars a quarter to things that I wasn't using.
So as I was looking, I was factoring that into
my budget as well, that I didn't want to pay
any more than sort of seven to eight hundred dollars
a quarter and the place that I'm in now is
less than that, which is great, brilliant, but it's very simple.
(17:21):
It has an elevator, but other than that, it's just
sort of bare bones.
Speaker 2 (17:26):
Yeah, did you find that there was a lot of
variation between you know, when you're having these conversations with
the agents, Which is a great tip, by the way,
to ask the agents when you're looking at these properties,
because they should be able to get that information for
you if they don't have it on hand already. But
were you finding that there was a lot of variance
between the different places in terms of what that costing
looked like.
Speaker 4 (17:45):
Definitely there were some places where it might have only
been a few hundred dollars a quarter. But I never
forget going to look at an apartment that they wanted
something like three and a half thousand dollars a quarter
for body corpr and I.
Speaker 2 (17:59):
That's like a whole rental property just about like over
the cos Yeah, it's crazy.
Speaker 4 (18:04):
Its three and a half thousands of a year, sure,
but not a quarter.
Speaker 3 (18:08):
Yeah, Oh my gosh, I know. I remember looking for
our property and we inspected a fancier apartment and I
was shocked at how much it was going to cost
each year to live there and have body corporate fees.
But you said before, you're a little bit nervous to
like ask them in hindsight, should we just walk straight
in and be like, all right, here's this, this, this
and this what is it like? What would you say
(18:29):
to other people who are looking at apartments to potentially
buy and who are going through that process you've been through.
Speaker 4 (18:35):
I definitely built more confidence as my I guess my
property hunt continued and found later on in the process
that I would walk in with a list on my
phone and have fire a million questions at the real
estate agent to answer. I think there's a lot of
power in that, and I would encourage anyone that is
on that I guess, on their property search to not
(18:55):
be afraid to ask questions, because it's well within your
right to know all of these things before where you
get yourself into something.
Speaker 3 (19:01):
I agree, And I think the overlaying I guess thing
to that as well is if you come prepared with
a heap of questions and you say to the agent, hey,
like I've got all these questions, You're going to be
taken more seriously as well, because they're gonna look at
you and go, oh, property Diarist, Obviously you have done
a bit of research, you know what to ask. You're
probably far more serious about buying than the person that's like, oh,
(19:22):
does the dishwasher work? Like do you know what I mean?
Speaker 4 (19:25):
Like?
Speaker 3 (19:25):
I just think it's money. Can be a fickle conversation,
but agents are so used to it, and they're going
to be able to go all right that Diarist obviously
serious about buying, or follow up with them later.
Speaker 2 (19:35):
No t her stuff. The last thing I wanted to
ask you about Property Direst before you let you go,
is you're looking at getting an investment property back home now,
which is very excited. That's so exciting. Are you considering
apartments or are you looking at houses and will you
fly back to look at them or are you going
to do it site unseen? What's that process looking like
for you, because it's obviously interstate.
Speaker 4 (19:57):
Yes, it's slow, little bit up in the air as
to what I'm looking for, but I would probably be
looking for something a little bit bigger than an apartment,
because realistically, if I moved back home, I would be
by myself. I don't think I need sort of the
expanse of a house, but i'd probably been looking a
little bit all onlines of a townhouse or something like
that that still has a bit more space without being
(20:18):
this becoming a huge burden as far as its gardening
and all that other maintenance that a house requires. I
guess the really good thing about Adelaide is that prices there,
although they've gone up quite a bit during COVID, is
still far more affordable than Melbourne to buy sort of
something similar within sort of the same distance of the city. Yeah.
(20:39):
I guess as far as the hunt goes though, I
am going home for a visit in a few weeks time,
and if there are any properties to look at then
then I might sort of pop into some inspections. But
I've also got parents and siblings and friends who have
all sort of already put their hand up to sort
of help with that process if I end up sort
of following it. So I'm really like in that sense
(21:00):
as well.
Speaker 2 (21:01):
They'd be excited to get you home. They'd be like, yep,
whatever we can do, what do.
Speaker 3 (21:04):
You want, I'll go. I'll go to every inspection, Come
home please.
Speaker 4 (21:07):
Pretty much by parents going please, does this means you're
moving home sooner.
Speaker 3 (21:11):
God, that's literally so sweet. But also I love that
you get to go home and be part of the
process in a way, even if it's not the house
that you end up buying, Like looking is just such
a fun process and embracing it going well, like I'm
literally buying another property. This is so cool, Like, I'm
so proud of you. Please keep us in the loop.
We want to know what happens.
Speaker 2 (21:32):
Absolutely, I'm really invested. Sure, amazing. I think that's about
all we've got time for today. Propriaris, thank you so
much for joining us and for sharing your story. I
was very excited to learn a little bit more about apartments,
and I feel like now I am like more confident
going in and going in and asking those questions and
having my list prepared and not really embarrassed or shy.
(21:53):
So thank you for that. Thank you amazing. Now, guys,
don't forget before we go. The advice of the Property
place Book is generally in nature and does not consider
your individual circumstances. The Property Playbook exists purely for educational
purposes and should not be relied upon to make an
investment or a financial decision. If you want to, we'd
love for your join us on Facebook. We've got a
(22:13):
group of people sharing tips and tricks and stories and
asking questions every single day. You can find us by
searching the Property Playbook. We're also on Instagram, where we're
having a lot of fun. You can search Property Playbook
aus to find us there. And lastly, if you're enjoying
the content, maybe leave us a review and really appreciate it's.
Speaker 3 (22:29):
A kind thing to do. Turn out at ten good
come and coming your way.
Speaker 2 (22:33):
Absolutely. But that's all for today. Guys, thank you so
much for joining us, and we'll chat to you in
the next episode.
Speaker 3 (22:38):
See you soon. Bye.
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