Ep 6: How to Choose the Right Suburb Before You Buy

The right property starts with the right location but how do you actually know which suburb is right for you?

In this episode of She Finds. She Funds., Christine, Sunshine Coast Buyer’s Agent, and Sheena, Sunshine Coast Mortgage Broker, break down what buyers should consider when choosing where to buy.

We chat about lifestyle vs investment goals, schools, commute times, amenities, future infrastructure, flood and bushfire risks, comparable sales, resale potential and why chasing the latest “hot suburb” isn’t always the smartest strategy.

We also tackle the big question: Is it better to buy a better house in an average suburb, or a smaller house in a better location?

Whether you’re a first home buyer, home buyer or property investor on the Sunshine Coast, this episode will help you research suburbs, narrow down your search and make a more informed property decision.

Because your property can change but the location can’t.

 She Finds. She Funds. with Christine & Sheena
Sunshine Coast Buyer’s Agent + Sunshine Coast Mortgage Broker. 

Free Websites: 

- QLD Crime Map: https://qps-ocm.s3-ap-southeast-2.amazonaws.com/index.html

- Your Property Magazine: https://www.yourinvestmentpropertymag.com.au/top-suburbs/qld/4556-buderim

- Suburb profile: https://www.domain.com.au/suburb-profile/mooloolaba-qld-4557

Music: "Facticity" by Nihilore

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Welcome back to She Finds She Funds. We're a Queensland buyers agent and mortgage broker.

SPEAKER_00 0:04

We believe the more you know, the more you can do. Each week we'll discuss what we've learned and the conversations we think more people should be having.

SPEAKER_01 0:14

Yeah, so welcome back. Again. Thanks, great.

SPEAKER_00 0:20

Thanks for listening to the other episodes. We've actually had some really nice feedback, Sheena, from our um money.

SPEAKER_01 0:30

Yeah. I've sent a few people over to listen to that as well. I think it's a really good one. If you haven't listened to it, not that our others aren't, they're really good too.

SPEAKER_00 0:40

The others are fantastic, but that one's been yeah, quite popular. Yeah. The one with Catherine from Joyful Money. Yes.

SPEAKER_01 0:48

The other one that I noticed that's been really popular was the should we buy now or should we wait? Oh yes. I was looking at our like the listeners the other day, and those two are the two. Ah, very good. So head on over and have a listen to those if you haven't.

SPEAKER_00 1:02

Yep, thanks for supporting us. We're very excited to uh help some home buyers out there.

SPEAKER_01 1:08

Yeah, and today we're going to be chatting about um how to choose the right suburb. Yeah, great.

SPEAKER_00 1:15

Christine's area of expertise here, but definitely, yeah, particularly on actually no, I was going to say particularly on the Sunshine Coast, but no, this can apply anywhere nationwide. So if you're in WA, you're in luck.

SPEAKER_01 1:35

Oh gosh. Alright, Christine. So when we're looking at what's the right suburb, I guess to choose, where do we start? Like what's that initial conversation you're having with clients on how to know or where they should be buying?

SPEAKER_00 1:50

Yeah, so I really like to ask my clients how their um weekdays look and how their weekends look because they're two totally different things. Obviously, weekdays, most people are traveling to work, school drop-off, and then after school is a whole heap of sport or extracurricular activities. So that's really vital to know what sort of key things you need to be traveling to and what brings you joy. That's the main thing. However, if your budget, you know, means that you do have to change your current maybe rental location, you might be renting in one spot and wanting to buy in another. Um, you may have to maybe change gyms or change clubs and things like that.

SPEAKER_01 2:47

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 2:48

As long as you're still, yeah, being able to participate in the things that make you happy and you're okay with the amount of time you're spending with family and your commute times, um, yeah, then location can be worked around, I think, according to that. And finding an I think finding a number that you're comfortable with commuting, you know? Yeah, good one. 15 minutes to work for me is great. My brother down the gold coast travels um an hour and a half to get to work on the M1 um gross. He's always calling me on the drive home from Brisbane down to the Gold Coast on the um yeah, on the M1. He's like, oh, traffic again. I'm like, you chose to live down the Gold Coast. He's like, yeah, it's so good. I love the weekends because he just loves the beach.

SPEAKER_01 3:43

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 3:43

I have tried making him move to the Sunshine, but he will not have a bar of it.

SPEAKER_01 3:48

Does he work in Brizzy? Oh, the travel would probably be.

SPEAKER_00 3:51

Yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly. But yeah. Okay, good. So yeah, knowing your lifestyle is the first thing I always um yeah, get people to reflect on. Yeah, perfect.

SPEAKER_01 4:03

I like the point where you say having a number that you're comfortable commuting because they're things that people might not think of. They might go, no, I love that suburb, I want to I want to be there, and then you go, okay, but that's gonna take you 45 minutes each way to get to work. That might then change their mind on that suburb.

SPEAKER_00 4:21

So I like that point. Yeah, that's right. And yeah, I know we're doing location, but because you change locations might change the type of home or house that you're buying. Yeah. So if you're going to be living in a three-bedroom rather than a four-bedroom, but you still get to be home with the kids before they go to bed, that's that might be huge for you.

SPEAKER_01 4:44

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 4:45

You may not give 10 minutes.

SPEAKER_01 4:47

What were you really gonna say?

SPEAKER_00 4:50

Maybe you want to skip the half-time and bedtime routine. I don't know. You do you. No judgment. That's the first thing.

SPEAKER_01 5:06

Yeah, perfect. Okay, so once you've had that initial conversation with them, then like do you look at their lifestyle goals, I guess, versus investment goals?

SPEAKER_00 5:16

Yeah, so I talk about this a lot. Um, when you're purchasing, I think it's important to also sort of look ahead five or ten years' time and where you want to be. If you're someone who um like some people just like what's the word, like creature comforts are creep, um creatures of habit and they don't like to um move a lot. I know for my parents, for example, we were in the same home for 30 years. Wow. Wild. I don't hear that very often um with the I don't know, our generation. Yeah, um, whereas the homes, I'm getting off topic a bit, but whatever. Um, this generation removes a lot, we can't even stick to one. Yeah, exhibit A. Whereas, you know, a lot of the homes that I'm seeing, not a lot of the homes, but there are so many homes out there that have been held for 30 years, 20 years that um are now being sold up by people going into retirement homes because that's just what the why would you move? Yeah, that was the generation I think back then, but it's so different now. I've seen so many families. Um they have a couple of kids and then they realize I need a bigger backyard, I need a swimming pool, um, I need to get the kids outside. It's a common um theme that I see in yeah, our generation young families these days. Do you see that? Or do you like do you have like am I just making shit up? Like okay, so I'll keep going. So on that note, we don't really just think of the um next couple of years. Um I think that's why it is important to look at your um principal place of residence or the home that you're living in as an investment. Because it really is. It really is an investment. So I think looking at the fundamentals of investments is still key, even though you may not be minded um in like investment-minded. If you do go to sell in five years' time and you want to upsize, but you haven't um looked at those fundamentals of investment, you might really struggle to upsize because you haven't had the growth that you've wanted. Yeah. And when you go to on sale, there might be things that um the buyers are balking at because you didn't consider it. Yeah. Um, you just snapped something up that was in the one location, however, it's on a busy road, or it's right next to major power lines, or the owner-occupier versus renter percentage is out of whack and it doesn't have a good family feel to the new buyers out there. So I just want to point out some other fundamentals that you can look at. I brought a prop. This is the my weekly preview. Um, and yeah, so in here they've got um an overview of a whole heap of suburbs. So I want to give you um a comparison, a comparison on what might might make a better investment. This is not financial advice though, so um depends what you're looking for. So, for example, the national average for umer occupiers in Australia is around 70%. So when we're looking for investment properties, um it is a good rule of thumb to look for properties that are around that 70% mark of owners in the suburb. Yeah, Pelican Waters is 88%.

SPEAKER_01 9:14

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 9:15

So you'd go, oh great, lots of people want to live there. Yeah, um, there's not many renters in there. Uh however, if you look here, it says um households are predominantly in the age of 60 to 70 years old. So if that doesn't really align with your lifestyle, you may go to a different suburb. You can find this stuff online. There's websites, I might put some in the show notes, um, websites where you can see these suburb profiles. Um, the other another example, Rosemount is 92% owner occupiers. Oh, here we go. Alex Heads. So Alexandra Headland is quite a transient suburb and it's a holiday suburb here on the Sunshine Coast. So that only has 61% of owner occupiers. So if you want to be around people that may not be there long term and you're comfortable with that with your family and your kids and having transient people in that suburb, um great. But if you would like something that has more of that family feel, you might you might opt for something something else. So yeah, having a look at these suburb profiles, um, Budroom, for example, 78% owner occupiers, um, and also looking at um population changes, checking that the the population's going up and not going down in those suburbs. If it's going down, like it means you know people are either moving out or they are falling off the perch due to the age, but mostly on the Sunshine Coast, it's going up. Um, yeah, so there's sort of some fundamentals if you're um nervous or cognizant of the fact that you're going to sell it in a few years' time.

SPEAKER_01 11:12

And I think it is like I'm not a buyer's agent, but still important when you're purchasing, like you said, an owner-occupied to still have in your mind those investment pieces because you don't know what the future holds, exactly what you said. So to think about something I say to clients sometimes is the questions you have on that house now are what the next people are gonna have, those same questions. So if there's something you know that you can easily fix or great, but if it's something that can't be fixed, people are likely gonna have those same questions in the years to come.

SPEAKER_00 11:49

Yeah, exactly. Um I always make sure people are looking around the suburbs as well. Like I was looking at a home recently and just a few houses down was the ambulance and fire station. Um handy if there's an emergency. Yeah. However, if you're okay with all the sirens all the time, that could be an issue that could make it difficult to sell later on down the track. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 12:18

Definitely good things to have in mind. And I think that's where a buyer's agent can really help because someone might go to that house and just fall in love with the house, not do any research on what's around and buy it. Whereas you do take that emotional side out and go, what's around, what's you know, what are we looking at, yeah, type of things.

SPEAKER_00 12:35

Yeah, definitely. One thing that I always check is the crime in the street as well. Okay, um, this is something that's looked over so much, and it you just have no idea who your neighbours are. So um there's a free uh website, you can literally just Google Queensland Police Crime Map, and it will tell you um how the map is, um, sorry, where the different offences are. It won't tell you who it is and give you all the juicy details, but it will tell you um theft, um, I don't know, drug offences, all of that. Um, yeah, so I had a client that was really excited about potentially buying in this particular pocket in Alexandra Headlands. Um, it was way off brief and not something we were looking at, but he just saw a shiny renovated um townhouse in the suburb. And I said, Look, just have a look at where we've been looking and then have a look at this street at the crime, and he was like, Oh god, no, no. And I said, No, no way, I don't think your mother would let me uh buy a house for you in there, so yeah, it's um yeah, life-changing, and some people are so unaware. You know, if you go and inspect a street once on a Saturday morning, you have no idea the characteristics of a street.

SPEAKER_01 13:58

Yeah, good point. All right, and then how do you know, or how do you, sorry, how do you narrow down hundreds of suburbs to a shortlist for someone who might not come to you and be like, oh, you know, I want to live in Budram, for example. If they've got no idea or they might be new, how do you narrow down all the suburbs of a short list?

SPEAKER_00 14:21

Um, I've worked with a few um what not outsiders, what are they called? Out-of-towners. Umsiders, uh, imposters. No. I'm one of those. I'm not even from here. Don't even go here. Um yeah, so this question comes up a lot. Um, some people think, oh, I'll have a massive um list of suburbs to target and it will make the home searching easier. It actually makes it harder when you've got a whopping big list of suburbs for me or even themselves to search for. So I think it is really um important to narrow that down. Uh, there's a few ways. Obviously, you can ask, you know, brother's, uncle's, neighbour's cat. No. Um, you can ask people and see where they like. There are online websites. Um, one I think it's called Homely. Again, I can put it in the show notes. Yeah. Um, and people, um, it's a really nice website where people actually rate the suburb and give feedback on the suburb. It's like Google Reviews Suburbs. Um, yeah, or you can look at um Reddit, for example, if you're really stuck in this, like you've got a huge um list that you want to narrow it down, or obviously ask a buyer's agent. But I think coming back to that lifestyle piece um and realizing what brings you joy and happiness and how you're going to be spending your day. So once you've got that, literally go onto Google Maps and have a look at the suburbs that are within you know those amenities that you like and and narrow it down to maybe two or three. I think that will make the home search much less overwhelming.

SPEAKER_01 16:14

Yeah. And I think if you are feeling overwhelmed and you either if you are from the area or outside of the area, reach out to a buyer's agent, you know, like you can help go through what suburbs might be more suitable.

SPEAKER_00 16:29

Yeah, definitely. And obviously, budget comes in to a lot of this as well. I I always preach this. Please look at the sold tab and see if you can actually afford in that those suburbs as well. So once you've got maybe through two or three suburbs, go and have a look and see what money can buy and see if you can find three properties in the last three months that have sold within your budget. Yeah. And they're the types of homes that you might be able to purchase in this market.

SPEAKER_01 16:59

Perfect. Good advice.

SPEAKER_00 17:01

So, what makes a good suburb? Um this is quite subjective, it really depends on the person, the family. Um some people would say schools are a huge factor. I would agree. Um, people love their schools. So, with the public system, obviously there are catchment zones for a lot of them. Um so if you know that a school has a really good reputation, you have to make sure that you are looking at the free online maps to see if your potentially potential new home is within those catchments.

SPEAKER_01 17:43

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 17:44

Um, otherwise you're you're a goner, you're out, you're out of those those schools. Yeah. Um, or maybe it's just proximity to the the favoured private schools that you are willing to pay some money for.

SPEAKER_01 17:59

Yes, I know those practical pieces.

SPEAKER_00 18:02

Um, yeah, so schools are one. Um public transport, I would say, would also help. There is a suburb here on the Sunshine Coast, it is renowned for having an aging population, um Kowana Island or Pariera. Uh they've been trying to campaign and um get more transport in that that suburb so they can get to the hospital. Because at the moment they there's no actual bus route that goes into where they are living, and a lot of the people don't drive, um, so they're having to catch expensive taxis or Ubers and they don't get to utilise the great 50 cent um transport either. So checking that there are bus routes as well, depending um yeah, your needs. Like kids might be able to jump on public transport to school, making your commute to work easier. Um, maybe there's someone who needs to be yeah um getting to a hospital.

SPEAKER_01 19:10

This is a devil's advocate here.

SPEAKER_00 19:12

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 19:13

I like living not near public transport.

SPEAKER_00 19:16

Yeah, okay. See, there you go, subjective. Yeah. I know when I've been looking for homes, there have been people who are excited about public transport being nearby, but they they don't want that bus stop right outside their house or on their back fence. Yeah. Um, because you know, teenagers will be teenagers, everyone knows that. Um, and that might bring unwanted um antisocial behaviour, as the police would call it. Yeah, yeah. So there's a balance.

SPEAKER_01 19:47

Yeah, 100%.

SPEAKER_00 19:49

Locations um could be seen as beneficial if they've got green space or parks, depending on what sort of um if you're in the trenches of toddlers and and babies and things, they might love the the park. But yeah. And saying that, people love wide open spaces and are happy to travel 25 minutes to half an hour to school if they've got you know acreage.

SPEAKER_01 20:11

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 20:12

Like, yeah, growing up we had acreage, we had to drive 25 minutes to get anywhere, and we didn't care as kids. Yeah, we just went and played with sticks.

unknown 20:22

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 20:24

So yeah, it depends what you're what you're used to. If you've come from Melbourne, I don't know what what's it like? How does the Sunshine Coast compare to Melbourne? Do you think? Like raising kids.

SPEAKER_01 20:37

Um, it's very different. I grew up like I was country, so I was the same. We were out in the middle of the nowhere. Yeah. Um, but Melbourne is very different here, like it's obviously very busy. I yeah, I don't I everyone's got a different opinion on this, obviously, but I don't love like Melbourne area for bringing up children. I think yeah, that was I don't know, that always scares me, thinking that when the kids were older that's where they would go out. Yeah, you know, like things, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 21:08

I just is it because it was city or is it just in the burbs as well?

SPEAKER_01 21:12

Uh no, just this Melbourne CBD. I don't I've never been a fan. Some people love it, but I just I yeah, I go there and I feel like I need a shower. Yeah. It's like I just don't, it's not something that I absolutely love. Um it's nice to go there and you know have a a weekend when you just recently shopping and eating and the food, it's beautiful. Um to live, I just couldn't live there. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 21:37

Yeah. See, everyone has different opinions.

SPEAKER_01 21:39

Yeah, some people love it. Yeah, that's amazing. But uh yeah, come back here and I'm like, ah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 21:46

So many people say that when they move here, that the traffic is so much better than Sydney and Melbourne. Um, you know, even driving down to the Gold Coast compared to up here, I just can't wait to get. Back here to visiting from family because I don't just crawl everywhere and just fly around town. No. Oh no, no. So yeah.

SPEAKER_01 22:12

Now, when we're looking at the house, I guess how do we look beyond you know the beautiful house or the newly renovated house? Like, how do we look beyond that?

SPEAKER_00 22:21

Yeah. Um, photography is um very different these days. It's so clever what they can do to an online advertisement and and even the videos and the drone shots, it can really um play on those emotions. Um so yeah, take it in for a little bit, but then snap out of it. Um and yeah, like I said, always zoom in. So this is what I do. I look at realestate.com or demand dem what it domain. Domain, not demand. Real realestate.com or domain, and then once I've looked, I literally I flick through the photos like this tick, tick, tick, tick, tick. That's how quick I look. I look at the floor plan, um, but then I go straight to the location. I look on the map, I zoom out, and I look at um yeah, where it is. One thing you cannot change about a home is its location. Say it all the time. Yeah, broken record over here. Yeah, um, but yeah, it can really make or break um your your investment. Um so just follow those steps. Look at the pretty pictures, then look at location. And you know, also flood, flood zones, yes, easements, all of that is part of the location and things that we cannot change about the property. Um if there is an easement running on the property, it means that that is a location that the council might have to access at any point in time, so you cannot put any solid permanent structures over the top, such as a pool or shed concrete, whatever it might be. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 24:07

Um with the flood zone as well, really important if it is a flood zone or something, or bushfire zone, whatever it is. Before you go and purchase or make an offer, bring insurance companies and get some quotes because that might actually be the reason you don't buy it. Some of the insurances can be really expensive.

SPEAKER_00 24:28

Definitely. Um, people keep asking me about um buying up north in like where have they been saying? Um Yapoon and stuff like that, lifestyle sort of beachy coastal places. I'm like, well, get ready for your big insurance um premiums because that's cyclones.

SPEAKER_01 24:48

Like yeah, and you have to make sure, especially if you're lending, if it is in a flood zone, your insurance must cover flood. So that's when you're doing your quotes, make sure it's inclusive of the the flood. They will ask, has it got flood cover? Because you know, who wants to take that? Yeah. So just when you're yeah, I think it's important when you're doing your research if it is in one of those zones, just to check the insurance and see what the cost is going to be associated with that.

SPEAKER_00 25:16

Yeah, and even um deeping, deeping, diving deeper into those as well. Have a look um what sort of customer feedback you can sort of look at reviews and stuff. I know my parents went through the 2022 floods there on the Alberton River and literally on the river and the um under the house got flooded and it was an actual nightmare for them. Um just trying to speak to the same person. Um it yeah, it took months and months to get that sorted. Okay. Um so then my parents have since you know flood-proofed and raised the house and whatever, but they've they've thought long and hard about who they go through for insurance um for next time. Yeah. Um should be okay for next time because they're prepared and whatever. But yeah, it's not just about the money, it's also what sort of help you're going to get when you're in the trenches of recovery.

SPEAKER_01 26:09

Yeah, the cheapest insurance cover isn't always the best.

SPEAKER_00 26:13

Yeah, yeah, that's what I was trying to say. Thanks. That's okay. Um, yeah, so I think just getting into that habit of look at the house, then go straight to the location, right? Um, yeah, again, busy roads, what amenities are there, um, train lines, all of that sort of stuff. Looking at what sort of developments are proposed nearby. Another great website that I'll share. All of this is in my free ebook, by the way. If you go to my website, all of these free helpful due diligence websites are all in my ebook. Um, and it's like, I don't know, 17 free websites that I check before putting an offering on a property. Um, yeah, and another thing is checking whether next door someone is wiping out a house and putting duplexes there.

SPEAKER_01 27:02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 27:02

Um, if they're wiping out a park and putting apartments there, I don't know. But yeah, the different things to look for. So check that as well. Um, if there's like vacant green space as well near the house, I know this is quite common in Brisbane. It's like yes, it's nice and leafy, and oh, so much places to take the dog for a run around. Um, but it might mean because it's like a flood zone, so um usually means that like they need all that drainage space. So yeah.

SPEAKER_01 27:35

Okay, good. Alright, so what are something I guess once clients come to you? I'm guessing some of them, not all the time, but you'll you'd probably see some that have tried to do the search themselves. Um, or if not, maybe you've met some at open homes and things like that. What are common mistakes you see buyers making?

SPEAKER_00 27:56

Some common mistakes, um probably it depends. Some people are really strict and have um one suburb searches. Okay. Which is good. I like people that know what they want. Yeah. Um, but if you're if you have a look and the median house price is well above your budget, there's a problem here, and we probably need to have a tough chat. Um yeah. Uh it you might just be looking for way too long, and I always say a time in the market. Yes. Yeah. Um it doesn't always pay to be not headstrong, but I don't know, stubborn.

SPEAKER_01 28:41

Yeah, and yeah, not um not willing to be flexible with, you know, that might be the suburb you want. And I see it as well with why is that, you know, that might be the suburb they want. But sometimes you can't what you can buy in that suburb for your money, it might be worth looking at, you know, your second or going through exactly what you've discussed, those points to figure out another suburb that might be um a good option for them, but you might be able to get a much better house that will have better resale.

SPEAKER_00 29:17

Buying purely on emotion, yeah, buying purely on emotion. I think it's an ego thing as well. I think you need to put your ego aside. Yeah. Um, the fact that you've got a deposit, you've got pre-approval, you should be really proud of that. Yes. That's huge. Yeah. Um I know you might want to be a certain proximity to your parents as well, but that was a different time back then when they bought. Yeah. It was probably 30 years ago. Um, and we know they just sit on their houses for years and years. Um, yeah, you you might have to really um realize that money does isn't buying what it used to. Yeah. And um, you might have to go to the cousin suburb, you know. Um, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 30:05

And on that, I think, especially for first home buyers, do you need to be a little bit more flexible on where where you might want to be versus what you can actually get. Like you said, searching for you know, six to twelve months.

SPEAKER_00 30:22

No.

SPEAKER_01 30:23

No. There could have been potentially, we don't know because nobody can predict, but there could have been equity growth in there for if you had purchased, you know, a little bit earlier in a different suburb that could then be your stepping stone to the suburb.

SPEAKER_00 30:37

Yeah, yeah. And if you're renting at the same time, that's so much money that could be going into a mortgage as well. Yeah. Um, yeah, so putting that ego aside and having a look at maybe plan B or plan C, it's okay. Yeah. Yeah. Never know, you might love it.

SPEAKER_01 30:54

Okay, so we've we've touched on um, I guess, common mistakes, which leads us into the next one because we were touching on this anyway. But should buyers compromise?

SPEAKER_00 31:07

Yes. Yeah. Unless, I don't know, unless you're loaded and you can buy whatever.

SPEAKER_01 31:12

100% agree. If you've got a budget that extends to whatever amount that you you know you need or want, then absolutely, why would you compromise if you've worked that hard and you can do it, no need to compromise. But in the instance of a first home buyer or something like that, I feel like we can't always have it all.

SPEAKER_00 31:34

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 31:35

And that is okay. It could just be a stepping stone, Armand.

SPEAKER_00 31:38

Yeah, exactly. And I know we sound like your mothers right now, um, but you know, hard conversations, easy life. Yeah. Sometimes we have to have these tough conversations. Um, you you I don't know, you really um actually, if you're buying with someone else too, I think this is a really um good time to really find out what your spouse or your partner's like as well, because there's a lot of emotions and your true colours come out. Um so it's okay to feel all the emotions during this time as well. Yeah. And yeah, weigh up the pros and cons. Yeah. Compromise is important.

SPEAKER_01 32:20

What would you say is worth compromising and what's not worth compromising?

SPEAKER_00 32:25

Oh, that's a good question. Um okay, so let's talk about like land, for example. Um, I think you can compromise land as long as you know, maybe if you've got a budget for 800 square, uh, you're thinking 800 square metres, maybe that's not going to work out. Yeah. Maybe jumping down to 600 square meter block would be okay. That's not a huge difference in the grand scheme of things. You still get a decent sized yard, um, room for a pool. So yeah, I think going from 800 square metres down to 300 square metres, sure. Like that might be a bit too much of a compromise. So that that's sort of something that I would um think would be reasonable for land. Um when it comes to bedrooms, dropping down a bathroom would be something that I would class as reasonable. Um, because you might be able to later on, maybe five, ten years down the track, if you have equity, yeah, you can use and leverage the bank's money to add value and add a bathroom in later.

SPEAKER_01 33:40

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 33:40

I would rather that than someone stretch to get another bathroom and then you're tied up in that loan and you can't, you know, rub two pennies together.

SPEAKER_01 33:50

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 33:51

Um, yeah, I love that. I love when people can add value to their properties. Yeah. Um, really makes me smile and gets me excited because your creativity can come out as well. Yeah. Um, yeah, so that um sometimes you can do like buy a three-bedroom and maybe add a four-bedroom, but that's that's a bit harder to find space. That's quite a big um, you know, 3.5 by 3.5 bedrooms hard to find um in a floor plan. Um, I don't recommend, do you know what? I don't recommend people converting garages. Yeah. This is a bit random, but people think, oh, I'll just convert the garage. You can always tell. Yeah, you can always tell when that um yeah, unless you add another carport or whatever. But people love garages and lockable um lockup garages.

SPEAKER_01 34:43

So just be a compromise on you know, they're wanting a four-bedroom home, but the fourth is a spare bedroom.

SPEAKER_00 34:50

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 34:50

Might be that if if that fourth bedroom's needed, obviously it's not a compromise. But if the fourth bedroom is just a spare bedroom, that could be a compromise.

SPEAKER_00 34:59

I don't think people should be buying homes for guests. Yeah, well I'm we're really bad at that. Yeah, like honestly, like buy a fold-out couch, let them sleep in the living room. How often do you have guests? I'd I'd really think about that. You shouldn't be buying homes for other people, it's for you.

SPEAKER_01 35:17

Yeah. And your family. We do have family come up from Vic, so Yeah. How often? Uh at least once a year. See, once a year. But what's a year? What's one thing you always research?

SPEAKER_00 35:35

Oh, lots. I can't do this quickfire. Lots, everything. Look at my ebook. 17 things plus more that is also paid subscriptions. I don't know how to put that into one location, previous sales, property history, like what's its sale history? Um, if it was on the market for 250 days five years ago, why um has it been have they tried to sell the property before? Um, you know, with another agent recently? Why didn't it sell um neighbours, all that sort of stuff? A lot. Yeah. I walk the streets at different times of the days. Um sometimes I chat to neighbours. Mm-hmm. Yeah, I love chatting to neighbours. Yep. Hot tip. Sheena, what's one finance consideration buyers often overlook? Oh, that's a big question.

SPEAKER_01 36:35

I feel like that the insurance, like it's not one that's often on people's um mind when they're buying because they just think, oh, we've got pre-approval and that's the house I like. But if it is in that flood zone or bush high zone or whatever zone it might be in, just considering how much the insurance is going to be as well.

SPEAKER_00 36:54

Yeah, definitely. I would to add on to that. Um, if you're buying in body corporate, make sure you check how much that's gonna be. There might be a 20% discount if you pay on time as well for some strata complexes. Um, see if you can, you would obviously check that as a mortgage broker when you do the loan stuff.

SPEAKER_01 37:14

But yeah, that's an advanced. And some body corp is so expensive up here, I found like I remember I was checking one, I was like, is that right?

SPEAKER_00 37:22

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 37:23

It can be really expensive, so definitely if you are check the cost of that. Yeah, what's the most expensive you've seen? It's not the most expensive I've seen, but the most expensive for what the complex had. Like I don't even think there was a pool and it was eight grand a year.

SPEAKER_00 37:38

Wow, I saw one um where it was just a string of four um what are they? Townhouses, and all it was was was a shared driveway and gardens, and it was six thousand a year. Yeah, absolutely ridiculous. Yes. Yeah. Why that's that's expensive. Usually for I don't know, about eight grand, you'd have a pool at least.

SPEAKER_01 38:05

That's where I was like, are you pulling it? Is this right? I questioned the client on it. I was like, is this correct?

SPEAKER_00 38:11

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 38:11

Yeah. Yeah. I was like, okay.

SPEAKER_00 38:13

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 38:14

Exactly that. You'd expect to see more facilities in there for that amount.

SPEAKER_00 38:18

Yeah, and if it's that high, it may mean that they've had a special levy recently or shit's gone down and they've had to um I don't know, repair something unexpectedly. Because that, yeah, sometimes body corporate, yeah, seek help with that. Yeah. Always look at the minutes. Last two years of the body corporate's minutes.

SPEAKER_01 38:40

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 38:41

Important.

unknown 38:41

Cool.

SPEAKER_00 38:42

Good. They don't automatically give you that.

unknown 38:45

No.

SPEAKER_00 38:45

You've got to request that. Or I always do a due diligence clause in the contracts to give time to resource those. Because sometimes they're so hard, I don't know why, but they're so hard to find um or to get a hold of.

SPEAKER_01 38:59

Yeah, sometimes it depends what who's running it. Sometimes they're really frustrating to get hold of any documents. Yeah. Yeah. Um, okay, so our key takeaways for today, I think, are location, location, location. No. But working through what location actually suits you. Yeah. Your why. Your reason for living. Yeah. Yeah. Um, doing your research even in that suburb that might be the one, the ideal suburb. These are my key takeaways from everything you've said today, but Christine will go over hers. I mean, still doing your research because it might be the suburb you love, but that street actually could be, you know, not an amazing street to buy in.

SPEAKER_00 39:42

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 39:43

Checking um if there's any flood zone. Um, flood zone, bushfire, easement. Easements, yeah, checking all of that. Um and really doing the research, but on that too, being being able to compromise a few points if you need to as well.

SPEAKER_00 40:01

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_01 40:02

Yeah, be a bit flexible.

SPEAKER_00 40:03

Yeah. Um, my key takeaways from what you said, um, good reminder about insurance. Yeah. Definitely, people forget about that. Um, I think, what else? Basically, what you said, um you it's okay to get advice from some people, um, but you're in the at the end of the day, you're the one who's going to be living and driving from work to school pickup to gym, all of that stuff. So it's your decision at the end. So go with your gut feeling, um, but stay within your means and yeah, don't stretch too far. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 40:41

All right, well, thank you. I that was really helpful. I think if you are looking at potentially buying in the near future, definitely one to listen to and reach out to Christine if you are considering a buyer's agent.

SPEAKER_00 40:55

Thanks.

SPEAKER_01 40:56

Reach out to Sheena if you need a mortgage broker, she'll take care of you. We actually never um give ourselves a little plug. Give out, yeah, plug our businesses. But we are like Christine is from Primary Place Buyers Agency and um I'm from Fundley. We're both on the Sunshine Course. I can help Australia wide. Christine can help whether you're if you're maybe not living here yet but looking to relocate. Um, you might be a local and just don't have the time.

SPEAKER_00 41:25

Yeah, moving from Brisbane that's pretty common at the moment um for work. Yeah, definitely.

SPEAKER_01 41:31

Yeah, perfect. So we are always happy to have a chat. Um if if you're not ready yet, just put a plan in place or just reach out.

SPEAKER_00 41:40

Yeah, at any point during the process we can um yeah, have a free consultation at any time.

SPEAKER_01 41:46

Yeah. Awesome. And we can obviously work together if you're needing both of us. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 41:52

Find us on socials.

SPEAKER_01 41:54

Um we'll pop our business links in there as well. You know, if you need anything. So remember the more you know, the more you can do.

SPEAKER_00 42:02

Thank you for listening to She Finds, She Funds. Once again, bye. Bye. This podcast is for educational and entertainment purposes only. The information shared is general in nature and does not take into account your individual objectives, financial situation, or needs. Before making any property or lending decisions, you should seek professional guidance that's appropriate for your own circumstances. Christine Stocker is a licensed buyers agent real estate licence number four eight two five one seven seven. Shina Griffith is a credit representative five two six-nine two one, is authorised under Australian credit licence at 517-192.