Episode 6 | Unlocking Asset Quality: How to Choose the Right Property as a First Home Buyer

Many first home buyers, we know aren't planning to stay in their first home forever. So this is where that asset quality discussion for your first time is so important. So if you're going to sell or upgrade or even relocate in the future, we want you to put yourself in the best position possible to see a property increasing value. Hello and welcome to First Time Unlocked, the podcast for unlocking clarity and confidence for first home buyers. I'm Jack Elliott, national first home buyer specialist at Alcove. And I'm Chris Brates, ex financial planner and mortgage broker. Together, we are on a mission to empower you with the keys to unlock your first home. Let's jump in. Hello and welcome back to First Time Unlocked, how are you today, Chris? I'm doing well, Jack. I'm loving doing this with you and yeah, we're quite a few episodes in now. Thank you for listening along at home or in the car wherever you're listening to this right now. Super excited for today's episode. Like you know, Jack, I'm super passionate about this topic and we as a business put a lot of value in what we do and I've got a lot of expertise. We really try to not just help clients get finance, structure the right way but really help them make a good property decision, which is what we're going to talk about today. Yeah, I think that's a great segue into today's episode. Chris and you're right. It's a big part of the first home buyer journey and helping you through actually buying that quality asset. So today that's what we're talking about quality assets. So we're talking step six of the home buying journey that we're progressing through. So earlier on in our goals and visions episode, we talked about choosing a property that suits your needs now and into the future. But many first home buyers we know aren't planning to stay in their first home forever. So this is where that asset quality discussion for your first home is so important. So no one has that crystal ball, but today we're going to talk through what to consider when you're looking for a high quality property. It doesn't start with the actual property though. It's actually a whole lot bigger than that. So Chris, as you mentioned, this has been a massive focus of yours and something that you're really excited about. So what do you think asset quality is so important for first home buyers to think about? Yeah, I think the key part to that question there is four first home buyers. I mean, it absolutely matters for, you know, whether you're upgrading or you're investing, but maybe not so much when you're downsizing, right? Do you really need to make more money at that stage of your life? Yeah, I mean, the kids in the inheritance would probably want you to be thinking about that, but it's not as catastrophic for you if you get it wrong. And often, you know, when people have already got properties, if they're upgrading or investing, you know, yeah, I mean, it slows down their overall wealth growth. But for first home buyers, you've worked so hard, you've worked in your career, maybe you've had a bit of fun, you've saved, and then all of a sudden you're going to put all your cash into a property. And at some point, you know, your life plan changes, right? You want to have it maybe met a partner or you have kids that you want to upgrade. And really, that's when I think you realize whether you bought a good asset or not, it's not right at the start. It's usually when they're looking to sell many years down the line, they go, oh God, that really worked really well. Was that luck or skill or really would have been much better if I just bought something off the main road. It would have been a little bit better if I bought something maybe a bit bigger bedrooms or better aspects. And there's these small things that over many years, you know, and even over small timeframes can make big differences to how your deposit changes. Because ultimately, when you sell that property one day, what you're trying to do is increase the amount of money you put in for your first home to be a bigger amount because you're most likely going to have to spend more on the next property. So you really have to grow your wealth with that first property. And it's often one of the, you know, there's challenges we have with first home buyers is reframing their thinking from, let's just get a property. Let's just tick that box too. This is an investment. We've actually got to try to grow our money because we're going to need to for our future plans. And I think that's a great point that you raised there, Chris. It's about looking at and having these conversations now and considering these things rather than just rushing in talking about buying your first property and then having that feeling later down the track that, oh, I wish I took that more time up front. And this is what we say often most people begin their search on their real estate apps and choose the house based on the looks or convenience and they skip this crucial groundwork. So instead of starting by browsing homes in your local area, we want you to zoom out. So start to ask yourself, which area suits your lifestyle and budget? Are you looking at living in the city or in a regional area? Which suburbs have that strong lifestyle factors for you now and potential buyers in the future? And then focus down on the street and the specific property. So what I want you to take away from this is don't get emotionally attached to one property too early. Instead build your strategy from top down to make a more strategic decision that still aligns to your goals. So, Chris, do you have any tips for first home buyers to help them avoid getting emotionally attached too early to properties? Look, I think it's trying to remember that this isn't your forever home. Maybe for some first home buyers it is, right? Maybe they started a little bit later and and they're vested in other things and now they've got this house and they really see themselves living there for 10, 20 years. But that's not usually the case for first home buyers. So really you're trying to use it as a bit of a stepping stone and what you really want to focus on is, yeah, it's got to suit what you need, right? And what's going to suit your lifestyle over the coming period? But if you have to make compromises, maybe short-term compromises are better for the long-term reward in getting an asset exactly likely to grow in value and then it's actually going to give you some more cash for the next mover and that maybe next property is better suited to your needs rather than that one that you're likely to live in for a lot longer doesn't suit your needs. And so I think it's that sort of reframing in your mind. Yeah, it's a you're buying a place to live in. But ultimately, if you're going to have a stage of life where you should focus more and more on whether the investment quality, I would say it's for first home buyers, which is a bit of a different thinking to weigh a lot of first home buyers go about it. Yeah, and it is. It's all about changing that way that you're thinking about your first property as well and just considering these other aspects. And I think to add to that as well to de-attach emotionally is going and seeing multiple properties and I know how many times I've seen a first home I get pre-approval and go to the first open home and fall in love with it. So I think going through a whole heap of inspections, seeing different kinds of assets and comparing that as you're going along, I think is a great way to take that emotionality out of it. Of course, it's going to be emotions involved. It's your first home. It's an exciting time. But seeing multiple different properties just helps you see different kinds of assets and then make that really strategic decision as well thinking of your long term. Yeah, absolutely, Jack. I mean, we do that, right? So clients will be heading down one path and we'll go, oh, this is maybe not the best way. And what I'll often do or yourself will give them reframe their thinking and give them an alternative solution, right? Why don't you just go and check out these type of properties and they might be looking at high-density department in a city and we say, well, why don't you just maybe go a little bit further out and get a small block of units near a train line that's really good access to the city, but it's a much better investment from a supply and demand point of view, which we'll talk about later on. And so yeah, you're right. Otherwise, you get this confirmation bias. You get stuck in this sort of echo chamber and you're comparing lemons with lemons. And unfortunately, you sometimes you need to see alternative solutions go, oh, I can see what you're saying now. Oh, maybe I should follow down that and maybe I could make that lifestyle work for me because I've sort of explored some new areas. And I do think there's home bias or just buying what you know, what fuels familiar. Fortunately, one of the challenges first home buyers have is because a lot of them are living, you know, apartment, city, life, and they just want to keep living that life and they go and buy that for an investment when that's often not the best investment to buy. Yeah, and I think as well, like you mentioned, Chris, it's about exposing yourself. It's about looking at all the different kind of options. We're not saying that you need to know everything and need to know this all yourself, but it's good to have them professionals that will ask the right questions, also very training thinking and make you look at different kind of options available before you make the final decision. So Chris, you talked about supply and demand and how important it is. So that's a great place that I like to start with first home buyers is getting them to zoom right out and understand actually how supply and demand works. So rising demand and limited or rare supply are what drive property prices up over time. So supply is what is available for buyers to purchase and demand is how many buyers are looking to purchase in an area at that time. So an important thing to think about with supplies, how many homes of the same type are available in the area that you're looking on the market at that time. Now, if a home is one of hundreds just like it or it can be easily rebuilt nearby, it's not rare. It's generally the value of these properties are lower. Now when a property is rare or unique, the value is generally higher. So areas to look out for like new development areas are like you mentioned Chris off the plan apartments are often marketed as a more affordable option to first home buyers. So though they might seem affordable or modern, there are some issues to consider when making them decisions. So the new development areas generally don't have that scarcity factor because developers are able to just expand in the paddock next door. So if people can build the same type of property for the same price or even cheaper, this will lower the demand for your property and weaken the growth potential. Off the plan apartments are the same. They often don't perform well because of the oversupply, but there's actually some other considerations if you're thinking about purchasing an off the plan apartment. So you're locked into these purchase contracts months or years before settlement without finance causes. Now this far out you can't get approved with the bank for a mortgage because they need to access that property to run a valuation. So that means if the bank values the property less than what stated on the contract you've signed years ago or months ago potentially, you will have to come up with the difference yourself. So Chris, what do you think about the new development areas and off the plan apartments? Erase and really good points here around demand and supply. Whenever someone talks to me about the property market. So there's not an Australian property market. There's not a Melbourne, a New South Wales or a Victorian. There's not a Sydney or Melbourne. There's not a Melbourne housing or a Melbourne apartment market. There's not a Melbourne, you know, in a North housing market. You know, it just keeps getting smaller and smaller and smaller because when you're buying property, you're buying one of 11 million properties out there. You're not getting an index return, you know, not all properties grow at the same rate. So I'm going down and a lot of people just don't understand that because those stories aren't shared at barbecues, right? They're just not talked about. No one wants to talk about the investment that lost the money or the first home buyer that property that never went up in value. Everyone wants to talk it up, right? If you look at Core Logic, which is now called Cortalities, Pain and Game Report, you'll realize that a lot of people are losing a lot of money on properties and off the plan of apartments, particularly in Melbourne, Brisbane, you know, Adelaide, you know, Perth have been some of the worst performers over the last couple of decades. So it's not a opinion this. This is just the fact of the challenges of when you're buying things that can be easily replicated because if you think about it just logically, if you could buy this, you know, two-bed apartment for $600,000 today and a developer can is also selling one, you know, a hundred meters down the road or even just across the road for $600,000. As a buyer, you'd be like, "Why would I buy old when I can buy new?" And then you buy that new and then all of a sudden becomes old and then three years later you go to sell it and then all of a sudden developers still selling him at $600,000 down the road. And so you have this constant issue of more supply coming up. Even if prices do go up, that usually means the developer can make more money. So then they build even more. So that short-term price growth is usually quite limited. So that's definitely been the experiences in Melbourne and Brisbane. They're severely underperformed, Sydney. Not so much just because a big pure lack of being able to build and make it build profitably due to the cost of building and land, but often they're not the great investments. And at first I'd be much better if they were buying in Brisbane or Melbourne or Sydney to either look at the older apartments and the townhouses and the villa units. They're a bit further away from where they're building lots of supply. But yeah, I mean, I guess when you think about supply, Jack, it's two things, right? Can they build more of what you're buying? If that's a no, that's great. You've got something called restricted supply. And if they are building more of them, you've got to really make sure that yours is going to be better than them. And that's really hard when you're buying something that's going to be easily replicated. And the second point is, is there a lot of them available? I guess one of my favourite savings, the property is hard to buy, easy to sell. And that's really what you're looking for. It should be quite difficult to buy your first home. Like you should take you, like you said, look at lots of different properties. No, no, no, no. Yeah, let's consider this one. Oh wait, there's strata issues. Wait, next one, next one, next one. It shouldn't just be like rock art, fighter property, sign the contract and on you go. Because if you do the hard work that front, usually in the future, when you look to sell it, you bought a scarce asset and it's really easy to sell and you're more likely to get a better price. Yeah, thank you for sharing that, Chris. And I think that really sticks with me as well. And I want it to stick with the listeners here is it should be hard, hard to buy, easy to sell. That's what that kind of supply looks like. So we've broken down that supply and we've touched on demand. So let's break down demand in more detail here. So we also want to be looking at properties that have that high demand. So what that means is, is it desirable? What makes people want to buy and live there in that area? Is it close to jobs, schools, transports? What are the lifestyle factors like access to cafes, gyms, supermarkets? We want to be thinking who actually wants to live in this area? Who will buy from me if I choose to sell in the future and upgrade? So before we zoom in and look at demand from a suburb, street and property view, Chris, I just wanted to run past. If I'm a first homebine, I'm looking to upgrade saying 10 years time. What kind of buyers do I want purchasing my property? So really what I think about demand is, and this is I think a really good way, a litmus test, I call it, or a little bit of a test that you should be doing when you're buying your property. I love it. It's amazing. It really suits what I want and you look at what you like about it. But you have to step out of that and go, well, what other buyers would like it? If you're a single, you go, would a couple live here? Would a young family, would one or two kids live here? Would a high income couple want to live here? Would a downsizer? Would a divorcee? Everyone's got sort of different buyer preferences. And ideally, if you think about it, what you'd want is the more different buyer pools that would want a property means more demands. And the second thing to think about is, is all those different buyer pools, they all have different means, right? They all have different incomes, different savings, different wealth. And ideally, if you could, you want a property that suits people with money, right? Because not only with money, but people who can borrow money. So usually people on, you know, medium and high incomes. And so, ideally, a property that suits multiple buyer pools. And if you think about this from a studio apartment, no bedrooms, just a bed and a bathroom and maybe the kitchen is there as well. Maybe a single is happy to live there, absolutely. But even a couple is going to find it hard. A couple with kids, you know, downsizers, they've got too much stuff. And so your buyer pool is really, really restricted. If you go to say a three-bed apartment, right? Like a single couple, couples with kids, couple with multiple kids. And, you know, or a small two-bed apartment versus a big two-bed apartment. The small two-bed apartment might be too small for, you know, living area for a family, but a bigger two-bed could absolutely work. And so you've just got to really think about, and also the location, different buyer pools. If, for example, it's an apartment, 45-cation, the city in the middle of nowhere, you know, does a high-income family want to live there? Well, probably not because they've got to get to the city every day. But, you know, it might be close to the city. And so they go, well, yeah, a high-income couple would like to live there. Or does it suit the downsizers where it's got no, you know, single-level access and no stairs? And so that's, ideally, what you want to be thinking about. I know this is quite a lot for people to sort of digest. But the concept is, is not something like what I want and what suits me, what would differ buyer pools? And if you find that you're really limited to the more affordable part of the market, lower incomes in a small buyer pool, it's really not going to be likely that you're going to get a lot of growth from that property because you do need that competition on Saturday one day where you got a first-home buyer and a downsizer and a couple and a family all trying to compete for this property and maybe an investor in there as well. And that demand is what creates a competition which pushes prices up. Exactly right, Chris. And an easy way to look at it. So you obviously want to look at something that suits your lifestyle and your needs now to first purchase the property. But it's also, as you said, a thinking about is this going to be attractive to different buyer pools and different types of buyers in the future to really compete for that home and push that price up in the future. Now let's begin to zoom in. We've zoomed right out and looked at supply and demand and how that all works. So let's start zooming in. Let's break down the key features of a suburb that can help you decide to make a great quality asset purchase for your first home. So as we talked about in the goals and visions episode, you can start by assessing the lifestyle and livability of the area. Now these factors are not only important for when you're living there now, but also for the future home buyers like we've talked about if you decide to sell. So these livability factors will help drive that demand. So some features to consider are, is there easy access to shops, schools and public transport? What are the crime rates in the area? So you can actually search all of this information on the domain suburb profile as part of your research. And is there green spaces access to green spaces and health services around? So Chris, I've mentioned a few there, but are there any other suburb factors that first home buyers need to be considering when looking at different suburbs? Yeah, I think it's just being a little bit conscious that, you know, suburbs are always changing as well and sort of thinking if it's maybe my dream suburb is X suburb next door, which we call the bridesmide suburb offers pretty much all the same benefits, but there's a lot cheaper and a lot of buyers will go to that suburb first that they prefer and then go, oh, it's just a little bit out of budget. Actually, you know what, I've just seen this property down the road. I'll go there and you might find that's often the better buying is suburbs that offer a similar lifestyle for what you're looking for, but maybe a little bit more affordable. Yeah, it's a good thing to consider as well and looking again, it comes back to looking at multiple areas, doing the test on the each suburb and then narrowing it down and comparing a few while you're looking at that first property. So now we're starting to zoom right in. So let's talk about assessing the street and the specific properties. So even within a good suburb, you find that good suburb streets vary widely in that value. So let's discuss some things to consider about the street and the location of the property. So let's start with the main road versus a quiet street. So a home on a quiet tree line street is going to feel very different to one on a main busy road and future home buyers will feel that and notice that too. So main roads often mean more traffic noise. You've got less privacy limited on street parking and that can make it harder to sell in the future, especially to them families who might have safety concerns about living on a main road as well. Whereas a quiet street close to parks and schools creates more of that forever home feeling and that can lead to a stronger emotional demand for you right now and in the future when you sell your home and bring more of them buyer pools in luck we mentioned before. So Chris, when you're looking at pre-approved clients shortlisted properties, how much weight do you put on the actual street that it's on? A lot, Jack. It's one of the first things I'll look at right is I'll look at the address from a quiet. I don't even look at the listing on RAA or Domain first. I think that's next level. It's whether it gets through the first test to which is a location and the quality of the land. Yeah, you can do that through Google Maps and just jumping on the satellite and so what I'll do is I'll put the address in. I'll zoom down to the sort of street level, put the satellite on and then I'll go on street view. That's amazing the technology we can use today, right? Feels like just part of it but it wasn't always like that and if it is a busy road you've got to really start to question that because often there's a few challenges with it. When you sell it one day depends on how hot the market is. If the market is extremely hot and there's FOMO off the Richter scale people don't so desperate to buy that they just go it's my only way in and the premium the main roads versus the better suburbs actually reduces. So you basically overpay for the poor roads in hot markets but in down markets you've got to think about it when you might have to sell it one day in a down market because you want to upgrade or your life plan changes and people often look at it and go yeah I like it it's nice but I just don't want to live on that road and a lot of buyers really don't want to avoid it not just for the noise the safety for families which you mentioned really difficulty having friends to come around. I mean I've got a client literally trying to convince not to buy one on a road right now it feels like the only way they can get into a suburb but I'm trying to convince them to change suburbs but you're right it does have a huge impact I believe on growth if you have to sell it in a down market if you get lucky you buy it in a good market and you buy it at a good price and then you sell it in a true FOMO market which is only for a small period in a boom market not the whole boom is usually FOMO it's usually just the tail end of a boom where people are so desperate and so be really careful buying on a poor road. Something to add to that and thank you for sharing is that yes you're looking at the actual street but as you said you can look on Google Maps where's the main busy highway near that street as well if it's only a couple of streets over that's still going to have that noise effect it's still technically busy near your street so I think it's good to yes look at the actual street that you're looking on but then look around the kind of surrounding streets where's the busy roads what does that look like what's the accessibility to that street as well is that going to really weigh you down over years and years of trying to get off a main busy highway into that street so I think again looking at the actual street but then looking at the areas around it and see what's available as well. Yeah I'll double down on that Jack you're absolutely right it's you know not just the arterial main arterial roads it's also rat runs within suburbs there's certain streets that are just really not nice to drive on or you know and too close to train stations and so it's not just the main roads for cars it's it's also streets that are compromised because there's certain parts that in the suburb where there's less desirable suburbs or amenity or things that people don't want to live around that's what the locals know and it's really hard for first advice to understand that the best way I think if you're looking at a new suburb I can figure this out pretty quickly is you go and look at listings and sold properties over the last 12 months and you can see usually where there's a lot more people selling and that's the sort of hidden consequence that people don't realise until they go to sell it one day and you'll find that on the poorer roads people are buying and they're selling them a lot more because they move in and then they go oh I don't really like living here and so the problem with that is that there's usually always choice on the market for buyers there's usually other properties coming on that road and buyers are like well yeah if I missed out on this one that's okay another one will come up on this road it's not the best street in the suburb and it's a really good point to consider as well Chris and it's just about getting familiar with what the actual street looks like even go and test it go and drive there if you're thinking about purchasing on a certain street go and see what it feels like in person as well do you testing on Google maps and things like that but then going person as well because that'll show you more now let's say you've got now picked a street so now it's beginning to look at the properties on that street so which side of the street is the property on so a north facing backyard is preferred in Australia as it gets sunlight all day especially in the cooler months so this means you get natural light all day you have warmer living areas in the winter and you have that better airflow so I know this might seem like a little thing but those livability features like the sunlight and airflow they're not just lifestyle perks they impact your daily living in a positive way and if you do sell the future buyers will feel that as well so Chris is there anything else to consider when looking at the street you want to live on? I mean some streets are more prettier than others some have got trees and some have got rows and rows of character homes I mean that's sort of the dream outcome you want a suburb that the street where everyone's investing in their properties and they're making them nicer and you know they're knocking them all down and building lots of new townhouses etc and so you sort of get that feel it's that vibe when you're driving down there in the car look at the open spectrum you go wow this is actually a really nice street what you'll find is the people buy in the streets and then they never sell and you'll find that when you go look at some comparable sales in the suburb there's just no sales to compare it with that's the dream because it shows that everyone in the streets loving it and they're all investing in their properties and so it should sort of do what's talking for you the north rear is something that often first home buyers miss they just haven't lived in lots of different properties before maybe they even lived in an all-facing rear property and even realized that that's what it was but you know that is one of the properties that people buy and they can oh it's so nice in winter and most property aren't really selling in the peak of a winter they're selling in the autumn and spring in the off seasons and usually the sun's a little bit more forgiving in those time frames and then they show the property at the time of day where it looks its best so just be careful with that but a property that's got a north facing rear is much nicer usually to live in through the winter period and then it's usually just as nice in summer because it doesn't have the heat of summer and you get these cross breezes and things like that so yeah often for some buyers don't put enough waiting on that so if you can get a great street in a north rear and on the quieter street you're already on to a bit of a winner I say here so that's why these things matter and I think I can speak from experience Chris being down in the southern side of Victoria I think it's very important to have that north facing backyard especially with winter now extending feels like it's extending for half the year just about and down here so it's definitely important to think about these things up front so we've narrowed down the suburb in the streets so the next step is to assess the specific property so walking through the property and looking at inspection so let's look at some key elements to consider when inspecting a home the streetscape as you mentioned Chris what does that look like and what's the curb appeal some people fall in love with properties before they've walked through the front door surroundings so what does the neighbors properties look like is they're new by business buildings on that same street and then going into the four plan is it logical is it light field like we spoke about it does the layout make sense of the property so let's take a look at neighboring properties in a bit more detail so are they well maintained do they reflect pride of ownership messy front yards neglected homes all them loud business buildings can affect prior perception of the area and livability for you and your family it can also affect valuation outcomes in some cases which can impact what the bank is willing to lend you so Chris how much attention do you give to neighbouring homes when revealing a property with a client oh absolutely there it's not just the neighbors the neighbors behind it's a couple of doors down the road it's like you said before jack freeways you know many streets away can be issues and I think the what you want everything here about is it absolutely some deal break has had a conscious couple weeks ago want to buy next door service station as I have you not look next door as I do you think a lot of buyers want to look next to a service station so absolutely look over your neighbor both sides over the back fence what you want to be thinking about is ideally you want to be where there's lots of houses and also in an area where it's unlikely to change you got to be looking at things like trees and I saw is that a big water tank out the back of properties or power lines and check DAs in the area development applications and things that my change that could impact your privacy etc but I mean ideally what you want is you know a couple of homes or surrounding you and when you come back in ten years time or whenever you go to sell them on day the situation is exactly the same yeah people might have renovated but they might not be affecting your property and your livability you know you don't really want an apartment block overlooking your back fence and so really really be conscious of that and privacy something a lot of first-home buyers you know the social generation they're not too concerned about privacy but you know a lot of people are and it really does hold your property back one day where people go I love it great property great street but I don't think I can walk around the house naked and it's good things to consider Chris as well as yeah thinking about all these different questions that we're prompting to you and just really having them in the back of your mind as you're walking through that home how does it feel what's going to look like in two five ten years time and how is that going to impact the daily living for us right now and then also into the future as well so that brings us into the next point so looking at the floor plan so does it suit your current lifestyle and future lifestyle so the things that ask yourself are other bedrooms well separated for privacy other enough bedrooms that you need is their space for working from home which is common these days or for a growing family and how usable is the outdoor as you mentioned Chris as well there's a apartment building looking over your back fence you're not going to want to go out and spend time in the outdoor with family and friends so if the layout makes life difficult you will feel it every day future home buyers will feel it so that limits that demand factor as well so Chris I know you've mentioned a few but what are some other layout red flags that you see best home-wise often overlook bedrooms often too small different generations properties you know just doesn't work the kitchen and the the lounge room the living area is just not balanced you know it's just quite tiny and you think oh it's nice bedrooms to be or three bedrooms the tiny living area it's just unbalanced maybe it's not really well done for the light and then it's closed off at the back and that's in North Korea and you're like oh to change this is actually really expensive and so yeah the layouts actually I think that you often sort of are just assumed because buildings expensive you know making changes and modifications to the property and yes you might have a group piece of land but the property itself just doesn't work on it when you go to sell it one day unless you do those modifications a lot of buyers are looking at go yeah I love it but I've got to renovate it and I'd rather just buy something that's a bit closer and it's easier to renovate so yeah that can really hold you growth back I feel if you buy the property with the wrong layout it's so important considering that layout and that feel when you're inside the house looking through inspections and things as well so when you are looking at highs we also want you to look for features that make that home unique and rare like a unique design or original character a versatile layout that could suit different buyers in the future couples families down sizes if you're intending to sell in the future which increases that demand now is this type of home rare or is it easily replicated or be able to found somewhere else again if you can buy or build the same home cheaper it won't attract as much demand in the future while the building itself does matter the land on which which it's built on is even more important than selecting equality properties so buildings depreciate over time the building the fittings they can all age very quickly whereas the land depreciate or grows in value especially in the areas of limited supply of land available for new homes so Chris how does understanding this actually help first home buyers to find a good quality asset no I just want to touch on something that we might prefer not to see the first same buyers here what we say unique we we don't want something that is a triangle of block and a house that looks like a spaceship and it's got three different levels and it just doesn't work as a family that's that's too unique so but you don't want something that just feels like a cookie cutter apartment or like a brand new townhouse where everything's the same and it's easily replicable you know a row of terraces yeah they might not feel unique because they're six in a row but they are they're sort of got beautiful frontages that aren't replicable nowadays because they were built a hundred years ago and why they sort of are a little rare is because every year people are renovating and they're living in the longer and they're less of them coming on the market every year because people are holding them whether they're investors or home buyers so hopefully I mean this just I guess highlights just for first home buyers that what you buy really does matter and when you go sell it one day you're going to go oh I'm so glad I did that extra work up front to actually take the time to get a good asset because that's actually turned into hundreds of thousands of dollars more down the line because you didn't rush it you know and buying probably isn't easy we know how stressful it is that's why we're doing this this whole podcast is we know it's hard but just because it's hard it doesn't mean you shouldn't do it and I think that's what we really want to just help first advice is do the hard yards up front and then in the years down the line you'll thank your future self and you'll go yeah God I actually it was really worth it because it's time and time again I've seen clients who have rushed it from a first home buy point of view and we know down the line they want to upgrade and they go oh it just hasn't worked and it's just it would have actually been better off renting leaving their money and say shares and just getting shares compounding growth over the last five years versus just falling to sort of society's pressure just to get an asset and then it never actually working for them so just hopefully that helps and that's right the whole point of this podcast is as you mentioned Chris it's about giving you all the information that you need so you can make them more strategic decisions feeling that confident about it as well and making them decisions so I just wanted to touch on before we wrap up today just at the importance of the land that you're buying so for example if you've found a rare piece of land or a big block in a suburb that can't be built into you've got the right suburb the right street and the land positioning's got that north facing backyard but the building might need a little bit of work that's still a great option to consider because as we mentioned the value is in the land of what you are purchasing would do a gray Chris yeah absolutely I think that the land goes up buildings go down that's a it's a common one it's not to say if you just write any piece of land every piece of land goes at different rates but it's a great philosophy just to firstly understand what goes up what goes down exactly right so we want to start by we don't want you to start by falling in love with the house we want you to start understanding where the strongest opportunities are based on that real scarcity demand and long term appeal for your situation now if you get this foundation right you give yourself the best chance of buying something that not only works for your lifestyle today but it sets you up financially for years to come and then we want you to look from the outside in so what we talked about through this episode looking in at the suburb the street and then the property itself and assess the livability at all these levels they're so important for what you're buying and living in now but also if you decide to sell in the future so everything we've talked about today we've put it all in a simple checklist for you so head to firsthomeunlocked.com.au or click the link in the show notes to download our free asset quality checklist thank you so much for joining us on first home unlocked next week we're covering the next major step in the buying journey which is how to make it confident offer and what to include when the time comes thanks for your time today Chris I'll speak to you soon thanks Jack as a good one thank you so much for listening we'd really appreciate if you could do us a huge favor share this episode with any first home buyers that you know so we can help more people like you feel clear, calm and confident when purchasing their first property you can join our Facebook group first home unlocked to continue the conversation with other first home buyers or if you're ready to unlock your first home you can book a get to know you chat by using the link in the show notes or by going to firsthomeunlocked.com.au. Before we go just a reminder that everything we share on this podcast is general in nature and not tailored to your personal situation we always recommend seeking advice from a qualified and experienced professional when making financial decisions.