She's On The Money - The Smart Home Buyer’s Guide to Finding “The One”

Episode Date: September 2, 2025

House hunting in 2025 feels... chaotic. That’s why this week’s Deep Dive is your playbook for finding "The One". Because the perfect property? It doesn’t exist. But the right one for you absolutely does... and we’re here to help you spot it before someone else puts their deposit down. Buying a house is stressful enough. Let’s at least make sure you’ve got the hacks and the confidence to chose your forever home. Inside the episode you’ll get:🏠The 80% rule that stops you chasing unicorn houses and starts you focusing on the gems🏠How to suss when an agent’s price guide is a fairy tale 🏠The sneaky Chrome hack that shows the real range🏠 How to get yourself on the VIP list for off-market properties🏠 Why you should be taking golf balls with you to inspections FREEBIE: First Home Inspection Checklist  Join our Facebook Group AKA the ultimate support network for money advice and inspiration. Ask questions, share tips, and celebrate your wins with a like-minded crew of 300,000+.And follow us on Instagram for Q&As, bite-sized tips, daily money inspo... and relatable money memes that just get you.Acknowledgement of Country By Nartarsha Bamblett aka Queen Acknowledgements. The advice shared on She's On The Money is general in nature and does not consider your individual circumstances. She's On The Money exists purely for educational purposes and should not be relied upon to make an investment or financial decision. If you do choose to buy a financial product, read the PDS, TMD and obtain appropriate financial advice tailored towards your needs. Victoria Devine and She's On The Money are authorised representatives of Money Sherpa PTY LTD ABN - 321649 27708, AFSL - 451289.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

My name is Natasha Bamblett, I'm a proud First Nations woman, and I'm here to acknowledge country. Tii, gilinyan ganya, nianakaka yao yinbina waka, nianakai nianbina yakarumja, duminyagumiga dumiga ithawaka nirawamundamun imalan. Mumu bangada boma ininyalan waka, gaunan yakarumja, wutunadanar. Hello beautiful friends. We gather on the lands of the Aboriginal people. we thank acknowledge and respect the aboriginal people's land that we're gathering on today take pleasure in all the land and respect all that you see she's on the money podcast acknowledges culture country community and connections bringing you the tools

knowledge and resources for you to thrive she's on the money she's on the money Hello and welcome to She's Done The Money, the podcast that helps you turn big money goals into everyday realities. And one of the biggest money dreams so many of us in the community have? It's buying a home. And in 2025, it's exciting, it's emotional and let's be honest, it's basically like going to a warehouse sale. Everyone is fighting over the last dress and you're just trying to figure out if it actually fits and you actually want it. So today we are giving you all the tips and all the tricks and also a lot of red flags to help you search smarter and buy with confidence. I'm Victoria Devine and today with me isn't

our regular Bec, but someone who's right in the thick of it, our very own hopeful first home buyer, Miss Jessica Ricci. Hello. Welcome to the show. Thank you for having me back. Honestly, it just made sense because everybody always wants to know what's Jess doing, how's it working, has she bought her first home? And guys, why are you asking?

Do you really think that if Jess bought her first home, I wouldn't make six billion Instagram posts about it? You'll know, don't worry. You would know. So Jess, before we dive into the practical, helpful stuff, the community, they've been demanding an update. Oh, all those things, guys. Thank you so much.

It's so nice that you care. Like it's really comforting. Sadly, the update is there is no update. It is tough out there. I have been kind of sharing a little bit about some things that have happened on my TikTok. And it is really lovely to just talk to other people who have all like are experiencing the same struggle.

Yeah, we spoke on the podcast a few weeks ago on a Friday episode about, I was just saying like how hard it just feels like you're running uphill against cost of living and inflation and rising house prices and dah, dah, dah, dah. And a lot of people messaged me and said, Hey, like, it's not just you. Like I'm feeling exactly the same. And there's something so comforting in knowing that. Yeah. Like I'm not the problem. The world is the problem. So when we have an update, we'll definitely tell you, don't worry. You guys will be the first people to know. Yeah. It's, it's actually crazy. Cause in the background I get to kind of watch what's going on and I get to snoop on the house as you're looking at, it can be so disheartening. Cause

I can see you get your heart set on something. And I'm like, all of a sudden it's going for a hundred thousand dollars more than what they had listed it for. And it just, it just feels icky. It just feels gross. It feels like why bother spending money on a building and pest inspection? It's like flushing a couple of hundred dollars down the drain for someone to say, yeah, Jess, it is a great house. Like there's nothing wrong with it. And then bam, they've, I don't know obviously we can't say oh they've definitely been under quoting but I've said that I was gonna say we we can't prove it because like at the end of the day they've listed it and said oh as a experienced real estate agent like let's say I think this house is going to go for six hundred

thousand dollars and then the beauty of an auction is like it doesn't have to go for the listed price you don't go oh okay if it's listed for six hundred grand I'll give you that and then wham bam, thank you, ma'am. Like it becomes a bidding war, but like they know, they know that the competition is there and they know that it's going to be driven up. Anyway, it just makes me quite frustrated, Miss Jessica Ricci. I completely agree. And I think we're going to talk about that a little bit later too. Totally. And I feel like lots of our community are listening to this going, oh my goodness, like that's my experience as well. So let's zoom out for a hot second because house hunting in 2025 is fraught with, I don't know, things that we're all tripping over

and we're all feeling sick about. And it's honestly, Jess, it's not just you. It's, I would say objectively chaotic. And let me give you, I guess, a little bit of a zoomed out update as to what's been going on because I embarrassed myself on social media the other day. Did you see that? Where I was like, I think that the interest rate is going to drop by 0.25. It's fine. CBA is saying the same thing. Like I think like 80% of economists were like, yep, it's going to drop. Should I have listened to them. Clearly not because the interest rate cut didn't happen when I thought it was going to happen. But the RBA's interest rate cuts happened in February. And then again in May, it's actually made money cheaper. So like that's the beauty. If you have a savings account,

not a money win because you're losing your interest rate there. But at the same time, on the flip side, if you're a first home buyer, it like opens up your borrowing capacity a little bit more because you're paying less for the money to borrow. You can borrow more of it, Jess, which that sounds good right in theory what that does is that boosts buyer confidence so like it gives people like you a little bit more of a pep in your step so that you go okay I've got a little bit extra to play with like I've got another twenty thousand dollars that I was able to put on top of my like borrowing capacity I can get something else and what that does unfortunately is pushes prices higher because you and every other first home buyer are in exactly the same

situation. The medium property price for our combined Australian capital cities now sits at, get this, $918,408. I'd believe it. It's crazy. It actually makes me so frustrated because this means that a $900,000 plus house, technically, and I'm not saying this is true, but technically it's not a luxury anymore. It's not. Home in the suburbs, you know, I'm looking well outside of the city and a lot of the, like very stock standard, like not done up, no big crazy upgrades, maybe a 400 square block are going for eight to 900,000. And that's like the new benchmark. Yeah. And I think that's terrifying because I don't know, maybe I am a little bit romantic about my childhood or my upbringing but do you remember like driving past houses and your parents being

like that would be a million dollar home and it honestly looked like a mansion you'd be like oh my god like that's so big like the big gates at the front sorry that's like now just just a urban home yeah it makes me so uncomfortable and honestly because of population growth and because it's now becoming even more I want to say accessible but people are going to go victory it's not accessible, but it actually is. There are more people in the market with more borrowing capacity, which means that there are fewer homes on the market right now. So advertised stock is currently sitting at 16.7% and this is below the five-year average. And in June, 2025, which was literally like 10 days ago as of recording, only 33,000 new listings went live across the entire

country, which was the lowest this time of year since early COVID days. And everyone couldn't be bothered selling their house during COVID because you couldn't do open for inspections. You couldn't do anything. What is that saying about our economy? And that scarcity, and you're probably feeling this, if not many homes are going on the market, scarcity is driving up competition and it's making you consider spending even more on that property because it's basic supply and demand. Yeah, it's really interesting to see. I know that I'm looking at like for my journey,

purchasing in a very specific area. So maybe it's not the best example of what's happening everywhere, but it really does feel like so few homes are coming onto the market. I think that vendor expectations are also really high because they're seeing, oh, well, this house down the street sold for so much because there was a lot of competition or whatever. so they're setting their price ranges higher or they're setting their reserves at auction higher.

It feels like it's got to hit a ceiling, but I don't know when it will. It definitely isn't just in your area. I think it's happening everywhere. In fact, I've shared on social media recently that I'm currently planning to sell my house. And so we've done a little bit of landscaping out the front. We're about to like paint the facade

so that we can get some pretty pictures done. And I was talking to my real estate agent literally yesterday. He gave me a call and was like, hey, I was thinking what we do is bring the auction up. And the reason we're bringing the auction up is because there's not that many other properties that are going to be on the market during that period of time, which from all intents and purposes means that me as a seller, it's actually better for me. He's like, oh, are you sure? To be quite clear, we haven't moved

the auction up because it just doesn't work for me in terms of timeframes. But there's also that strategy going on in the background, like me as a seller, I want to make sure that the home that I purchased became a good investment when I sold it. So like if my real estate agent is saying, Hey Victoria, like it would make sense to auction it here. Like I didn't realize how much, and we can do a whole podcast on this later from like the vendor perspective, but I didn't realize how much strategy goes in to selling a house. Like I said to our real estate agent, Oh, well, you know, in terms of timeframes, it would actually be really good for like us personally. We've got some life things going on. End of September would be great. And he was like, oh no, you can't do end

of September. All of the private schools are on holiday. All of the people that you probably want to be looking at your house and considering your house and have a little bit more borrowing capacity, they're on holidays. Yeah. And September school holidays, that's when I would say most of my friends used to go away. So that made sense in my head. Yeah. Anyway, it can be really, really frustrating. So now that I guess we know a little bit about what we're up against, and I've mentioned strategy, let's not talk about vendor strategy, but let's talk about your strategy, Jess, because scrolling realestate.com.au, I feel like it's like going on Pinterest and sadly it's not going to cut it. Like you, you can't just do that and say that

you've been doing your research. So I thought that you and I would sit down because you're really good at this. You might not have secured your first home, but you're really good at this. But we're going to give you our tips for searching smarter, spotting red flags and finding the hidden stuff that lots of buyers miss. Jess, I need you to be really honest. I'm not going to look at your phone in your screen time, but do you spend a lot of time on real estate websites? I check them every day. I check realestate.com.au and domain every day. And what would you say are your top tips when you're opening up that app? Definitely don't over-filter. I feel like a lot of buyers really over-filter when they're on those websites. And it means that properties are falling outside

of your catchment and you could miss them. When I search, I actually don't put any filters on. I don't even, I'll search the suburb and then... Because Jess knows what's going on for the entire suburb at this point in time. Yeah, I'll search the suburb. I won't put bedrooms or bathrooms because often real estate agents mislabel too. It's really common for them to put, oh, there's three bedrooms, but that's actually four or the block size is this, but it's actually that. So I often actually won't put any filters on at all. I'll just search the suburb. I won't even differentiate because I'm looking at buying and also considering building. I won't even differentiate between like what property type. I'll just search the suburb and then I'll zoom in on the map. So

if you're on an app for real estate or domain, you can adjust the map section that you're looking at. You can zoom in and out and it will show you all the properties. That's what I do to creep on my neighbors. Yeah, exactly. It's perfect. And I think by doing that, you can then you click on the dot and it'll show you the preview. And from there you can go, okay, well that house looks big enough or that house doesn't look big enough. But by doing that, you're making sure that you're not letting things fall through the cracks because of filters. I also check both platforms because agents don't have to list across both platforms. Sometimes the data doesn't flow across to one properly. And it actually costs some money. It does. So like it costs a real estate money to

list on realestate.com.au. And sometimes they'll only list on that because they don't want to also pay the domain fee, which makes sense. But as a buyer, you need to know that because you might think that our real estate domain, they're in competition, like they'll both have the same stuff. They do not. Correct. So I always check both platforms. I would really recommend doing that I also you know up for debate whether or not this is for you depends how crazy you are I check Facebook marketplace we are also crazy we are also like we are delulu and we just want our first home and we don't want to be taken advantage of genuinely check Facebook marketplace check your local if there's like a Facebook page for your area or your state or you know where you

want to be buying because sometimes vendors will try and avoid the marketing fees that do come with taking beautiful photos and listing on those websites and you know sometimes agents will say I have a list of buyers that I can take this to. And in the background, they also want to get some extra eyeballs on it. So they might throw it up on a Facebook or a community group. You can search by suburb, you can add house or whatever. You can do the same thing where you kind of look at a map area. I've actually seen quite a lot of properties pop up on there. Like it might be a vendor wants to sell direct. They don't even want to go through an agent, which is like a whole other thing, but it's worth looking, I think, especially in this market where it's so hard.

I'm always looking. And even when I wasn't like in the market for buying, like I run a mortgage broking business, I'm always looking at properties. The thing I like about that map area is on the first go, you're like, oh my goodness, this can be quite overwhelming. But as time goes on, the ones that you've already clicked at gray and the new ones are red. So you kind of go, oh, look in the exact area that I want, there are three new property and you just click on the new ones. And it can be really, I don't know, it can be really helpful being like, okay, I have seen all of those. And then you can kind of like save your favorites or whatnot. I feel like this has been a big conversation, not just for you and I, but for my team and our

current like clients. But as far as price expectations go, how far off are the listings from what you're actually seeing themselves for? Because like I could do a deep dive into the data and tell you. Yeah. But like, what are you actually seeing on the ground? So I know that we always, like you and I have had a conversation about like always expect at least 10% over. I think that's pretty standard for auction. More and more, I am seeing agents under quoting, particularly with auction listings and the way that you can check this. I believe we have an episode of the property playbook that you can go back and listen to on this topic, but you should be looking at sold listings, finding comparable properties. Theoretically that is a real estate agent's job

in Victoria specifically and this does vary very vastly state to state but in Victoria specifically where obviously I'm looking to buy they are required legally or to provide three comparable sold properties on the SOI the statement of information the only reason they would not do that is if they can't find three comparable properties which in this economy I think is quite rare but a lot of them are really sketchy with the way that they do that and they use it to justify a price which you know as someone who has also worked in real estate I've seen it happen firsthand and I think that it's really frustrating because the reason they do that is they want to get as much interest as possible and they know that they can do that by making it more

affordable if it's going to auction the idea is that you can then get multiple buyers that are emotionally invested in buying this house who then bid competitively drive the price up and ultimately you know create a better result for the vendor yeah so I feel like there's a lot of underquoting going on and people have, you know, when I've spoken about it, people have replied to me and said, I'm seeing the same thing. Report it. There is a reporting process. You can do it through consumer affairs. And you absolutely should. Yeah. It relies a lot on self-regulation. So like we want it to stop. Let's stop them. Yeah. And you touched on something that I preach on a daily basis and that's going through the sold tab. And obviously we're not going through

the sold tab and being like, I wish I could have had that one, but it's sold. I do do that. Yeah, same, same. But we're going to go through the sold tab and in a perfect world, I want you to go through that sold tab and pick out 10, yes, 10 properties that you would have purchased or that you think are really nice. And the reason we're going to do that is one, we're setting a clear price expectation because it's going to say this property sold for $700,000 and that might be your budget. We're going to look at what it was listed for. It might've been listed for 610, but it went for 700. What we're also going to do is through that process, understand a bit more about us. You might go, oh, that's really nice. And I go, hold on Jess,

didn't you say that you wanted a three bedroom house? And you go, oh yeah, but this is two bedrooms and a study. And like that study nook actually does what I need it to do. So I don't, I don't need three bedrooms. And I go, oh, okay. So that could be a valid compromise you're willing to make in the future. Or you might go, oh, I love this house, Victoria. I was going to put it on my list. Had no outdoor entertaining space, like no backyard at all. And that's a hard no-go for me. I want a dog. Like the whole reason I'm purchasing property is that I can get my own dog. That's the most beautiful home I've ever seen, but it doesn't have a garden. So I think that's going to give you not only a reality check when it comes to pricing, but also give you a good idea on what you're

willing to compromise on. Cause if I sat you down in isolation and I said, Mr. Scorici, what are you willing to compromise on? You'd be like, well, I mean, I want three bedrooms and I'll be like, any compromises? You'd be like, no, that's what I said. And it's so hard to work out what you'd compromise on unless you're able to be shown a few compromises that you'd be like, oh, hold on. Yeah, maybe. Yeah, that'd actually be fine. So for me, that's really helpful. You also before, I feel like I'm like, oh my God, you said this and this and this, and I'm trying to keep up. You also said before in Victoria, they have to tell you the price. Money win for us, because to me that contributes to more clarity, but that's not Australia wide. So if you're in

a different state, I actually have a really sneaky hack for you when it says for sale, but then it has no price listing. So what the agent had to do to get that property online is they still had to enter a price range in the back end so that it shows up in search results. So you know how you like filter on realestate.com.au and you go, maximum $800,000 or whatever. And then properties show up, but they don't have a pricing. The reason they do is because the back end is coded.

So we are going to hack the system. So I'm going to put this obviously probably in the show notes or on our website or on our Instagram or somewhere that you can find them. What you're going to do is open the property listing and you have to be on Google Chrome can't be on your phone. You have to be on Google Chrome. You're going to right click anywhere on the listing and you're going to feel like a hacker because you're going to click view page source.

And on the right side is going to pop up like a whole heap of code. Don't stress. I'll teach you how to be the hacker, right? Control F or command F on a Mac. You're going to like control F is find. So then you don't have to like scroll through the code and look for this. You're going to type in, and this is why it's going to go in the show notes, marketing underscore price underscore range, right? You're going to hit enter. And just like that, you're going to see in the code that, that code that I just showed you. So the marketing price range and right beside it will be the price range that that real estate agent picked. So it might be like 1.5 M underscore underscore 2M because they've picked that bracket. Or it might be like 500 underscore 600. Bam. You

have an idea of what that real estate agent categorized that property as, even if they didn't put it on the listing. We found it in the backend and they're not going to like that I shared that, but sorry, it was on the internet and that was free information. And then that's basically, that's just research. Sorry. It's giving super spy. Yeah. And obviously that means that you can look at a property and go, oh, actually I thought that was going to be 700 grand. I can't believe it's like listed for 850 to 900. I'm not going to waste my time on that property. Or it's really good for prepping your offer. Like if they're like, oh, put in your best and fairest or whatever it is, you can go, okay, well I know on the back end that this real estate

agent put this particular bracket. It gives you a little bit of bargaining room, which is really good. Jess, you talked about before as well, Facebook marketplace. I feel like to me, obviously it's fine. But at the start of this journey, had you been like, yeah, I found it on Facebook marketplace. I'd be like, baby, is that a scam? Like, not sure. It's legit. Lots of people are now turning to Facebook marketplace, but online searches are not the only ways that you're able to find property. Jess, how are you finding property that maybe isn't listed online? Looking off market is such a big thing because as I said, there might be people who are trying to save marketing dollars. There's often people who have said, oh, like we're thinking about

moving, but we're not sure if the house would have sold and sure. So they might've listed with an agent, but they haven't committed fully. So the property's off market. Around 20% of homes actually never make it to realestate.com.au. They're snapped up off market and passed around between agents and buyers behind the scenes. That's how I got my first home. It is, yeah. And it's great as a buyer because it means that you're avoiding the competition, right? Like you're not going to the auction with 10 other invested people. It's just you putting your best offer forward, hopefully, you know, getting yourself a hot deal or making it work. So if your strategy starts and ends with a real estate website, you're missing out on

theoretically one in five opportunities. And often the off-market properties go for less because the owner might be wanting to sell quickly, or like I said, there's just less competition. And that's what happened in my situation. So I'm sure I've spoken about this comprehensively on the podcast and I'm sure we're going to talk about it again because I'm about to sell this property. Yeah. But when I purchased my property, it was September 2020. So we were kind of like in a lull of COVID. Like, you know how we came out of one big lockdown and we're about to go into another one, but we didn't know. Yeah. So we were looking for our first home and a real estate agent had this off-market property, coincidentally, because the owners, they were

Chinese and they had actually moved back to China. So they were out of the country and they had basically said to this real estate agent, we actually don't care, just get rid of the property. It was kind of like the perfect storm. They moved because of COVID. They were like not very happy, apparently, with the way that the Australian government was dealing with COVID and the lockdowns. They weren't happy with that. Fine. I totally get that. So they, the second the lockdown ended, they moved. Yeah. So this house was not, I would say not photo ready. Yeah. It was not staged or anything like that. It wasn't staged. There was some old furniture left that they had just left because they clearly didn't want to take it with them, but someone had to do something

with it. And like, she was not ready for sale. Like there was a lot of things that I personally would have done to that house just to like increase how much I sold it for. But they'd said to their real estate agent who had helped them buy the house in the first place, just get rid of it. I don't care. And for her, that made her job a little bit hard because she doesn't have the beautiful photos to put online. She's not gaining a heap of interest, but she did have connections. So she just came directly and said, I've got a property. I don't want to have to style it. I don't want to have to get it organized. The owners, they live overseas now and they just want this property gone. So if you offered X, we'd take it. Cool. I'll offer X, I suppose. And the

reason we did that, and do you know what? It was a really stressful process. Happened within 24 hours. Crazy. And the reason we got it was because she didn't want to have to go through that staging process. But if she didn't find someone off market, she was just going to hire some people, get it all done. Obviously charge the owner and get it online. But she was like, if you want it before it goes online, this amount would be fine. Yeah. Money win. Do yourself a hot deal. Honestly, it was really good. Thanks for moving back to your country. Like, see you. That worked for me. And I think that your stat about, you know, you're basically missing one in five opportunities. That's where you need to kind of like rub shoulders with the real estate agents and make

it very clear that you are a first home buyer. You've got your pre-approval, you're all ready to go and this is what you're looking for. There was actually a stat that came out. So a recent prop track analysis showed that nationally on averages, houses sell for 4.3% less money when they are sold off market. So in Sydney, that can be like a saving of 60 grand less and in Melbourne up to like $30,000 less. Say less, sign me up for that please. I know. And like that was just from like rubbing shoulders with the right real estate agent and she knew so she'd been prepped hey I've got this local buyer in your area because she only sold property in the suburbs that I was looking I've got this buyer they want a ex-bedroom house they want this and that that's why she came forward

and said hold on hold on I think I've got a property you might be interested in put yourself in that position yeah because not only are you saving money I can't think of anything worse than an auction, Jessica. It gives me such bad anxiety. So I want to know when it comes to, you know, rubbing shoulders with real estate agents, putting yourself in the best possible position, what is your strategy for gaining access to off-market properties? Cause I know you haven't hired a buyer's agent. No. So you've got to, you've got to talk to the agents when you go to open for inspections, make yourself known. There are a number of agents that have, you know, called or text me to be like, Oh, we've had this property. Does it fit your needs? Da da da da da.

let them know. That's so nice of them too. I know and it makes their job easier right if they can sell something quickly at a good price they definitely want to do that so even if it's not an off-market property they'll also often keep you in the loop with new things that are coming on the market so that you can get the first look maybe beat the rush. I try and be really specific when I speak to them with you know you don't want to give away necessarily your whole budget but I'll often say you know this is the range that I'm looking within I'll usually reserve a little bit off the top of that, knowing that they always try and push you up, you know, so I'll be a little bit conservative, but give them a rough range and a rough idea of my non-negotiables, number of

bedrooms, number of bathrooms, block size. Even if a house isn't the one, I'll often still go to the inspection because it's a chance to chat to the agent, see what they've been up to, build a bit of rapport. They are human beings, even though sometimes they seem like they're not. So it's nice to have a good relationship with them, keep in touch with them. If it's been a while since you've seen someone, I'll often flick out an email saying, Hey, like we met at XYZ property. Just wanted to let you know, I'm still in the market for my first home. This was my list, refresh them. Just wanted to put myself on your radar in case anything comes up. I'd love to hear about it. It's kind of like managing like a relationship almost. It's anything you can do

to keep yourself top of mind for them, to make them like you, you've got to play the game a little bit. You're becoming a business development manager. Pretty much. But for property. So you're like hustling up these relationships and just touching base. And I feel like some people feel a little bit intimidated. They're like, oh, well, I only met that real estate. And I've heard this before. I've only met the real estate agent once at an open. They won't remember me. It'd be so weird to email them. So, so remind them, like send them a cute email because honestly on the flip side, let's pretend I'm a real estate agent. You're sending me a clean email saying, hey, here's my budget I've actually got all the cash and the finance ready to go if a three-bedroom

house comes up could I please have it or if a two-bedroom apartment or whatever you're looking for comes up I'd love it yeah they actually want to turn over properties quickly like real estate agents they don't want it to be on realestate.com for a month like because they have to do open for inspections they have to go back and forth with that house they're talking to the owner about hey so we're going to do another open inspection on Thursday can you make sure you've got your pets out? Can you make sure that it's clean and ready to go? They don't want that. If they've got a Jessica, they're like, okay, so we won't even have to do open for inspections if it meets her criteria. Yeah. Sorry. They get their commission. Wham, bam. Thank you, ma'am. They can move on to

the next property and make even more money. So like you're making their job easier. Stop thinking not you, but lots of people seem to think that they're a burden. Anyway, I feel like I'm headed towards rant territory. So we're going to take a very quick break, Jess, but stick around because when we come back, I'm going to share the rule that'll hopefully save you from waiting forever for a perfect house that honestly doesn't exist. So don't go anywhere. All right, we are back and let's get into our next tip. So tip number four that I've written down is the tip that I promised would hopefully get you into your first home when we're looking for a perfect home. And this is something that I'm coming for the perfectionists here. I'm actually

coming for Miss Jessica Ricci two years ago when we really started aggressively looking for property for you, right? And it's going to hurt some Miss Jessica Ricci perfectionists, right? Unfortunately, no house is ever going to tick 100% of your boxes. What we're going to do is aim for 80%. 80%. So I tell our mortgage broking clients this all the time. It's really hard. And at the very start, it can be a hard pill to swallow, but I promise it is a very good rule. If your property or the property hits 80% of your needs and the other 20% are like livable or fixable, I'd say it's a strong contender and we do want to go to that auction. So every extra month waiting for your quote perfect home it could mean that the market climbs another four thousand dollars

I've seen it it's true yeah and like I remember when you were first looking and it was definitely perfectionist territory like you were like nope I'm not even going to consider that because it doesn't have x or y or z I can almost guarantee if I said do you want to go back there to those prices and you jump like you jump back there but it can be and like it sounds bad if I'm like oh you do need to compromise, but we actually do when it comes to property. Like, unfortunately, someone else isn't thinking about your terms and your conditions when they're building their property. Um, and you're never going to find the property that meets 100% of your criteria. And if you do, I guarantee it's meeting other people's criteria. And that property is kind of like a

little bit of a unicorn and probably will go way over what you'd even anticipated, way over that 10%. So I would get back on realestate.com and look at the sold area so that we can get very clear on what we are actually considering non-negotiables. And then also the, oh, it would be nice to have. Cause like so many of us, and I know you're in this situation, you want a garden, like you want outside area. It'd be so nice to have like a big lawn, but also Jess, if you saw a property that was like just a really nice outdoor entertainment area, I think you'd be like, oh yeah, that's fine. I don't need the big grassy area. But other people might be like me, sorry, I need grass and I need grass because I have a dog. So for me, that's a non-negotiable

and you need to work out the difference between the two of those. Jess, talk me through it. What are your non-negotiables versus the nice to haves? Yeah. The non-negotiables for me are the things that are hard or impossible to change. So block size is a big one. 350 is my minimum square block, which is actually quite small but you'd be surprised. I have a 350 square block. Yeah I've lived on smaller and it just felt really really small and knowing that I'm hoping to live in this house for the next five to ten years and I think that a 350 block will grow with what I hope to grow. Bedrooms I'm looking for a minimum of three because I run a business from home. Yeah you need the space. Yeah my partner also wants to have his own space which I think is very valid. Obviously

we then share a bedroom. So three is a minimum. Four would be lovely to have, but that's something I'm flexible on. And that's actually quite reasonable in your area. Like that's like, if we looked at my area. Okay. So do you have $2 million, Jessica? Yeah. I'm looking in suburbs, like much out of suburbs. So it is like a, it is pretty common. Most houses are three to four bedroom. Two bathroom and a two car garage is also something that's important to me again, from a resale perspective, as well as just from a lifestyle perspective and then the last thing you need somewhere to put all your containers of Christmas decorations our two-car garage is almost full yeah I was gonna say it's not because Jess is

like yeah so I really like parking my car indoors at night time I know that that's not the truth miss Jessica it's a storage thing yeah like I need somewhere to put all of those tubs genuinely and then the last non-negotiable for me is ceiling hikes obviously to raise the height of a ceiling would be super expensive we also so many places it's not even an option yeah and because I am looking at a smaller block in there for a smaller house I like that higher ceilings make it feel bigger and also let in more light which is something that's important for me with like what I do for work yeah yeah and I love that what's something that would be like nice to have then like what's something that you're like oh so nice but also if it doesn't have it like I just

don't care I think like pretty much just the style of the interior like I'm very open to buying something that's she's a little bit I'll go now but down the track I can renovate it yeah um you know. I'm going to call my friends at Caboodle. Don't you worry. Don't you worry. Yeah. I'll be like, guys, like there's a kitchen, there's a bathroom, whatever, a coat of paint, a change of floors. I can live in something that's ugly for a little while, while I save the money to update it down the track. And you can do so much, I think, cosmetically at a really reasonable price point. So I'm not too fussy, honestly, with what it looks like on the inside. Let's talk a hot minute about, I've written down tip number five and it's not skipping inspections. And you spoke

about this before, like, you know, if the property is not meeting the criteria, still go meet with the real estate agent and like kind of show face. I would say this is one of the best things that you can do early on as well. Not just for showing face and building that relationship, but even before you're ready to buy, it's go to some open homes because it can be so intimidating. Like if your first open home is what you have built up in your head and we've all done this to be your dream home, going into that, you're anxious. You feel sick. You're so worried about what the real estate agent is thinking. You're not thinking clearly about your checklist of what we're actually looking for in an open home because an open home, I'm sorry, it's not to walk through

and go, oh, that's styled so well. Like, oh, look, that double bed is, I love that Duna cover. Like that's not why we're walking through the house and we can get really distracted, but going to open homes before you have found quote the one or one that you're even interested in bidding on or putting in an offer for it's going to help you build some confidence it's going to help you learn what things cost and you go oh what's the difference between 650 and 700 like go see it touch it see it like talk to people about it because sometimes online you go it's the same why would it be and then you get there and you're like oh this street is really nice like it's like a very close cul-de-sac instead of like a main road or something you go okay I can see why this

might be a little bit more expensive even if the floor plans are identical yeah so what we're able to do is spot what you like or you don't like in real life versus in photos as well how many times Jess have you been to an open for inspection and you've seen the photos online and you're like oh that room's massive that would be perfect and then you walk in and you're like this cannot be the same property. Real estate photographers work magic. They, you know, they are working for their money. They really are. They are like, they are always, so you know how when we try to take a selfie together, Jess, we always do 0.5 so that we get everything in. They are the kings and queens of 0.5 photography to make sure that the room looks as big as possible. Cause like, sorry,

if they put a photo of the room looking teeny tiny and it only fits a single, are you going to go to that inspection. A little bit of color grading, maybe a little bit of AI furniture. They're doing the most. I saw the other day on Facebook, I actually will find it and send it to you where a real estate agent had AI put in a tree in the front garden. And it's honestly a beautiful tree. It was like really big. And it was kind of this like Californian bungalow style property in my area. And they'd put this bigger tree. And it turns out that's such an attractive feature in our area is to have really large established trees yeah and it actually added like fifty thousand dollars to like sale price of the property but when people were turning up they're

like where's the tree where's the tree like there's actually no street coverage like it's really barren yeah and like the photo made it anyway it was I thought quite funny because I was like sir you really tried your hardest and it looks beautiful but you've shot yourself in the foot because that's like the first thing people are asking when they're turning up because like, sorry, there was this big established oak tree in the front yard. But what you're going to do if you start going to open for inspections early, Jess, is you're going to start to notice patterns, which homes you go, look, this is clearly being under quoted, which agents are maybe doing that, like which agents are talking a lot of talk and maybe are overhyping properties.

And then it's going to give you a really good idea of what is normal in a certain price range. Jess I don't mean to throw you under a bus but how many house inspections do you think you've been to? God over the years I reckon I'd be pushing like 70 to 80. Oh I feel like I'm getting close to 100. Talk to me when you go first things first is it just you? I will usually go to the first one by myself and then if I'm going if I like it enough to go back a second time I'll take my partner. And how many other people are turning up? They're so the market right now it's so busy like there's always other parties there. I would say usually five or six groups a lot of the time and different groups every time too. And I find that so intimidating because if you see another

couple, you're like, have you got the same budget as us? Or like, what are you looking at? Why are you saying that that kitchen's nice? Genuinely, like you're my competition. I'm looking you in the eyes. It's so weird, isn't it? And Steve and I went to an open for inspection the other day because like, as I said, we're selling our property, but we're hopeful to purchase in the same area at some point in the future you know what intimidated me is like we turn up and like we had Harvey with us and so we're running like five minutes late which was fine because it was in half like half an hour slot and get there and obviously everyone had turned up at the right like on time it was the amount of shoes at the front of the property because like when you go through

a house by the way take off your shoes you don't walk through an open home with your shoes on I was just I looked at Steve and was like are we sure we want to go in there because that looks like there's like 30 people in there yeah like it was just like this shoe graveyard at their front door so what are we gonna look out for at open homes like I feel like there are lots of things that we should look out for that are making us like the house more Jess yeah definitely there's a little little tricks the agents use when they're trying to sell so keep an eye out for things like candles and music they'll try and set the mood the ambience work it works for me yeah the scent of cookies baking. It's like a, it's a scientific thing. It triggers you to feel like more at home,

more comfortable to like the house more. I'm going to try it. I'm going to go get one of those rolls of pre-made cookies. I'm going to make it before a house inspection and see if people are more interested. It honestly will make a difference. That's exactly right. The lights as well. Lighting is such a big thing. You'll notice when you go, they turn on every light in every room, every lamp, every lamp, every source they can. So flick a few off. What does it look like when the lights are a little dimmer. Checking the compass on your phone is also a good one and maybe bringing a tape measure.

A compass? Well, you know, if- Girl, you are turning up prepared. What are you, a scout? I know, if I get lost, I'm leading you home. But knowing what orientation the block is on will let you know how much light you're going to get. Okay, yeah, so that I don't have to say

to the real estate agent, is this north facing? Yeah, you might find that things are listed as north facing, but actually they're- Northeast? Correct, which is not the worst thing, but it's also handy to know what those patterns are going to look like. If you can come back on a rainy day or at a different time of day, I'll usually try to do like a daytime and an evening inspection.

So you can see what the light's like, what the ambience in the street is like, you know, are there people hooning up and down the road at nighttime? The neighbors have, I went to an open room inspection a while ago and this is when we're looking for our first home. And I said to Steve, I'm so sorry. We haven't even gone into the house yet, but we're not moving here. that neighbor has three upside down Coles trolleys in their front garden and to me

that's just giving chaotic neighbor yeah I don't know if we want to live in this area no totally and going back at different times of day you'll see things that maybe you didn't see the first time yeah the golf ball trick is a really popular one pop sorry what take a little golf or any kind of ball you'd have a golf ball I have so many golf balls absolutely popping it down on a floor in different rooms. If it rolls, it's on a slant. So you're doing your own building and pest inspection. Just a little pre-test. Okay. I like it. Chatting to the neighbors as well. I feel like when there's opens, neighbors often are around. I didn't want to talk to the neighbors that had the trolleys. Oh no, actually that's very fair. But that makes sense because like I'm a sticky

beak. Exactly. They'll often want to see what's going on. Neighbors on an auction day are often around just saying oh do you like the area have you lived there long people want nice people to move in next door to them so they're often pretty happy to tell you what's going on and what they think yeah if they like your vibe and then lastly I would say use local Facebook groups to check you know what the area is like are there people complaining a lot putting up camera footage oh that's smart like if you're moving the streets doing xyz like the area that you live in has like lots of different housing estates and I believe that then you've mentioned this on the show before you're in like one of your house or were back when you're in your old house in one of the

housing estate Facebook groups. Yes. Join it before you buy there. Have a little suss. Everyone's complaining about the kids on the bikes knocking over the letterboxes with cricket bats. Genuinely I feel like take it with a grain of salt because people love to complain in those groups but it gives you a really good sense of what's happening. Are there community events? Are there you know people saying hey like free to a good home? It'll give you an idea of what the vibe is in the area. That's quite smart, especially if it's not an area that you already live. Like for me, that's not going to help just because I have lived in the area for the last nearly 10 years, which is crazy. And that's why I know I want to stay. But if you're moving suburbs,

it can be so overwhelming if you're like, oh, we're thinking about moving suburbs and like we drive through this area and it looks nice enough, but like that's not going to give you a proper vibe check. So that's quite smart, especially if you're moving states or something as well. I would say the other thing is you can contact the council for free. So like you can contact, sorry, just to add that in, but flood overlays and things like that. If there are big buildings going up in the area, you know what? The types of people that work at council, they're nice eggs. Like call them up and be like, hi, my name's Jess. Like, I hope I'm not wasting your time, but I'm the first home buyer in the area. And I just wanted

order to inquire I'm buying on this particular street is there anything I need to know girl if you get old Mary who's worked for the council for the last 30 years she'll tell you she's gonna tell you she's got all the goss she'll be like oh yep so bin nights on Thursday and she's gonna tell you cola she wants to hear from you I mean please don't waste her time but like promise that's a good idea speaking of Facebook there was actually a post really recently in our Facebook group where a community member was asking for advice on what to look out for at inspections and there were so many fantastic comments I feel like if you're not already in there a little shameless plug join the Facebook group the girlies know what's going on and they are sharing it in there and we

were born to yap as well and like I mean we don't endorse real gossip but like when it comes to gossip about buying your first home or what over we need to hear we're here for it and we're all just sharing in the Facebook group. Also, I would say, Jess, you said that you turn up with a compass and a golf ball. So I don't think that this is a tip that I need to give you, but for a lot of other people, they'll be like, Oh, I don't know if I want to do that. That feels a little bit embarrassing. Sorry. This is the biggest financial decision you're ever going to make in your entire life. And you're embarrassed of somebody seeing you put a golf ball on the ground. Absolutely. Sorry, look crazy.

Like look crazy because I can't think of another investment or purchase that you're going to make that is this large. It's a massive commitment and it can be really overwhelming. And if you're really serious about a particular property and you say, oh, it's Thursday at 12 and you're like, damn, I have work and then like Saturday at like 1, you've got netball or something, ask for a private inspection. Call the real estate agent and say, hey,

I'm actually really, really keen on this property. could I please organize a private inspection? Someone like me, I'm sorry, I saw all the shoes at the door. I was thinking about the shoes the whole time I was looking at this particular property. Like I was anxious. I was a little bit overwhelmed. Like there was so many people, but they're busy and they're noisy and they're rushed. And a private inspection is just going to be you, maybe your partner, if you're going to let them come and the real estate agent. And I don't think you should ever purchase a property off just like one inspection. I completely agree. Sorry like even if it's going up for auction like we're asking for private

inspections we are seeing what is possible and then also Jess you and I have written a checklist so not only are you going to take your golf ball and your compass you're actually going to take this checklist you can print it or you can have it on your phone we're going to link it in our show notes it's free you can also just jump on the she's on the money website and download it but it's like everything that we would check in a first home. So it's, you know, if you're buying a house, what type of stumps is the house on Jess? Is it on concrete or is it on wood? If it's on wood, there might be the probability of that house needing to be re-stumped at some point. Like we are dotting all our I's and crossing all our T's and I promise most of these things aren't just

going to be in the listing. There are things that you have to look out for in person at your first home inspection. The other thing that I want to talk about here, Jess, and it's like a pivot because it's not free. So I'll give you the free checklist and you can do absolutely everything. But if you are very serious about purchasing your first home, and I know that you are on the side of caution here because you're like, oh my God, this house is probably going to go over. I don't want to spend a couple of hundred dollars and flush it down the toilet. But before you buy, Jess, what am I going to say? Get a building inspection. Yes. And the reason you need to do that is because you can take your golf ball. You can take your compass. You could take the checklist that

I've made for you and I know will help, but you don't know how to check for damp. You don't know how to check for water damage that's just been painted over. You don't know how to get up into the roof and check whether there's termites in the eaves. Not what I want to quite frankly. No, but you know what we're going to do pay someone to do that because that's going to save you a lot like the difference between getting a building and pest inspection and then finding out that there is water damage in your floor could mean $30,000 on moving in because you have to replace all the floors yeah you want to know I want to know so I know it's boring but please do it building and pest inspections they're honestly going to vary depending on the type and size of

your property like if you're buying a mega mansion on a couple of acres I promise it's going to be a couple of grand. But if you're buying a regular size property, like house and land kind of deal, it's probably going to cost you anywhere between, I'd say $400 to $800. And I'm so sorry, but it is from my perspective worth every cent. I wouldn't be doing it for every house you just go and inspect and you're like, well, I want the building in pest inspection, unless you're really serious about bidding or trying to purchase that house. And Jess, 2024 Australian Housing and Urban Institute research actually found that about 70% of households have reported building quality problems. When I worked in real estate, we were selling a brand new house that had just been

built by a developer and you would think, oh, it's brand new. What's the problem? They did a building in Pest and there was so much wrong with that build. So it doesn't matter how new it is, get it checked. Get it checked because not only people are sneaky, right? So it's not just like, oh, we actually had no idea we had rising damp in the walls. It can actually be things like your house doesn't meet code. Yeah. And then all of a sudden you have to spend $15,000 on having the whole roof re-guttered because it didn't meet code and your gutters weren't up to standard and the council for some reason was doing random checks. Yeah. I have seen that happen and it is heartbreaking. And I don't know, a building and pest inspection, we're not looking for a

lawless property. It's actually about knowing what needs fixing, what's going to be urgent and then like what you can leave with. Bill, who's my building and pest inspector, it's who we use as much as possible through Zella. If you're buying in Victoria, we usually try and use him. He did my building and pest inspection for my first home and he found that one of the showers was leaking into the wall. And that didn't mean it was like a no-go zone for me. I was like, oh, okay, well, what does that mean? And then, you know, having a phone, like a follow-up phone call with Bill, he was like, look, it doesn't matter that much. You've got some damp plaster. They've clearly not like waterproofed it properly. I said, well, you know, do I have to fix it the

second I move in? He's like, oh, like, no, it's going to need fixing. You've got at least 18 months though. Like you're not going to notice it. It's just, he did this like monitor on the wall and realized anyway, that was great for us. We were going to renovate anyway. For me, I was going to be redoing that whole bathroom. So I was like, okay, well, I can live with that for 18 months. It's a non-issue. But for other people that might be like, I'm sorry, I don't actually have in budget a bathroom renovation. So therefore that might be a no-go zone for you. I want you to have that opportunity. I want you to have the ability to know what you're kind of up for. Another thing that we looked into, and I've again, spoken about this on the podcast,

Steve and I were looking at an apartment. We were looking at like this beautiful three bedroom apartment and I was so excited for it. And then we read the minutes of the meeting for their like annual general meeting for like body corporate and found out that the cladding on the front of the building didn't meet fire code. And that meant that every single resident in this building, and it wasn't like a massive like 50 apartment block.

It was like, I think it was like 15 or something. every resident would be up for between 40 and 50 thousand dollars to have the entire building recladded according to body corporate that's a no from me it was a no from us but like if you don't have someone inspecting if you don't have someone who can point these things out we could have purchased this apartment and then six months down the track got a knock on our door or a letter under the door that said hey cool body corporate needs you guys to cough up 40 grand sorry what Yeah. Absolutely not. So I guess every single property is going to be a little bit quirky. There's going to be some things, but it's better to know that you're buying a home with, you know,

a dodgy retaining wall than find out six months later when it collapses and you didn't see it coming. Definitely. And you can negotiate down based on those things too. Exactly. And also, this is cheeky and I've been telling people to do this recently. I think I told you to do this the other day, kind of like a money saving hack. Ask the real estate agent if a building and pest inspection has already been done because often they will tell you maybe who did it and then they'll on sell it to you. So instead of spending $400, they might go, oh, we actually inspected that property recently. The report's $250. Yeah. Oh, what a coincidence that I happen to want to buy that specific report. How do you win? All right, Jess, I'm going to fly through this because

I feel like I could yap about this all day. I've got it written down. Tip six is be ready to move in but don't rush and I know you're not at this stage yet but I also know Miss Jessica Ricci the second you get your house you're going to want to move in immediately right like you're going to want to move in before settlement yeah I'm on to you we're not doing that so the average days for a property to be on market nowadays is 35 days nationally so if you like something unfortunately it's not going to be a really long process like for Jess yes it is because we're finding things we're not getting them. If you find something and you've put in an offer, that is usually going to take less than a month from you seeing the property online to you handing over a deposit,

which can be really intimidating, but that does not mean that we are panic buying. That does not mean that we're jumping up and down. What we want to do is make sure that we know what our finance is doing. So we want to have our pre-approval ready. We want to be in a position where we know what we can spend. And Jess, you've been doing this through Zella Money. So that's obviously my mortgage-breaking business, but we're absolutely looking after you. But it's interesting because once you have your pre-approval, we have one client, so funny, if you're listening, I do love you. I just think it's quite funny, who has had consistent pre-approval for the last three years. That's crazy. Yes. They want it. And we have said, hey, like we've done your pre-approval,

your situation hasn't changed. RIP your credit score. Exactly. So pre-approval is really important if you're going to buy because we can tell you what you can borrow and we can get the bank to basically say, yeah, we would absolutely give Miss Jessica Ricci money. And you've been through the pre-approval process before, but that pre-approval on average, depending on the bank, is only going to last for 90 days. So if you get pre-approval, then you don't buy your first home. Very likely your pre-approval can lapse. And a lot of people are going to run straight back to their broker and say, oh my God, my pre-approval lapsed. Can you please do it again? We can do it again. that's fine. It's free. Like I'm not going to charge you for that. But every time you do your

pre-approval, I am inquiring on your credit score. And every time we inquire on your credit score, it could impact your credit number. And we don't want to do that. So have your pre-approval ready, but being consistent communication with your broker around, okay, cool. Like I am really ready to buy. If there's one that you're like super B, this property has come up on Monday, really want to go to auction on Saturday. I'm not saying every single time we can get it done. Most of the time we can though, but we want to make sure that we're not just keeping our pre-approval in the back in case we want to buy because I don't want it to negatively impact your credit score. Definitely. The next is knowing your brief, having your checklist and checking

it twice, but also knowing your non-negotiables versus your nice to haves. How many times have you seen people go to open for inspections? Cause you're like, Oh, it's in my area. And I think I could spend that. Yeah. No, like we want to be quite clear on what we're purchasing. Again, it is the biggest financial decision you are very likely to make in your entire life. And we're not skipping steps. I'm so sorry. I want to cut to the chase as well, but we're not skipping inspections. We're not skipping our due diligence. We are not skipping our building and pest inspections just because you're tired. Just because you're over it and we're a little bit desperate. We can't skip these things. I'm so sorry. So Jess, any other tips and tricks to

leave us with? No, I think that's been great. Like I said, if you haven't already joined the Facebook group, that's where all the, what's all happening. That's where we're hanging out. That's where we're yapping the most about property. So I guess that's probably a really good place to leave it. Jess, thanks for hanging out on the show with me today. That has been really fun and sharing literally everything that you have learned. I know so many people are listening to this and they're like no Jess I thought you would have purchased your first property so we're like we're all in your corner and we are all so excited for you but also there are so many people listening to this and they're like low-key thank god Jess hasn't bought her first home because like neither

and I'm glad it's not just me no and it's nice to know that we're all in the same boat and if you've got a friend who's house hunting right now you know what I think you should do you should send this episode their way it might save them a lot of heartache and hopefully a few thousand dollars And as always, please don't forget to subscribe, leave us a cheeky little review, and we're going to see you on Friday for another juicy episode. Bye, guys. Bye. The advice shared on She's On The Money is general in nature and does not consider your individual circumstances. She's On The Money exists purely for educational purposes and

should not be relied upon to make an investment or financial decision. If you do choose to buy financial product, read the PDS, TMD and obtain appropriate financial advice tailored towards your needs. Victoria Devine and She's On The Money are authorised representatives of Money Sherpa PTY LTD ABN 321 649 27708 AFSL 451 289.