Home buying advice: Property experts share what they wish they’d known before they first bought a house

From friends to family — there is no shortage of property ‘experts’ offering advice for first-home buyers. So, we asked the professionals what they wish they’d known before they bought their first home.

From their parents to friends and family, there is no shortage of property “experts” offering advice for first-home buyers.

With an unprecedented level of government support this financial year creating 35,000 First Home Guarantee places, the experts are revealing what they wish they had known when they started – and what buyers need to know today.

There is a lot you don’t know about when you’re looking to buy your first home.

THE SALES GURU

John McGrath heads one of Australia’s biggest real estate agencies, McGrath, with about 10 per cent of the firm’s sales to first-home buyers.

“The first property I bought was an inner-city terrace for $96,000,” Mr McGrath said. “It seemed like the earth to me at that stage, but over time it always looks cheap.”

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Being a real estate professional at the time, he received plenty of advice. But the best bit was that you should always buy in the best location you can afford. “You can always change what’s on the site, but you can never change the site,” he said.

Next, he advised letting the sun guide you: “No amount of impressive decor matches the feeling you get from a property that is bathed in sunlight.”

That means going to visit it at other times of day to the open homes, as they are timed to show the home and the location at their best.

When you’re young, you’re also in a position to take “calculated risks”, such as buying in an inner-city ’burb with a commercial or industrial focus that could be a chic spot in the future.

Mr McGrath said in expensive cities it was important young buyers realised houses “will always outpace apartments when it comes to capital gains”.

John McGrath, CEO, McGrath Estate Agents.

If you can afford a house in your area, buy that. If you can’t, look for an apartment you can fix up.

Despite his firm putting extensive research and planning into styling homes, he warned first-home buyers not to “be seduced by presentation”. Instead, focus on the bones of the property: aspect, ceiling heights, sunlight, views, the floorplan and any common areas.

THE EXPLOSIVE INVESTOR

Jane Slack-Smith started giving home buying advice as she was waiting for blasts to go off while working as an explosive engineer.

The job was all about risk assessment, an approach Ms Slack-Smith brought to property after starting a second career as a mortgage broker and then when she established Your Property Success property investment education. Since 2019 she’s been adapting the program for first-home buyers and has co-hosted the First Home Buyers Show podcast.

Her own first home was a $425,000 Carlton terrace house in Melbourne, bought in 2001.

“It was a run-down, beautiful old 1860s terrace house,” she said.

“But it didn’t really have a bathroom … I had to convert one of the bedrooms to a bathroom.”

Her renovation had the home valued at more than $700,000 about a year later.

Jane Slack-Smith created Your Property Investment Success.

There was one thing she wished she had known about before she bought it – a heritage overlay made changing the pink colour of the facade a nightmare.

For buyers trying to enter the market today, Ms Slack-Smith advised thinking of the expenses attached to buying as “opportunity costs”.

Buying her own first home with a 5 per cent deposit, she said lenders mortgage insurance could save you paying more if the market rose as you saved a 20 per cent deposit, while a pest and building inspection could help you negotiate the price down.

For those buying an apartment, getting a strata report should reveal if the owners’ corporation have rejected requests to renovate by others, issues such as basement flooding in extreme weather and upcoming major repairs.

But her main piece of advice was to think strategically and look for a suburb where rising prices in nearby areas hinted values might be about to jump soon. “Your first home won’t be where your grandkids come back to, so it should be about your future wealth,” Ms Slack-Smith said.

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Antony Bucello says he wish he knew not to believe everything the agent tells you.

THE BUYING PRO

National Property Buyers Victorian director and buyer’s agent Antony Bucello has bought about 1000 homes over the years, 150 of them for first-home buyers. But he’s long lamented one part of his first experience in 1996. “What I wish I knew back then is not to believe everything the selling agent tells you,” Mr Bucello said.

It was when he first encountered an agent who wanted to “help” him buy a home, despite another buyer being interested. It wasn’t until Mr Bucello walked away that he realised there was no other buyer.

Despite this, when he did put in an offer for his first home, a $164,000 buy in Templestowe Lower in Melbourne, it was below the $179,000 asking price. The experience taught him the value of doing your own research and due diligence, from legal matters to pest inspections.

And while a new buyer won’t want to hear it, they need to learn to compromise: “the size or condition of the property may have to be reduced to be in the desired area, or vice versa – a bigger property or one in better condition, but not in the preferred location.”

His last bit of advice is another one that might be a hard thing for an excited first-home buyer to do: ditch the emotional attachment.

If you’re already picturing yourself living in a home, it’s much easier to be pressured into paying more than you can afford – or than the home is worth.

It can be exciting to find the right home.

THE ECONOMIST

Eleanor Creagh is a senior economist at PropTrack, REA Group’s data business, who analyses and provides insights on trends in the Aussie housing market.

Ms Creagh said “careful consideration” from repayments to other costs preceded her first purchase in 2013.

But she still wishes she had factored in more time to find the right home – which turned out to be a two-bedroom unit in Marrickville in Sydney’s inner west.

Eleanor Creagh – PropTrack senior economist.

“Looking for the right property takes time,” she said. “It’s an exciting and sometimes stressful process so buyers can understandably get caught up in the moment and want to make a quick purchase … but I wish someone told me to enjoy the process and not to stress if it took longer than I thought it should.”

For those who are a bit unsure, now is the time to be very forthright in seeking answers to questions.

“Ask lots of questions, consider all of your options and make the right decision based on your circumstances,” Ms Creagh said. “And for buyers, there is also often a decision to be made not just in terms of what you can afford, but what you can afford while still being able to maintain the lifestyle you want.”

Beyond this, she said very few buyers would wish they had done less research.

“I found that doing research was one of the most important steps in making my decision, spending time researching the property, the area, current market trends, the costs of home ownership, the maintenance and upkeep, any issues with the property and any unexpected costs,” Ms Creagh concluded.

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