Zak Abdallaoui from McGrath Real Estate gives us his insights and recommendations on what to do in the process of buying property.
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Here’s the transcript of the video:
You mentioned it's a buyers market at the moment. What’s some advice for buyers wanting to come into the market, where do they start? Do they contact you, do they do some research before? - Absolutely. - What's the best starting point? I mean there’s so much information available for people out there right now with the various websites to give property appraisals and what not. So, I think the biggest thing I see is, because the buying cycle, on average. I mean, we've got the Sell Smarter with Data campaign and they just gave us some stats yesterday that the average time frame of buyers looking for a home in this year is eight months now, which is a long time and again, you know, if you got a couple of kids, like, it can become quite an intrusion for the family Riding all those waves of emotion, you know, you see a place you like it and you miss out on it. Then you got to try and find another place, then every other house you look at, you’re comparing back to that one. So I would say that if they did a lot of research into the area that they want to live in, what they actually want in a home, because that's what we see a lot of people do, is that they'll end up buying something that they just never thought they would consider. So if you've got a really clear idea of what you’re looking for and have a list of, you know, ten things and if you can get, you know, 7-8 out of those ten, that’s a pretty good buy. It's very rare that you’ll find 10 out of 10. And yeah, a lot of people that are looking for ten out of ten, they’ll end up building and even after they build they realize,"Oh okay. I should’ve done this different”. I think that's just human nature. But yeah, if you could get 7 out of 10 things on the shopping list, you know, with price range you’re comfortable paying, you know, you’re not going to live on baked beans for the next, you know, two years. - Just jump in, do it. - Is the first port of call getting financed? Understanding how much you could borrow? or would you prefer them to look at some properties first? - What are your suggestion? - I think absolutely speak to a broker or the bank. The guys at Oxygen (home loans) they do a fantastic job, so maybe get in touch with someone or your local representative there. And yeah, if you can get a real detailed outlook on how much you can spend, that's what I would do first, and then try and get approved as quickly, or the pre-approval as quickly as possible because it does take a lot of time, and really understanding that every bank and every lender is different in terms of the guidelines they give you in terms of what you can buy, what the time frame is, whether you need to calling off period, whether I need a valuation before your purchase. So if you've got a real clear idea on that first then start to go and work out, Okay, where do we actually want to live and what do we need in the next place? And what's the reason behind the move? Yeah.
