Episodes

The stress created by “keeping up with the Joneses”.

Introducing, a very funny and insightful Lynette Malcolm. Lynette is one of the top agents in the Upper North Shore of Sydney and knows her market better than anyone. Chris was sadly absent for this episode, but he wouldn’t have had a chance to get a word in because Veronica and Lynette bounced off each other hilariously.

In particular they covered:

• How home priorities change when kids finish school.

• Is “happy wife, happy life” driving the vast majority of our property market?

• What can happen when you rush and buy the wrong home.

• Why you need to be careful when finding comparable sales data.

• How to position your offer to improve your chances of acceptance.

• In what circumstances will an offer never be accepted?

This is such an enlightening episode into the dynamics of buying a home.

What should buyers look at before buying a "renovator's delight"?

Introducing, Tom Wills. Tom is an Architect of over 20 years and runs his own firm TWArchitects, specialising in residential design and small developments.

There’s lots to cover in this one and this list is only the start:

• Beware the community NIMBY group.

• Why you should not fall for myth of precedence.

• How planning rules constantly change and you need to have a plan of attack in advance.

• Styles of houses go in and out of fashion, but what enduring qualities survive?

• What to look for in an architect & issues with building contracts to be aware of.

You do not want to miss it if you’re even dreaming of renovating.

When property investment shouldn’t be a long game.

Introducing the one and only, John Lindeman. John is one of Australia's most respected Property Educators with over 40 years of personal investing experience and research driven education. When experts need advice, they go to John .

Chris unfortunately was MIA on this one, and he was gutted because it was one of the most enlightening episodes on where it can all go wrong for investors The biggest mistake when investing for yield 

• How people tend not to understand what happens to yield when prices go down

• Would you buy in Hobart now

• If all cities behave differently and the impact the Brisbane Flood had.

• How long the impact of natural disasters can take for people to get over them.

• What was more valuable back in 1901, country home or a city house

This one is not to be missed by keen property investors.

Amanda Farmer is the go-to-expert in "strata world" with over 15 years experience as a strata lawyer. Amanda is also a fellow podcaster with over 100 episodes under her belt and she lifts the lift on many of the problems and opportunities she sees with strata. Here are some of many 'aha’ moments:

• Why you should get involved with your strata committee and the best way to do it

• Why you should buy “Eyes wide open” and know exactly what you are buying and the condition it is in.

• The ongoing plague of poorly built building defects and why you wouldn’t want to buy new buildings.

• The harsh reality when you buy off the plan is you are sign contract today but are totally committed for many years ahead

• The crazy situation when buildings over 4 stories do not need insurance

• Why building defects usually start after 8 years, when times up on insurance

This is one of the most Elephant filled episodes and you should not buy a new property unless you've truly listened to this brilliant advice.

Pete Wargent, arguably Australia best property blogger and a buyers agent in Brisbane, Sydney and London, opens up on the Brisbane property market amongst many other things. Pete has a brilliant mind and he explains why understanding demographic shifts is so important to investors. If you are looking to buy in Brisbane, don’t even consider it until you’ve listened.

• How you can learn to be a better invest by finding the story through picking through data

• How we have a very short term memory when investing

• How Brisbane is rebalancing, the property and areas to target if you are an investor  

• The problems with investing in higher yield areas

• How some style of property go for big money right now
  

  This is our first detailed talk about investing in Brisbane and we’ve got more coming in future episodes.

What impact does the media have on the property market?

In this episode, property writer Kirsten Craze is brilliantly open in sharing the flaws in media world and explains how to find articles we can rely on. Here's what you'll learn:

• How different headlines can be in just one week and why they can’t be relied upon.

• How to tell the difference between journalism, PR and an opinion piece.

• Over-reserve auction results - are they real?

• For the real story read the comments on news articles about “get rich quick” schemes.

• How to leverage on supply and demand when making offers.

  The message is loud and clear in this episode: the media is a minefield and you need to know how to read between the lines! 

A case study that shows the cost of not learning from our mistakes.

Have you ever thought that if only you had more money, then you’d be able to buy the right property? Well in this episode we discover that wealth alone does not protect people from making expensive property mistakes. We trace the decisions, purchases, missteps, court cases and sales that resulted in losses totalling over $2 million in the span of a few short years. The thing is, this couple made some mistakes that nearly every property buyer makes at least once! If they’d only been given some good advice (or heeded it) along the way, they could have avoided a lot of pain. So, who are they??

How to best prepare for the experience of owning an apartment or townhouse.

Strata manager Reena van Aalst gives an in depth perspective on strata living, highlights the pitfalls for the unwary and advises how to ensure you don’t live to regret buying into a strata complex. She gives us the benefit of her experience and uncovers:

• The crucial information missing from most strata reports.

• Early warning signs for buyers that a building could be a no-go zone.

• Issues that cause pain for buyers of new apartments.

• Why your lawyer may not warn you of all the pitfalls.

• What to do if you want to buy into a pet friendly building.

• How entitlements and levies are calculated.

• How much work a strata manager does and how to get rid of a dud one.

All this as well as explanations of multifaceted strata, cost-sharing, community title, building management committees, tumelo and other things you’ve probably never heard of.

The inside scoop on why more properties sell before auction in a slowing market.

Mary Anne Cronin, sales agent at PPDRE in Sydney’s Eastern Beaches, talks about buyer behaviour in her patch as well as sharing insights into the whole pre-auction offer process. Here’s what else we talked about:

• The precise point in a marketing campaign where buyers lose interest

• How she works both buyers and vendors in a slowing market

• Meaningful questions buyers should be asking real estate agents

• The decisions buyers need to make when trying to upgrade into a house

And we get the answer to that multi-million dollar question: why are prices so high in Sydney’s Eastern Suburbs?

Confessions of a sales agent; what the future holds and what needs to change.

This is quite a philosophical conversation with Shannan Whitney of BresicWhitney about the relevance of real estate agents in our changing world. We talked about many “elephants” and Shannan did not hold back on discussing:

• How self promotion in the age of social media misses the mark

• Where industry awards fall short and reward the wrong type of behaviour

• How the accepted measures of success fail both vendors and buyers

• How published price guides make agents accountable, which is why many won’t commit to them

• What happens behind the scenes when a low offer is made

• Decoding “agent-speak” with some handy translations