NOVAK NEWS - MASTERING THE ART OF HOME BUYING: ULTIMATE PROPERTY CHECKLIST WITH BILLY DRURY & BIDHAN SHRESTHA

Unlock the secrets of property buying with us, your guides through this real estate labyrinth, and our co-explorer, Billy. We're spilling the beans on the clever, and sometimes quirky, tactics that seasoned homebuyers use, from bringing pets to open houses to knocking on walls. Discover the must-have checklist that keeps even the most experienced buyers on track and laugh along with us at the unconventional methods that can reveal a home's true character. Plus, we've got a tech tip up our sleeves involving an app that tracks the sun's path—perfect for ensuring your new abode is always in the best light.

Join us as we pull back the curtain on the competitive real estate market, sharing insider advice that could give you the upper hand in securing your dream property. We delve into the strategic use of strata plans, reveal why testing mobile reception is as important as checking water pressure, and discuss how future developments could affect your investment's value. With Billy's expertise and our knack for navigating the market, we're here to arm you with the knowledge and strategies you need to stand out from the crowd and clinch the deal. Whether you're looking to buy your first home or add to your investment portfolio, we're your partners in property, offering wisdom and support every step of the way.

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:02

all right and we are live. Novak news Monday. Monday 8 pm. Good evening, yes, so here after the weekend, lovely weekend, and Billy and me today kicking off mastering the art of buying a product. That's the best thing I get. I think everyone wants to know. All right, tune in, guys, with Billy and Badan. Good evening, hello. How are we doing? I'm good, how?

Speaker 2: 0:32

are you? I'm very good, actually Nice, nice good day, I feel we doing I'm good. How are you?

Speaker 1: 0:43

I'm very good, actually Nice, nice good day.

Speaker 2: 0:46

I feel like this is an appropriate topic. We meet hundreds of buyers each week. Quite often we refer to our open homes as group numbers, but a group can be a family of four coming through, so we're literally meeting. You know, if you have 10 groups, it could be 50 people, 50 people you know if you've got families of five coming through?

Speaker 2: 1:05

um. So we're literally meeting hundreds of people each week and I love to see sometimes at the open homes. Take a step back and examine what are the pros doing exactly, yeah, but what are the pro property buyers doing and what some of the wacky things we see week in, week out? Um where, if you're starting your buying journey, you could potentially get a couple of ideas from tonight's episode?

Speaker 1: 1:26

yeah, definitely, sometimes we kind of throw ourselves off as well, like oh my god never thought of that like yeah, people have been doing their shopping and normally people, I think, bring their you know parents in there as well and they have a lot of experience buying and selling. They know every area. Yeah, so I think they have like few different ideas to look you know what to look for when buying a property that are practical in the future if you are in the property, yeah for sure, and I think a lot of buyers have the same feeling.

Speaker 2: 1:54

Week in, week out, particularly when you've got 10 open homes on a day, you're almost doing double what the real estate agent is doing in some cases. That you go through all of these different properties, you ask your standard questions, but at the end of the day it almost seems a bit like a blur because you've been through so many properties you've only had 10, 15, 20 minutes to take it all in and then you're rushing on to the next that it's hard to sometimes remember which was your favorite, and I think if people had a bit of a checklist, yeah, to go through with, it might make their life a bit easier definitely that's always, always easy, like step-by-step process, a tick, tick, tick, and we kind of experience, like most everyone, with kind of the callbacks and we said this, this property, and in the buyers mind because Billy said they looked at ten properties in one day they kind of picked a living room from one property, balcony from different, and they can put it together.

Speaker 1: 2:47

Yeah, so they're kind of, you know, jumbled around, but if you have like a checklist and a step-by-step process, it'll definitely it will go a long way yeah.

Speaker 2: 2:55

So before we get to the uh what the pros are doing, can you give me an example of one of the wacky ones? Because we've seen some interesting stuff over at open homes? Guys, there are some really uh interesting things that questions that get asked and, um, you know, people just roll in and start doing their own thing therefore, I think the most common one would be everyone like knocking every wall yeah, like checking if it's double break video, or you know the chip rock or anything.

Speaker 1: 3:23

So, which is a good thing as well, to check, and you know taking checking if the tap is working and all that.

Speaker 2: 3:28

So they're the basic ones tapping the wall is a big one. Yeah, we certainly do see that. Yeah, um, I remember we were talking off air. We had a lady come in and see whether the the pet responded well. Yeah, um, so she was carrying around her cat, carrying around her dog to see if the pet responded well to the vibe in the property. I suppose it's got to be done. You know, as a happy family you've got to have, you know, happy kids, happy pets, happy life, happy pets pretty much.

Speaker 1: 3:54

Yeah, that's the way to go, I guess.

Speaker 2: 3:57

But on to what the pros are doing. What are you seeing out there? What have people come through? That's a little bit different to everyone else, I think the first one would be.

Speaker 1: 4:05

I think I have probably seen two or three only do it and it's very good. I think we talked about it earlier, checking the sun thing. Checking where the sun goes, exactly so it's different in summer and winter, yep, and so there's this particular app. So if you add the property and you put in your month day time, it'll actually show where the sun is at that particular day and time. So it's very good because you get you might have a north facing aspect or east facing aspect.

Speaker 1: 4:30

yeah, you might be looking at property in summer and the sun is right up to you, like, oh great, sun is right here, it'll be great in winter, but when the winter comes in it might be a bit, you know, different positions. It's, I think, that app, uh, really helps. Not not sure what the name of the app is on the top of my head, but yes, on tracker. There you go, you got it.

Speaker 2: 4:49

It is borderline genius. I mean, what buyers obviously were, you know, rely on the floor plan provided to find out, you know, where their aspect is. And sometimes they go one step further and open up their compass yeah, on their phone, which is not a bad idea, but the sun does travel at different heights depending on summer or winter, and you can get an app that will show you where the sun will be. I think that's so clever, yeah, I was amazed when the buyer did that.

Speaker 1: 5:18

I was like, oh my God, what's that?

Speaker 2: 5:20

That's one example of a pro tip. If sunlight's important to you, yeah, definitely. Another one for me is someone who looks at the strata plan or looks at the floor plan and can find hidden features. Definitely. One example that I've seen is hidden parking opportunities. So, just as an example, some people have found in the strata plan that their car space or the garage of the property that they're buying sits in a position where they might be able to sneak a second car in front or behind that car space. For a garage, as an example, they can park in front of their lock-up garage and not interrupt anyone else.

Speaker 1: 6:02

For access and that's a big bonus in northern britain.

Speaker 2: 6:05

one extra car spot yeah, it's heaven and so if you get to the open home and you look around and you can see some of the neighbors are doing it and strata seems pretty relaxed about it, although you might be, you know, on paper only having one car space, if you can do it a little bit sneaky, I've seen people make good, good, you know, use of that, yeah at the end of the day you've got one car space, but on paper.

Speaker 2: 6:28

But if you can sneak a second car space in, even if it's just parking overnight and it's not causing anyone any dramas, you know, yeah, try it until you try it until you get. Yeah, exactly, it's always better to say sorry later yeah, and then ask for permission yeah, it's easier to say sorry than get a second car space. So, that's a pro tip.

Speaker 1: 6:48

Next one. What else we do, like all the pro people.

Speaker 2: 6:52

Have you got one?

Speaker 1: 6:53

I think one of the good ones, like I think I've seen in one of the rental ones. So what they were checking, they got their phone and they started calling their friends or anything, or they put up a YouTube video and walk around the property. You check the reception because every area is different, like even sometimes we're in the car, we're passing through a suburb and you know right, when you hit that suburb the line just starts to break out. So checking the reception while you're in the property is, I think, one of the very clever thing to do, because you're gonna be there for a while. You know, when you're trying to talk with your family or when you browse internet which is, I think, the second food for people these days you definitely want to make sure the property you're buying has good reception from your provider.

Speaker 2: 7:33

And I guess if you're working from home it's going to be a really big, you know, impact on your day-to-day as an agent. We necessarily might not know if you're how strong the nbn connection is there or what sort of service you get to the apartment. So I'm sure you can jump online, you can google what sort of services that to the building and um you know if in doubt, as you said jump online, do a speed test from your phone.

Speaker 2: 7:59

Um, really, really clever way to want to get to the bottom of it straight away. So that's a good one. That's a very good. Another one that I find is people conscious about their price being protected. It's probably the biggest thing the pros think about when they go through and select which property they're going to start making offers on. So you've been through 10 properties in the day and you come back and you've got your favorites.

Speaker 2: 8:27

I think the next thing to think about is which is going to be price protected, and what I mean by that is which property is going to potentially have the benefit of enjoying the same view or the same privacy or the same quietness that you've fallen in love with from the beginning. So there's some properties where naturally, there's space for a new building to go in next door or there's potential for that view to change or potential for that privacy to be impacted on this. But in other cases there's properties where that development's already been done and, just as an example, I'm selling a property in Del Mar Parade DY at the moment which is a beautiful two bedroom and it's really got no neighbouring short view.

Speaker 1: 9:13

And so that's pretty great. Yeah, exactly so, like pick and choose, like when you're buying a property, this is something that's very easy to miss. Yeah, what's going to happen in the next five years in that particular area? Because when you're buying, you're just looking at the property that you're buying and you forget to look what's around it. Yeah, so you might have an amazing ocean views, but there might be this one-story house the next door, yeah, and at some point gets knocked down. A massive high-rise apartment comes in and you look into the next building. So that's not something that you want and you definitely want to research into that. Yeah, what's that next building? What's that next land is owned for? Like, can there be a big apartment built? For sure?

Speaker 2: 9:49

yeah, and one way to check that is to jump on to Northern Beaches Council if you're local and you can actually do an application search and you can do a property search. So if there's a building that you want some more info on, you search the address and a lot of this stuff's public record on Northern Beaches Council website. But that application search is big. So if you ever want to check what's going on locally whether it's a house or an apartment you've got at the moment or something you're looking at buying I always like to know kind of what's going on in my back garden yeah, pretty much like even when renting, like you want to kind of research the neighborhood, like you know if you're buying a property, that's coming at different times, what's like in the morning, what's like on the weekend.

Speaker 1: 10:30

Like you know how much I do with the neighbors, like how are they actually there? Because you get, once you get into a property, I think minimum you're going to be there three to five years yeah, you invested in it.

Speaker 1: 10:39

So you know, after four months you'll be like, oh my god, why did I move into it? That's something you don't want to have a feeling after buying your first property, or, yeah for sure, yeah, any others, oh, what else? Like also fs. Fsr is something that's uh, very new to me personally, and one of the buyers asked me what's that? So it's mostly in the commercial or even if you want to have development potential for your residential property. So what FSR basically means? If you have a land of 1000 square meters and you want to build a house into it, how much of a land can you use? Could be you can use whole 1000 square meters, or you could only use 500 square meters. So, like, if you are buying a property that's only using 200 square meters of that thousand square meters and you can ideally build up to 800, you can build a granite at the back yeah, and have a second income, okay, so that's good.

Speaker 2: 11:32

If you, yeah what you want to put a granny flat in um, you know, want to try and do some kind of separate accommodation, whether it be for family, that's really smart. Yeah, so fsr and that stands for flow surface ratio, I believe. There you go. Yeah, so I think you can. Um, you can certainly look that up online, um, and if you've got questions, give the team a call.

Speaker 1: 11:54

Yeah, sorry, it's fluid space ratio. Sorry, my bad full space ratio.

Speaker 2: 11:57

You're sorry my bad force place ratio space fsr yeah, um, that's a good one.

Speaker 2: 12:01

I think one more that I the the type of apartment I always seem to do really well is almost like the one percent, uh, the one that's a little bit different to everyone else and I think typically people love top floor and love ground floor. For different reasons, but I do love a top floor apartment with windows on three sides. It's great for livability, great for airflow, great for natural light, um, and then I love a ground floor where you've got, you know, ability to take advantage of, um, some garden space courtyard, yeah, whether it's exclusive use or untitled.

Speaker 1: 12:38

You get to enjoy that green space and it feels a little bit like a house definitely, and with the top floor one is kind of private too yeah yeah, with all these houses being built, they're like you know, you don't want to look into a different apartment or you might be doing something and someone might be looking into you. So having that top floor does give you that privacy and, of course, like Billy mentioned, lots of lights coming in, which is like the best aspect. Like who doesn't love light coming into the property?

Speaker 2: 13:02

Yeah, absolutely.

Speaker 1: 13:03

Yeah, getting into that 1% of that floor plan and trying to. The more you look, the more you know basically. So you kind of have to practically be in that place. It's hard to do in that 10 minutes of up and home, but you kind of have to see if this is where I live, this is where the bedroom is going to be, where everything is going to be. You kind of have to visualize it in your mind.

Speaker 2: 13:22

Do it. But yeah, imagine it a little bit. If I can give one more tip, it would be searching on realestatecom. I see some of the pros actually search from the oldest listings on the market to the newest listings. So quite naturally people always jump on and go I want to see what's just listed, because I haven't might not have seen that before, I might have missed it. But some buyers actually go the other way around. They search from the oldest listings to the newest, see what's been sitting on the market a little bit longer, and the reason for that is they might find the owners a little bit more negotiable on price.

Speaker 1: 14:00

They might be able to do pretty much anything.

Speaker 2: 14:03

They might be able to be a bit creative with their terms, particularly if it's a first home purchase or it's an investment and their terms are going to be a little bit more irregular. They might be a little bit more open to those. So that's another technique. On realestatecom and on Domain, your search platforms you can actually search from high price to low price, vice versa, and then you can search from the newest days on market to the oldest days and vice versa. So some of the pros get pretty good about playing around with those filters.

Speaker 1: 14:37

Definitely those are hardcore people. That's a very good tip actually If you're after investment and wanna get that sweet deal off the market. I think from oldest to newest that's been sitting on the market, this is how much I can offer, so by that, time, I think the owners are open to pretty much most things, yeah.

Speaker 2: 14:53

They're flexible is what I might say.

Speaker 1: 14:55

Yeah, and yeah, that would be a very good moneymaker and maybe one more is how to find a hidden price on realestatecom for sale and for buying.

Speaker 2: 15:10

People don't realize. But if you go on realestatecom or domains website or the web version so not on the app but on web you can actually play around with the URL, so the numbers you see at the top in the search bar, you can actually move those numbers around outside of what shows in the the drop-down filters. So normally when you're searching for your property it moves in hundred thousand increments or two hundred and fifty thousand dollar increments. If the price isn't being shown, you can actually work out the hidden price by playing around with that URL at the top of your search bar.

Speaker 1: 15:47

So that's what Very creative you've been out there, billy.

Speaker 2: 15:50

That's what the pros are doing guys.

Speaker 1: 15:53

So yeah, with all this sorted in the market, I think you have to do something that no one else is doing. If you want to get ahead and, you know, get that dream home secured, I guess with this current state yeah, and certainly if you need help buying, we're here to help.

Speaker 2: 16:06

We can be the pro for you, um, but that's what we're seeing through some of our open homes the weird, the wonderful and the and the clever in between. Um, hopefully that's given you a few ideas, but certainly if you need any help from a to Z, we're here and we'd love to be a part of your search.

Speaker 1: 16:23

Definitely. Yeah, it was great having you Billy, it was fun chat and I think these are the some tips that I think, at least if you could use even one or two of them, I think you might get ahead of most of most of the people. And yeah, like Billy said, we're here pretty much all the time if you need help, even in financing, brokerage or pretty much anything like from a to z we're here yeah, definitely have a good evening guys. All right, take care. Good night you.