Ep.52 Is Ignorance Sabotaging Your Property Search
In this episode, Michelle discusses how ignorance may be sabotaging your property search.
Here’s what you’ll learn from today’s episode:
How your limiting beliefs may be leaving you stuck.
The importance of basing property decisions on facts and figures.
How to make informed compromises.
What alternative financial solutions can be explored.
Speakers in today’s episode:
Michelle May - Michelle May Buyers Agents
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Please note that any views or opinions presented in this podcast are solely those of the speakers, and do not necessarily represent those of any business. These views and opinions are general in nature, and do not take account of your personal objectives, financial situation and needs. Please consider whether it applies in your circumstances and seek professional advice wherever appropriate.
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VIEW TRANSCRIPT
Hi and welcome to another episode of the Buy Your Side podcast, the property podcast to help you make smarter property buying decisions. My name is Michelle May, and I am the Principal of the Michelle May Buyers Agency here in Sydney. We are buyers advocates and it is our job to uncover the best possible property for our clients’ budgets.
Sometimes I do things a little bit outside the box and recently I was invited to partake in a debating show called The Jury on Sky News. The question that I had to, or the premise that I had to defend was ‘whether gender quotas are good for business’, and having come from Europe where gender quotas have been in place for over 20 years and to very positive results across the board not just on ROI, but work culture, better diversity, inclusion, it's better for women and men across the board. I, of course, was very happy to step in there and argue for the affirmative. Yes, gender quotas are good for business. Much to my surprise, but I shouldn't have been shocked looking at the jury who was presiding over the voting, which was very much lacking in diversity and very much of one particular demographic and colour. Unfortunately, the jury decided that, no I had it wrong, and gender quotas are definitely not good for business. Who would have thought!
When I did that show, it got me to thinking about the choice that people make to choose to stick with a certain belief even though the facts and figures are pointing completely the other way. This is a very long roundabout way for me to ask you that question, when it comes to your property journey. ‘Are you choosing to stay wilfully ignorant because it doesn't suit your beliefs.’ So, think about this, when you start your property journey, it’s a bit like when you tell people you want to have children, I don't know if you're familiar with this, but everyone will have an idea of what you should and shouldn't be doing. Same when you come to buying a property, everyone and their dog will have an opinion, and will have a horror story, and will have a success story, and will give you advice that you've never asked for, and quite often, it is based on one or two transactions that they had maybe in the mid-eighties, so not a lot of facts and knowledge there actually, but a lot of opinionated, noise in your ear, and of course you may be doing that to yourself as well. You may be reading and finding articles to support your argument that the market is overheated and it's going to come crashing down in the next couple of months by 30%, and that will give you the property of your dreams that you are hanging on or clinging onto with all your might, and you're waiting for that to happen.
Now the truth is that as long as you dig deep enough, you'll find an article somewhere on the world wide web that will support your conviction that you are right. Truthfully you are probably going to end up without ever owning a property if that continues that way. The other thing is that, if you actually allow yourself to get yourself out of your emotional mind, and more into your wisdom mind, as a very good friend of mine always calls it, your rational brain will actually allow you to look at those facts and figures and go okay, yes I have been chasing a two-bedroom apartment in Marrickville for over two years now and my budget of $500,000 is never going to make it because the medium price for two bedroom apartments in Marrickville is much closer to $800k.
For example, you would have saved yourself two years of heartache and pain, two years of that gap between your budget and the markets getting wider and wider and facts will help you, the numbers will help you minimize your time out of the market, and will really, as we say in Dutch ‘put your nose on the facts’. There is no denying that the facts and figures will help you rationalize your property journey in a much clearer way, and you work backwards from there. So you say, okay the median for two bedroom apartments in Marrickville is say $800,000, now don't quote me on this because I'm just picking a number for the for argument's sake, you are looking for a two- bedroom apartment but your budget is $650,000, clearly you're not going to get that, so what are you willing to compromise on? Is it location, are you prepared to move south of the Cook's River, or just a cheaper geographical location? Is the second bedroom number one on your priority list; or is the location and the lifestyle that Marrickville affords you should you live there number one on your priority list, because then you'll have to forego that second bedroom and potentially the car spot to get your foot in the door in that market, because let me tell you one thing, and this is another tough lesson for a lot of people to learn, is that the market is the market, the market doesn't care about your feelings, it doesn't care about your opinions and even less so about what the neighbours butcher's Grandma opinion is. You either meet the market and you purchase, or you hang on to those beliefs and you don't.
The market is just going to do its thing and you know, really, it's only going to continue to go up in the long run. The quicker you get out of your wilful ignorance and look at the facts, you'll be able to actually purchase and get on with life. Doesn't mean that you should make a really silly compromise. The things that I always talk about, the quality of the location is paramount, even if you have to go to a cheaper suburb. You still have the better streets, then the yellow roads, the bus routes, backing on to a childcare centre, being above commercial, all those things I'm not a fan of. So still use your discernment, but hand in hand with those numbers, the numbers game, go to the sold section of domain in Real Estate, look those properties within your budgets. What do they look like, is there a common theme that they're all one bedders, then that's what it's going to be. You can kick and scream about it, but it's not going to change the facts. Then you've got to get creative if that's not what you want, go to a different suburb, try and find more money, maybe the bank of mom and dad will help you. Maybe you need to find a mortgage mate, is that potentially an option. Obviously look at all the risks there involved, even with the bank of Mum and Dad, look at all the risks involved, and I'm actually going to be doing an episode about getting your Mum and Dad involved in the search, because we're seeing that more and more, great things but also not so great things as a consequence of these choices.
Here is my hard lesson of the day - are you just hanging on to a pipe dream because you found an article somewhere saying that the market's going to crash and your property of your dreams is going to be within reach within the next couple of months, or it's a bit of like, I just thought of this, it’s a bit like watching you know, what do they call mediums, or tarot readers, clairvoyance on TikTok, I'm sure if you keep scrolling long enough, you'll find somebody who will tell you that you're going to win the lottery, and you're going to meet the person of your dreams, and you're going to have anything and everything you always wanted, so let's not do that. Use my episodes to arm yourself to make logical steps towards purchasing a property but the first step really, you need to make is ensuring that your relationship with the property market and your property search isn't toxic and that you're not being led up the garden path by your own misguided beliefs. So, get some facts and figures under your belt. Ignore all those people in your ear, I know they're trying to help you but they also have their own agenda don't forget, whether that is for you to remain close to them so they can hang out with you more often or whatever, just make sure you hang on to the facts and figures and that will help you achieve your property owning dreams in a much quicker timeline, I promise you that.
Have found this episode helpful, if somewhat harsh I'm sorry, but I'm trying to get you there quicker and so I think this is a really important thing that you need to address.
If you have any questions, or you just want to have a chat contact me on hello@buyyourside.com.au, I'd love to hear from you.
Also, if you like listening to these episodes, come on, give me a review so that more people can find these episodes and help them on their property journey, again I love hearing from you.
Thanks for listening and until next time.