Staying true to your own home-purchase criterion

Over the years I’ve helped several hundred buyers with their search for their home. Every single journey has been different, and some of the adventures have remained as terrific memories.

Whether they anticipated it at the beginning or not, every single client had to work with me to initially formulate a plan. A road map. A strategy. A blueprint.

Only once we’d documented the plan could we start shopping.

Some plans are more difficult to construct than others because we often find that our new clients either have unrealistic expectations, or have had their fingers burnt with purchase attempts, are not on the same page as their partner, or they have complexity to their brief that spell a high-challenge.

I recall eight years ago a tough brief with a lovely Yarraville couple who had a firm wish-list, specific criterion, and a range of eligible streets on their list. They’d been searching for months and came to me to seek some help with the assignment. Once I profiled and overlaid all of their requirements it became evident that they only had a choice of some six or seven houses in the entire array of streets they’d selected. They wanted to be bound within the Yarraville village, needed a three bedroom house and wanted not only off street parking, but a garage/roller door to hide a marked police car from visibility – and they specifically wanted a single-fronted Victorian house.

This was no mean feat. Relying on the imminent sales of one in half a dozen houses could take years. If the average home-owner sells every 7-10 years, we were facing at least 15 months by the law of averages, and the market was moving fast.

After sitting down with them for an hour in an effort to prioritise their wish list and determine which elements they could budge on, we decided that the three bedrooms could actually be two, and the Victorian house could be any period house, but the hidden car option was not open to change.

And so the search commenced.

Within a fortnight a local agent had found us a double story, two bedroom-plus-study single-fronted Victorian cottage with side drive and roller door carport – within budget.

A very recent client’s journey had an equally important, but very different criteria. His wish to have the firm option of a flatmate in his villa unit meant that the two bedrooms had to be of a decent size each, and preferably not sharing a wall. Furthermore, a separate toilet from the bathroom and option for a hand wash station in a separate laundry was important too. This isn’t a terribly difficult set of requirements, but in his sub-$600,000 first home buyer budget he’d already sensed that this segment of the market was well and truly a seller’s market, pushed along by his own contingent in the face of what is otherwise a market downturn.

Recognising his need for being fully positioned to bid, negotiate or pounce on off-market options quickly was essential. Having his finance pre-approved with a full credit assessment was the first (and most positive) move he could make.

He presented an off-market opportunity he’d received from an agent to my attention. The property was a villa, and the block was a boutique cluster of three. The street was attractive and the suburb was in his desired set of postcodes. The problem was the second bedroom; it measured a mere 2.7m. This width makes it difficult for a tenant to fit a queen-sized bed and two side tables, and it’s fair to say that on inspection it would be abundantly clear to the prospective tenant that they’d have bigger, better house-sharing options.

I ruled it out and advised him to keep looking.

An optimal floorplan for house-sharers

Buyers who flex or reneg on their must-have criteria make a serious mistake. If the key element they flagged as integral is not a feature in their new home, they’ll likely experience regret or frustration once they settle the purchase and realise they compromised on something they shouldn’t have.

Sorting out the must-have from the nice-to-have list should be done before going shopping. Always.

It’s not like buying a dress or a pair of sunglasses. It’s a PROPERTY.