What to consider when buying a new home
Today I thought I would share a bit about how my husband and I think about purchasing houses. We have recently purchased our seventh property in our 15 year marriage and have learned quite a bit about the process as we have done that.
We have a bit of a habit of purchasing a place, doing it up and the moving on about 2-3 years later. We normally go in to each purchase thinking we are staying put for a while but then things come up about each property - or we get offers that are too good to pass up on selling - so we then move on. Considering I'm a homebody Cancerian it's a bit weird that I'm happy to do this, but I am strangely unemotional about the houses I live in. I have loved every house we have had but at the same time I'm always happy to move on as well!
I have started saying we are going to stay put in this new house until the kids finish school…..so let’s see how long that lasts haha! :)
Here are some of the things we think about when we are looking for a new property.
1. Think about resale
The first thing to say about our property purchasing decisions is that even if you are purchasing a property that you think will be your 'forever home' it's always a good idea to think about resale. You just never know when you might need or want to sell your house and so buying something that has really weird quirks or off putting features normally means you will get a bargain, but it also means you will need to sell at a discount (or find it difficult to sell) when you want to. So always think carefully about these sorts of purchases.
Things that people tend to find off putting include:
noisy roads
large power poles/electrical substations in close proximity to the house
under a flight path (not as problematic for areas that are used to this)
lack of off street parking (especially if it’s difficult to park on the street)
close to train lines (i.e. so close you can hear the trains!)
gardens with neighbours over looking (e.g. apartment blocks looking in to living/garden spaces)
strange design features that are hard to remove - for example, there's a house for sale on our street at the moment that has an undercover pool that pretty much sits in the middle of the lounge room!! It’s sat on the market for about 6 months so far!
So yes, you may purchase a house for pennies on the dollar if you are willing to put up with problematic features, but just remember that it will really limit the market of people who will want to purchase from you when you go to sell.
2. Does it have potential to add value?
Can you add value to the home in some way - for example is there scope to add an additional bedroom, home office, ensuite or something like that? Value can also be added via renovations of bathrooms or kitchens or sometimes even by doing simple cosmetic upgrades like painting and new carpets. As a designer I never want to purchase a home that is completely 'done'. When I look at finished houses they are almost never done to my taste and I always like scope to be able to put my own touches in to a place. That's just me of course - I know some people prefer to purchase something finished and not have to worry about the stress of renovating.
So if you do have an eye for how a house can be brought back to life then this tends to be the way to make really good money in property. Most of the houses my husband and I have bought have been on the market for extended periods of time. Many people have looked at them and disregarded them as options for all different reasons - but we can often see the vision of a house that many people can’t see.
With the house we have just purchased, for example, there are quite a few issues that were putting people off purchasing. These included:
way too many mature trees in the garden (blocking light, hard and expensive to get rid of, potentially an issue for putting in a pool)
needs full rewiring
original bathrooms - need renovating
strange layout that needs fixing up
poorly presented - e.g. old carpet, needs painting, original joinery, dirty curtains, needs a good clean!
Having now spent a week or so in the house actually working on a few of the things above we always think it’s funny that previous owners don’t bother to spend 10K or so just freshening up their homes before they sell. In the case of the this house simply doing the few things we are doing to just get it ready to move in would have probably helped them achieve another $500K I think - I’m not even kidding! This simply includes - painting the inside of the old disgusting wardrobes, new knobs on the wardrobes, new (very cheap) carpet in the bedrooms, remove disgusting old fly screens that have dead bugs stuck to them, steam mop all the floors, trim back some of the tree branches to allow more light in, remove some of the plantation shutters that are making the house way too dark - and also just giving the whole place a proper clean! If they had done all that and put in some furniture styling the house would have looked completely different and would have appealed to so many more people. Anyway - it’s great news for us as we got the house for a great price and now can make it the way that we want it.
So the point I’m making is to look out for properties where you can add value in some way - this is if you want to try and make money with it down the track. Obviously there are lots of people who like to purchase completely renovated properties as well, which is a different blog post! :)
3. Stay unemotional
This is the big tip I've learned after many years of doing this process. The more emotional you are about a purchase the more likely you are going to pay more than you need to for it. For the purchase of our new house I was extremely tough with negotiations. My husband and I had decided on a price we were happy to pay and we stuck ruthlessly to that. This meant we have got a really good purchase price as we stuck to the price and were willing to walk away from the house if we didn’t get it for that price.
It can be hard to stay unemotional with house purchases - after all this is the most expensive thing you’re ever going to purchase! And at the end of the day you do want to love houses that you purchase - but the more you can stay impartial and objective the better you'll be able to negotiate a good price.
If you have to go to auction for a house this is a different story - but even at auctions it’s a good idea to set a price and then make sure you just stick to that no matter what. If you are worried you are too emotionally invested to bid in an auction then it can be a good idea to hire a buyers advocate to do the bidding on your behalf. That way they will help you navigate the auction in a more impartial way.
4. Location, location, location
The other thing that my husband and I always look at when purchasing is location. Good things to consider include
is the house in a good school catchment area
are there shops near by
is it close to good transport options (walking distance to trains tend to be extremely good areas to get in to)
are there parks or playgrounds nearby
are there other nice features about the location (e.g. we live on the edge of the National Park in our current house, which gives the house a beautiful outlook and feeling of openness).
So those are a few tips from what we've learned over the years of buying and selling houses and making quite a bit of money throughout the process. Obviously there's nothing too revolutionary in these tips - but I thought I would share them just in case they were helpful to some of you!
Learn SketchUp with our fun online course for beginners…
If you want improve your work with design clients or you are about to start renovating or remodeling then you will love SketchUp.
With this software you can mock up an entire home in 2D (floor plans, joinery/millwork elevations, lighting and electrical plans and more) and 3D (renderings and perspective drawings) so you can picture exactly what it will look like when it is finished plus prepare your technical drawings for use with your clients, trades and contractors.
Learning SketchUp will save you time, money, mistakes and so much more! It is a well known piece of software in the interior design and architecture industries and will give you a solid technical drawing skill that will immediately upgrade the professionalism of the work you are doing.
I teach an online course for beginners that is focused specifically on using SketchUp for interior design purposes. We have had more than 10,000 students come through the course with so many fantastic projects designed and built!
We have all sorts of students in the course including designers and architects, cabinet makers, home renovators/remodelers, kitchen and bathroom designers, event planners, landscape designers and design enthusiasts.
To find out more about the courses we have on offer click the link below. And reach out if you have any questions I can help with :)
Enjoy the rest of your day!
Clare x