Common Mistakes to Avoid When Buying Brisbane Property

Tiff Collins-Director of Acquisitions at YouandMe Personalised Property Services

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Director of Acquisitions - Queensland

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Common Mistakes to Avoid When Buying Brisbane Property

In this recent discussion between Heath Bassett and Tiff Collins from You&Me Personalised Property Services, several critical mistakes that property buyers commonly make in Brisbane’s real estate market were brought to light. Their insightful conversation revealed valuable lessons drawn from years of industry experience, offering essential guidance for both novice and experienced property buyers.

Understanding the Fundamentals

Experience Doesn’t Guarantee Success

One of the most striking revelations from their discussion was that property-buying mistakes aren’t limited to first-time buyers. As Heath emphasised, even those who have purchased multiple properties can fall into common traps. This understanding sets the foundation for why continuous learning and professional guidance (that’s exactly what our buyer’s agent service is for) remain crucial in the property market.

The Selling Agent’s True Role

A fundamental misconception many buyers have relates to the role of selling agents. Heath drew a compelling parallel, noting that expecting a selling agent to work in the buyer’s best interest is like expecting a prosecuting lawyer to work for the defence. This misunderstanding can lead to costly mistakes in negotiations and property valuation.

Market Knowledge and Valuation

The Danger of Interstate Market Comparisons

Tiff shared a particularly helpful story about Melbourne buyers at a Brisbane open home. These interstate buyers were prepared to offer $2.5 million for a property that was actually worth approximately $1.5 million. This scenario perfectly illustrated how a lack of local market knowledge can lead to significant overpayment.

Heath Bassett and Tiff Collins discuss the most common mistakes when buying Brisbane property

Location Nuances Matter

Both experts emphasised that property values can vary dramatically within the same suburb. They pointed out that identical homes just streets apart can have markedly different values based on various factors, including:

School catchment zones
The relative affluence of different streets
Local amenities
Street reputation and character
Neighbourhood demographics

The Importance of Professional Negotiation

Current Market Conditions

Heath highlighted that Brisbane has experienced a hot market for the past four years, creating unique challenges for buyers. Many participants in today’s market lack recent negotiation experience in these conditions, which can lead to costly mistakes.

Market Value Misconceptions

A critical observation shared during the discussion was how some buyers mistakenly believe properties have risen by 150% when the actual increase is closer to 70%. This misunderstanding of market movements can lead to overbidding and setting new, artificially high price benchmarks in neighbourhoods.

The Digital Age Trap

Beyond Online Listings

One of the most relevant mistakes in today’s digital age, according to Tiff, is the over-reliance on online listings. Many buyers make the error of basing their decisions solely on real estate website photographs and virtual tours, without conducting proper physical inspections.

This article shows how ‘creative’ real estate photographers can be to get more interest from potential buyers when a property is listed for sale: https://www.theguardian.com/business/2022/sep/11/fake-fires-and-greener-grass-the-real-estate-photo-tricks-that-make-a-house-feel-like-a-home

The Reality Gap

The experts explained how online presentations can be misleading, with properties often appearing quite different in reality. As Heath aptly put it, “A picture paints a thousand words, but you need 2000 words and a home.” This emphasises the irreplaceable value of professional physical property inspections.

Due Diligence: A Non-Negotiable Step

Understanding Your Responsibilities

Both buyer’s agents stressed that conducting thorough due diligence is ultimately the buyer’s responsibility. While selling agents provide information, they are not responsible for verifying or investigating property details on behalf of buyers.

Professional Support

The conversation highlighted how engaging professional help can prevent costly mistakes, especially in a complex market like Brisbane’s. This includes:

Property valuation expertise
Local market knowledge (we made a video about this)
Understanding of suburb-specific factors
Negotiation experience
Access to comprehensive market data and analytics

Making Informed Decisions

The Value of Local Expertise

Throughout their discussion, both Heath and Tiff emphasised the importance of having access to local market expertise. This knowledge extends beyond simple property values to include:

Understanding neighbourhood dynamics
Knowledge of future development plans
Awareness of local market trends
Insight into school catchment values
Understanding of local council regulations

Long-term Investment Perspective

The experts also touched on the importance of taking a long-term view when purchasing property. This includes considering factors such as:

Future infrastructure developments
Demographic changes
Potential zoning changes
Economic growth projections
Local market cycle positioning

The bottom line

In conclusion, this conversation between Heath and Tiff revealed that successful property buying in Brisbane requires a combination of local market knowledge, professional guidance, and thorough due diligence. Whether you’re a first-time buyer or an experienced investor, understanding and avoiding these common mistakes can significantly improve your property buying outcomes, and experience.

Want to Know More?

Keen to avoid these property mistakes? Every buyer’s situation is different, and we’d love to chat about your specific needs. Book your free discovery meeting with us to learn how we can help make your Brisbane property purchase a success. Drop us a line or give us a call: our buyer’s agents are always here to help!

Video Transcript

See transcript

Heath
00:00:08:20 - 00:00:23:07
G'day everyone, I'm Heath Bassett and I'm with Tiff from You&Me Personalised Property Services again out in Brisbane. Beautiful day. And what we wanted to talk about today was mistakes when buying real estate. So, you know, you don't have to be a first-time owner.

00:00:23:07 - 00:00:44:09
You could be a ten-time homeowner and still make mistakes, and we just wanted to go through a few of those with you and sort of how we can remedy them. But, you know, the importance of due diligence, the importance of using a professional to be able to purchase your home for you, you know, professionals that do this on a daily basis.

00:00:44:09 - 00:00:59:12
So, you know, the big one for me is, not all selling agents are good and not all are bad, but, you know, you're going to get some rotten apples and you're going to get ones that want to help you. But the reality is that you wouldn't go to court and expect a prosecuting lawyer to work in your best interest.

00:00:59:12 - 00:01:23:17
So why would you be spending $1 million here in Brisbane and expect that the prosecuting lawyer, the selling agent, will be there to tell you you can get it as cheap as possible? And the reality is they're not. So, you know, we have all the data, all the analytics, we send you reports, videos. Obviously, we've got tens and tens of years of experience within the team.

00:01:23:19 - 00:01:52:20
And that's to represent you. But, you know, some of the big mistakes that people make is not knowing the square metres of the land, looking at the cost per square metre of land. But, Tiff, what else have we got?

Tiff
Yeah, probably in the same vein as what you've just been mentioning. I was at an open home with some clients, we had found a property for them, and they were coming through to do the final inspection to make sure that that was the one for them.

00:01:52:22 - 00:02:21:04
And there were some other prospective buyers at that same home open that we were at. And they were talking to the selling agent, trying to work out what the price of the property was because it was going to auction. And those buyers were actually from Melbourne, relocating. And obviously, the markets in Melbourne and the markets here in acquisition were very, very different, and they had absolutely no idea what the value of that property was.

00:02:21:06 - 00:02:49:18
So they were talking to the agent, trying to ascertain the price, insinuating more than $1 million above where I would place the value of the home. So say it's a $1.5 million home, and they're saying to the agent, you know, something around 2.5 million for this property. Now that is an absolute indication when you don't know the market and you are trying to compare, don't do it.

00:02:49:23 - 00:03:18:24
Appoint a professional to help you. So we see mistakes like that all the time with people who just do not know the market and don't know where the values are, don't know what they should be paying for something. You can have two homes in the same suburb on two different streets. They could be identical homes, and the value of those homes could be very, very different based on a myriad of factors that you, as a punter, might not be aware of.

00:03:18:24 - 00:03:41:21
So, you know, we just do all of that due diligence to make sure that clients don't overpay for properties.

Heath
And that's exactly right. Like wherever you are in the world, it doesn't really matter. You know, good point that you raise was the fact that, you know, it could be the exact same house in the exact same suburb, three streets apart, but all of a sudden that part of the suburb's dodgy or that part of the suburb's not as affluent as this part of the suburb.

00:03:41:21 - 00:04:05:20
Yeah. You know, that part of the suburb's not in the school catchment zone? Yep. That's definitely an easy one to recognise as well. But if you don't know, you don't know. But you know, we're talking about price per square metre of land, quality of fixtures and fittings. But outside of that we've just spoken about that. But outside of that, equity in negotiation skills, how many times in the last eight years have you negotiated in property?

00:04:05:22 - 00:04:24:02
How many times in the last eight years have you, you know, has the market been as hot as it is now? And in reality, right now as we speak, it's been the last four years, a hot market. So if you'd come 8 years ago to buy a property, you're way out of the market. If you think the property's risen 150%, the property market risen 150%.

00:04:24:02 - 00:04:50:01
But in fact, it's only risen 70%, i.e. the people that come through when you were there, you know, you've literally... The sellers will thank you. But what you've actually done, that side of that to the dynamics of the property market is this property. Now, if you bought it at $2.5 million, it becomes a new norm and the property prices just go up a lot, so there's so many dynamics to it.

00:04:50:01 - 00:05:10:14
But, you know, there's some big mistakes made by buyers.

Tiff
One more that we see with clients sometimes is, oh, well, there's, you know, 12 pictures on realestate.com.au. I can just have a look at those pictures and then talk to the selling agent. And that's how I'm going to manage this transaction. The amount of properties that we have been to inspect...

00:05:10:20 - 00:05:32:15
And I'm sure you as a punter have been in the same situation as well, where you see some pictures of the property, you go and have a look at said property and then they're two completely different things. So if you're trusting those photos and you're trusting the agent to give you an indication of the condition of the property, that's another huge mistake.

00:05:32:17 - 00:05:49:11
It is your requirement to do your own due diligence. It is not the selling agent's requirement to do your due diligence for you, so don't expect them to because they're not going to.

Heath
So they say a picture paints a thousand words, but you know you probably want to go visit yourself because you need 2000 words and a home.

00:05:49:11 - 00:06:10:10
So, yeah, that guys, if you want to know any more information, please let us know. Come and have a chat to us. Book in a free discovery meeting so we can see how we can marry up together, how we can help each other, and we can be on your journey, on your next journey. So until next time, happy investing.

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Tiff Collins

About the author

Director of Acquisitions - Queensland at You&Me Personalised Property Services

Experienced Brisbane Buyer's Agent with an extensive background as a practicing solicitor.

Common Mistakes to Avoid When Buying Brisbane Property