Belinda and Daniel

Introduction

Shane:
Belinda, how are you?

Belinda:
Good, how are you, Shane?

Shane:
Good thanks. Thanks for catching up with me today. I really appreciate it.

Belinda:
All good.

Shane:
What I was wanting to do is just a little quick video interview, just to ask a little bit about your experience in working with us, and also, I guess, what was happening for you before coming to work with us to find your property. And the reason for that is just to share with other people who might be considering the Buyers Agent Service to get feedback from someone who’s been through it. Is that okay?

Belinda:
Sure thing.

What Was Happening With Your Property Search Before We First Spoke?

Shane:
Awesome. Would you mind kicking off and just, I guess, filling us in a little bit on what was happening with your property search before you and I first spoke?

Belinda:
Okay. So my husband, Dan and I, we moved to Brisbane a year ago. And with the intention of buying a property reasonably fast, at the same time my brother lives down in Sydney and the Sydney market is quite expensive. So he also wanted to invest some money. We started to look, we had this wonderful idea that [inaudible 00:00:01:10] because there’s still quite a number of older properties here in Brisbane on reasonable size sections. And we’ve built two townhouses.

We went into it with a little [inaudible 00:01:19] to begin with. We’ve previously built houses in New Zealand, everything was fine, we loved the process. But we came to Brisbane post COVID… Well, arrived during COVID and then January 2021 we started looking, and it all just was getting a little bit difficult. We would turn up to open homes and there’d be 50 other people there. Instead of being an exciting, happy experience, it actually became more of a stressful experience. So after we’d been to a couple of auctions, but completely priced out, we thought we had to do something about this. So we got onto Google and that’s where you came along.

Shane:
Found us on Google, it’s working. That’s good.

Belinda:
Yeah, it’s working.

Shane:
There you go. And then obviously, we had a chat and spoke about what you were looking to do. What were your thoughts, I guess initially about… Or any apprehensions or concerns about working with the Buyer’s Agent to find what you wanted? Any initial thoughts around all of that? Oh, it’s muted there, sorry it stopped. Are you there?

Belinda:
Hello.

Shane:
Back.

Belinda:
Back.

Shane:
We’ve got you back. Yeah.

Belinda:
I didn’t press anything. That’s really weird.

Shane:
It’s okay, sorry. I didn’t catch any of that if you’re able to…

Belinda:
What was the question again?

Why did you choose Locate Brisbane Buyers Agents in preference to the other three Buyers Agents you spoke to?

Shane:
We had a chat about the Buyer’s Agency service, what did you initially think, I guess? What were your thoughts?

Belinda:
Well, initially… My brothers’ staying in Sydney had purchased a place in Sydney with the Buyer’s Agent. And he highly recommended getting a Buyer’s Agent in Australia as well because it really helped him. So we got on Google and sort of Googled three or so Buyer’s Agents. We went for three very different Buyer’s Agents just to get a different perspective. One was a large firm, just wasn’t going to work for us at all. Another one was a sort of mid tier sort of type firm, but they already had someone on their books that had the same thing that we wanted to do.

Shane:
Same brief.

Belinda:
Yeah, same brief. They took a while to get back to us anyway. But you were actually the first one to get back to us. You organized a call properly and we spoke to you within a couple of days.
And what really made us hire you on the spot was, the weekend before we had been to a open home property on Marshall street in Seven Hills, and we were standing outside and we’re like, “this is exactly what we want to do. We need to find this kind of property with an older house on it. We can go and build these two townhouses exactly like this.” And you turned around and told me that you had done that project. So there was decision made. You knew exactly what our brief was, what we were looking for, the areas we were looking for. And you also provided just so much information to Steven on that first call of things we had not even thought of. So going into it naively was like maybe almost a blessing in a way, because we’ve learned a lot along the way.

Shane:
That’s super cool. I do remember now how it was like, “oh, I know exactly what you’re looking for.” You didn’t kind of have to tell me too much more. That’s pretty cool. And then how did you find the process then once we kicked off, I mean, what were your thoughts? And…

Belinda:
Yeah, when we kicked off, you were really almost from the get go and you said, “look, it’s not going to happen in the first two weeks at all.” And then the more you sort of explained to us that you can’t just knock down any old house in Brisbane. There’s a lot of different roles. I knew there was that post war role of, “okay, we could [inaudible 00:05:13] thing post-war and that sort of thing,” but no, not always necessarily. It depends what size section it is on, and sometimes you have rows where if that 200 meters to a [inaudible 00:05:26] that’s bigger than X amount square meters, there’s allowances there and so forth. So when we kicked off a lot like, “Hey, there’s a lot more rules to this.” You do provide a few houses along the way, one we really liked, but of course the market’s hot.

And we learned a lot of that one because it ended up going for $200,000 more than what we initially wanted to pay for, what we offered. So, that was fine, it wasn’t meant to be. And that sort of thing. And you kept reassuring us every week with updates, “these are what the properties that you’re looking for are selling for, this is what you’re going to be expected to pay if you want to secure one and one will come along.” So I just had to believe in the process and we knew it wasn’t going to happen overnight, but it eventually happened.
Shane:
It did indeed. And then, now that you’ve purchased the property, how’s it all going by the way? How’s it [crosstalk 00:06:25]?

Belinda:
They’re really good actually. So we purchased the property, a lot of finance funding went through all that, always a stressful time as well. We happened to purchase in April, and the deal I think you struck all happened on the Thursday night before Easter.

Shane:
That’s right.

Belinda:
And then followed on a whole lot of public holidays. So we finally settled in May, and we’ve got a tenant for the property, she’s been there the whole time. Kind of continue on with that just being a rental at present, we’re going through the process of going through council to get subdivision and all that sort of thing. Pretty sure we’ve found a good builder as well, but this process takes about another six months to a year. So all going well so far.

Shane:
The great thing is now as the market’s still moving. So as we discussed when you purchased it, our views were that… And this is happening a lot right now, we probably at the time felt we had to pay that little more to secure the property so that they didn’t take it to the market. But we were saying that in 12 months time, we’ll be happy. You’ll be happy that that was the price [crosstalk 00:07:34].

Belinda:
Yeah, and I remember you telling us you got to make an offer that just makes you feel slightly uncomfortable. And it did, it made us feel slightly uncomfortable. But just the relief, just to know that we’ve actually secured the property is the main thing. And we’ve kept an eye on the market since, and you just can’t get anything cheaper, nothing’s any cheaper. So it is what it is.

Shane:
So we bid on one, not bid as it was off market for a client, a similar area, similar size, you could subdivide into two, slightly different because it was slightly bigger, but it just sold for 1.22, I think it was or 212. This is this morning, so…

Belinda:
Wow. Did they get it?

Shane:
Pardon?

Belinda:
Did your client get that for that price?

Shane:
No, we didn’t offer that, but that’s okay. I said we will find another one.

Belinda:
Yep, exactly. Yeah. So it’s just making that offer just to secure it is just a little uncomfortable, but it gets you the property at the end of the day.

What would your advice be to people considering using a Brisbane Buyers Agent? What concerns have you had in using one?

Shane:
Yeah, exactly. And what would you say to people considering using a Brisbane Buyers Agent? I mean, did you have concerns that then turned out a different way than you thought? I mean, what would you say…

Belinda:
Honestly, absolutely no question. Go with the Buyer’s Agent. It makes the whole process so much easier. Another aspect I haven’t touched on is the negotiation process. So I asked being a step back from that, I’m not involved in it. It’s just all the work that you did around the negotiation price, right on that Thursday night, going back and forth. It was like, “we couldn’t have done that. There’s just no way to secure the property in the end.” And it just takes a lot of that stress away as well.
And just all the advice you provided along the way, the context, the mortgage broker contact, it just makes it so much more enjoyable. And actually brought the excitement back to the process-

Shane:
That’s good.

Belinda:
Yeah, much more than turning up to an auction on a Saturday with a hundred other people. That was just never going to work for us. It was just too stressful. And we were just being priced bit out of the market every time, especially because what we want to do is property development. You have these long time property developer guys that turn up and they know the real estate agent and they’re all charmy and that sort of thing. And we just had no chance. So yeah. There’s no question, you’re our next point of call when we do the next one.

Shane:
Sounds good, looking forward to that. I found that interesting that you said it brought the sort of excitement back into it. I mean, what was that? Do you think it’s because you step away or what was it about, and do you think that maybe made it exciting again?

Belinda:
Just that there was actually hope that it was actually possible. So then it sort of brought the excitement into it as well. And it all happened so fast and that’s the thing. And as long as we have to be like that in this market, you don’t have time to think. You want it, you just got to do it thing. I mean, we were signing contracts while we were hotspotting in the car, on the back of the car, over the bridge in town. We were coming back from the airport. For me, I strive on sort of stress like that, but that’s just me. To me- [crosstalk 00:11:00].

Shane:
You like that fast pace?

Belinda:
Yeah, that fast pace is exciting for me. And my husband and my brother,just sort of just go along for the ride. So yeah, it’s been really good for both of them as well actually, giving them a bit of a… Was a good experience for them to see how it all works even though I’m still at the admin side of it all, but yeah.

Shane:
You are now managing the process, huh?

Belinda:
Yeah. I’m the admin person.

Shane:
The boys are like, “the next one?”

Belinda:
Yeah. Pretty much my brother’s already like that, so I was just like, ” let’s just start this one first.”

Shane:
It’s always exciting to secure the property and get the deal over the line and then obviously with development that’s kind of when the work starts.

Belinda:
Exactly. Yeah.

Shane:
The work starts.

Belinda:
Every step of the process has actually been quite exciting. We’ve got all this council stuff at the moment, but then the next exciting stuff is going to the architect and starting the design work.

Shane:
Yeah. That’s always good because you get to put your own sort of spin on that and the things that… You probably got a Pinterest board or something with all pictures that you like, and I photos everywhere designs [crosstalk 00:12:02].

Belinda:
Yep. All of that sort of stuff. So yeah, no looking forward to it. But always keeping our eye out for the next project as well of course. This won’t be our last, I know that.

Shane:
Getting warmed up.

Belinda:
Yeah. We did a few in New Zealand as well, so we actually enjoy the process and I know some people find building really, really stressful, but we love it. So we’re going to keep doing it.

Shane:
That will show through in the product too, I’m sure.

Belinda:
Yeah.

Shane:
That’s very cool. Anything that we haven’t thought of or asked that you wanted to mention or relevant for someone considering…?

Belinda:
I think getting a Buyer’s Agent, we were looking for a property that was quite niche. It had to be able to be subdivided. So if you’re looking for something quite niche, there’s just no question, a Buyer’s Agent all day long. It just takes out a lot of the tire kicking along the way that you have to do. We would look at properties and they call you, “we can subdivide,” if we had bought of them, we would have been stuck because you weren’t able to subdivide them. You were able to tell us a lot of rules after, once we got going with you, the different little rules. I found a great place, and then I realized there was a bus stop in front of it. And you told me, “yeah, the counselor’s not going to let you move a bus stop.” And even things like that, you don’t really get that many protected trees in Brisbane, but it’s just another thing that we had to look out for that you pointed out.
And so we were looking for something really niche, but equally, even if you’re just looking just for your forever home or family home or whatever, I would still use a Buyer’s Agent because you get to see properties that are off market as well. So if you can nab that property before it goes to market, before it hits domain, and real estate, and hundreds of other people see it, you get yourself a little gym. So I think it’s a Buyer’s Agent, and I’ve recommended a Buyer’s Agent to all my friends or family that are currently looking in Brisbane and Sydney just is the way to go.

Shane:
That’s great feedback. That’s really good. Yeah, we are helping a lot of home buyers at the moment for that same reason that it’s super competitive, but what’s happening in the market. Rightly so, I guess the agents aren’t really putting a price on anything because they’re working for the seller, and they’re not wanting to put a ceiling on anything in any kind of way. They’re there to work the market upwards, but it’s making it really difficult for the home buyers because they really don’t know where to start or where to stop, and where not to overpay. So that sort of playing out in the market right now as well, but we’re still securing some great properties off market at the moment.

Belinda:
And I guess there’s always going to be people that don’t want to sell on market, for whatever personal reason. So if you can nab one of them, then everyone wins.

Shane:
Right time, right place, right?

Belinda:
Yep, exactly [crosstalk 00:15:14]. You’re worth every single penny, Shane.

Shane:
Thank you so much. I really appreciate that.

Belinda:
And actually just on that, I didn’t actually think that the fees were too expensive in all honesty. I didn’t know exactly what to expect, but it is worth paying that little bit extra. And I don’t get built into that your costs and that sort of thing anyway, especially for us in our project.

Shane:
Yeah. And that’s always the case with development. You just got to build it in with that cost. But I think even with home buyers right now or investors. I mean, what I find is sometimes it’s a herd of people coming into the process, but once they’ve kind of made that, “well, we’re going to do it,” in commitment then we start the search, then they start to go, “oh wow, yeah, this is really worth it,” because we’re providing a lot of context and a lot of information and insight that is helping with decision-making and confidence that people never really expected on the outset. So…

Belinda:
You’re actually working for us, you’re not one of those,you’re not a seller’s agent that obviously looking out for the seller and just telling you what you want to hear.

Shane:
This is true. Awesome. Well, that was about it. Thank you so much. I really appreciate you answering all of those questions and taking some time and working with us as well.