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Building The Dream: Jess Shares What She’s Learned (So Far) · She's On The Money

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: My name is Tatasha Bamblet. I'm a proud First Nations
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: woman and I'm here to acknowledge country. T Glenn youan
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: Ganya Niana, kaka ya Ya Binahaka nian Ar gay In Mbini,
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: yakarum jar doumayamiga Umagahawakawaman damon immalan Uma bang gadaboma in
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: and now in waka ghana on yak rum jar Wattanadana. Hello,
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  Speaker 1: beautiful friends, we gather on the lands of the Aboriginal people.
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: We thank acknowledge and respect the Aberiginal people's land that
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: we're gathering on today. Take pleasure in all the land
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: and respect all that you see. She's on the Money
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: podcast acknowledges culture, country, community and connections, bringing you the tools,
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: knowledge and resources for you to thrive.
• 0:45
  Speaker 2: She's on the Money. She's on the Money. Hello, and
• 0:51
  Speaker 2: welcome to She's on the Money. The podcast is here
• 0:53
  Speaker 2: to help you achieve your big money dreams. And we
• 0:56
  Speaker 2: know for so many of you that's owning your own home.
• 0:59
  Speaker 2: But we are also your aware that it is a
• 1:01
  Speaker 2: goal that is feeling harder and harder to achieve right now,
• 1:03
  Speaker 2: and the numbers actually back that up. According to Domain,
• 1:06
  Speaker 2: over the last five years, entry level house prices in
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  Speaker 2: Australia have gone up about sixty eight percent, while wages
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  Speaker 2: have only grown around twenty one percent. So naturally you
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  Speaker 2: all want to know every possible path into the property market,
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  Speaker 2: and one of the less talked about ways is building.
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  Speaker 2: I'm excited and today I'm not joined by Victoria, but
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  Speaker 2: someone who is currently figuring out her own house build
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  Speaker 2: at the moment, in real time. Jessica Ricky, Hi, Hi,
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  Speaker 2: welcome to the deep dive couch. Oh, I got fun.
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  Speaker 2: It's very comfy. It's very comfy, and that's what people
• 1:38
  Speaker 2: don't realize, very comfy couch. So sometimes it makes us
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  Speaker 2: a bit sleepy. So jess first of all, I'm so
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  Speaker 2: proud of you. Thank you. You've wanted this for a
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  Speaker 2: long time. So you're building a property. You're building a
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  Speaker 2: house basically your bare hands hammering away. I can see
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  Speaker 2: where your tool beld are.
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  Speaker 3: I think.
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  Speaker 2: So you've been sharing your else journey with the community
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  Speaker 2: from the beginning, and I feel like everyone is a
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  Speaker 2: little bit invested in how it's going. So today I'm
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  Speaker 2: basically going to ask you the questions the community has
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  Speaker 2: been sending in about your house build so far.
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  Speaker 4: Oh, it's so nice that people are so because I
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  Speaker 4: feel like it has I've been doing about it. Originally
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  Speaker 4: I wanted to buy I mean we've spoken about this
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  Speaker 4: many times. People have probably heard the story, but.
• 2:19
  Speaker 2: Land I'm buying.
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  Speaker 4: I couldn't afford it, and there was always back and forth,
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  Speaker 4: and even the process of getting this bill done has
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  Speaker 4: taken so long. The whole thing has been years and
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  Speaker 4: years and years, and you know, people always checking in,
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  Speaker 4: and you know, before I'd announced that I'd bought Landed
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  Speaker 4: that I was going to build, people saying what's happening
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  Speaker 4: with the house hunt and how's it going? It just
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  Speaker 4: people are so kind to give it their like attention
• 2:38
  Speaker 4: and thoughts, and you know, I believe me. I have
• 2:41
  Speaker 4: been in the trenches. I get it, and I was
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  Speaker 4: consuming every piece of content that I could about everything
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  Speaker 4: and asking people questions. And you know, so if this
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  Speaker 4: episode can help just one person, you know, feel a
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  Speaker 4: little bit more confident in considering building as a choice, then.
• 2:55
  Speaker 2: I feel like I've time. My job actually is sounding
• 2:58
  Speaker 2: like it and I know that you have told me
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  Speaker 2: little bits and pieces, but I think it would be
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  Speaker 2: really good to do mystify the whole process for everyone.
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  Speaker 2: So I think we need a quick update because building
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  Speaker 2: house is quite a long process. What's happened so far?
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  Speaker 2: And where are you actually up to in the process
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  Speaker 2: right now?
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  Speaker 4: Okay, So I'm still in what is called pre construction,
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  Speaker 4: so the build has not actually commenced yet. Okay, this
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  Speaker 4: period has been very drawn out because we hit a
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  Speaker 4: couple of road bumps. So pre construction comprises of a
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  Speaker 4: few different things. For me, my land was titled before
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  Speaker 4: I signed with my builder, so that's something that you
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  Speaker 4: may or may not have to wait for. If your
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  Speaker 4: land isn't titled, you can't really enter. I don't think
• 3:36
  Speaker 4: into full preconstruction. It'll depend on your builder. I don't
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  Speaker 4: want to make blanket statement. Sure you don't technically own it, right,
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  Speaker 4: so like they can. My builder took a look at
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  Speaker 4: the lot itself. I sent them the information and they
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  Speaker 4: checked it for was it in high risk flood area?
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  Speaker 4: Was in high risk fire area? What's the elevation? Like
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  Speaker 4: to get a rough estimate of what site costs would
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  Speaker 4: be for me? Because that is some thing that when
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  Speaker 4: you look at house prices online. So if you go
• 4:02
  Speaker 4: to any build a website, it'll say you can build
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  Speaker 4: this house from two hundred thousand dollars. You need to
• 4:08
  Speaker 4: add a lot more money onto that because there are
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  Speaker 4: a bunch of things that includes, like your basic base
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  Speaker 4: base model, and it also doesn't include your site costs.
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  Speaker 4: And site costs are things that the builders will have
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  Speaker 4: to do to the building site to get it going.
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  Speaker 4: Everything from the cost of fencing to if you need
• 4:26
  Speaker 4: to divert traffic if you're on a main road, if
• 4:29
  Speaker 4: you need to level out the block because it's on
• 4:31
  Speaker 4: a huge angle. There can be things with pipes underneath,
• 4:34
  Speaker 4: or the type of soil that you have. There are
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  Speaker 4: so many things that factory site costs. For me personally,
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  Speaker 4: I was building in a relatively new area and they
• 4:44
  Speaker 4: actually my builder had built the house next door, so
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  Speaker 4: they were like, we've got a great gauge on everything
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  Speaker 4: because we did all of the surveying for that house already.
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  Speaker 4: But that is a big cost and a little bit
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  Speaker 4: of time that it takes them to like do all
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  Speaker 4: of the checks and things that they need preconstruction. Also,
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  Speaker 4: in clue, for my builder, it's two pre build appointments,
• 5:03
  Speaker 4: so your lifestyle appointment or your color appointment A lot
• 5:05
  Speaker 4: of people call it where you're picking flooring, tiles, pain
• 5:09
  Speaker 4: like all the fun things, but the fun one, although
• 5:11
  Speaker 4: you spend a lot of money there, or I did.
• 5:13
  Speaker 4: And then your electrical appointment, where you go through all
• 5:16
  Speaker 4: of your electrical plans, heating and cooling, a lot more
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  Speaker 4: things than I thought were involved in it originally. So
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  Speaker 4: I've done those two appointments, and then after that they
• 5:24
  Speaker 4: submit everything to the developer for approval, which is where
• 5:29
  Speaker 4: I got a bit hung up.
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  Speaker 2: So it's been three.
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  Speaker 4: Months back and forth because we submitted the facade, which
• 5:35
  Speaker 4: is the front of the house, okay, And so I
• 5:38
  Speaker 4: went in on my color appointment with the lovely girl,
• 5:40
  Speaker 4: sat down, picked all my colors out and she said, great, perfect,
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  Speaker 4: that's what we submit to the developer. And the first
• 5:47
  Speaker 4: time the developer rejected it because it was all one color.
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  Speaker 2: It was all white. Is anybody shocked? Absolutely not.
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  Speaker 4: And they said, if you refer to your contract, it
• 5:54
  Speaker 4: needs to be two different colors, and I said, well, actually,
• 5:57
  Speaker 4: my contract it says it needs to be two materials
• 5:59
  Speaker 4: or two color and it is two materials. It's render
• 6:02
  Speaker 4: and render is like the textould looking concrete. Oh I see,
• 6:07
  Speaker 4: so like instead of the brick, they put the render
• 6:09
  Speaker 4: over it got you and the wooden boards on the
• 6:12
  Speaker 4: front of the house. Anyway, two materials. But I said, no, worries,
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  Speaker 4: make it white and gray, Like who am I to
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  Speaker 4: be difficult? So they resubmit, and then they came back
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  Speaker 4: and said white and gray are too similar of colors,
• 6:23
  Speaker 4: and I said, well, they're too completely. Actually technically white
• 6:25
  Speaker 4: white is a shade firstly, not a color. But also
• 6:28
  Speaker 4: there were multiple houses in the estate that were all white,
• 6:31
  Speaker 4: already plenty that were white and gray.
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  Speaker 2: And this is where my saga began.
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  Speaker 4: And so my poor builder, it was actually the girl
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  Speaker 4: from my color appointment, was going back and forth back
• 6:43
  Speaker 4: and forth with the developer, and eventually I said.
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  Speaker 2: To her, just give me his email.
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  Speaker 4: You know, I think it's going to be a little
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  Speaker 4: bit easier if I just go to them directly, which
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  Speaker 4: I did, and turns out the guy was kind of
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  Speaker 4: a douche. So I emailed him and said, hey, like,
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  Speaker 4: I'm just really not understanding, Like per my contract it
• 7:00
  Speaker 4: says x y Z. You know, we've met all four
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  Speaker 4: of those criteria, Like theoretically I only need to have
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  Speaker 4: two colors or two materials. I've got all four, what
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  Speaker 4: more do you want from me? And he was like,
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  Speaker 4: the colors percentage wise are too similar. I said, okay,
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  Speaker 4: any worries, can you let me know where it discloses
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  Speaker 4: the threshold for color differentiation And he did not have
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  Speaker 4: an answer for that. It's not a messages the reach
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  Speaker 4: of contracts people, That's all I'm saying. So there was
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  Speaker 4: a lot of back and forth. I spoke to the
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  Speaker 4: girl that I bought the land from, because I also
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  Speaker 4: bought the land from the developer, and she was really
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  Speaker 4: wonderful and really helpful. Spoke to the guy on my behalf.
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  Speaker 4: He refused to change it and was just like, well,
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  Speaker 4: it says in my contract that we have final say.
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  Speaker 4: And I was like, respectfully, you don't even work for
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  Speaker 4: the place that owns the land, like it's a third
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  Speaker 4: party company that get sent.
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  Speaker 2: To to do the approvals.
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  Speaker 4: And I've obviously just scotten what I'm guessing is some
• 7:52
  Speaker 4: old man who just doesn't like people arguing back. At
• 7:56
  Speaker 4: some point in the process, we also worked out that
• 7:58
  Speaker 4: he was applying the wrong guidelines. So like within an
• 8:02
  Speaker 4: estate or within a newer estate, they sell in what's
• 8:06
  Speaker 4: called stages. So an estate might be divided up into
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  Speaker 4: thirty stages, and within each stage, there'll be a couple
• 8:13
  Speaker 4: of blocks of land, right, or a couple of blocks
• 8:15
  Speaker 4: of houses. And it's very common for different stages to
• 8:20
  Speaker 4: have different rules applied, because when you're first building, if
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  Speaker 4: it's just a field of paddocks, you need to entice
• 8:26
  Speaker 4: people to come. So those early stages will often have
• 8:29
  Speaker 4: very lax rules or very you know, I mean, not
• 8:32
  Speaker 4: a lot of restrictions around color or style or anything.
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  Speaker 4: As the estate develops, and often as they start to
• 8:40
  Speaker 4: develop a style or a taste, they will start to
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  Speaker 4: overlay more stringent guidelines.
• 8:46
  Speaker 2: Is that what the color?
• 8:47
  Speaker 4: And so Yeah, So within my contract there was the
• 8:49
  Speaker 4: specification that it needs to be within a certain color palette,
• 8:53
  Speaker 4: so like I couldn't paint it fluorescent yellow if I
• 8:56
  Speaker 4: wanted to, for example, crazy certain materials needed to be
• 8:59
  Speaker 4: used percentages as well, so like no more than sixty
• 9:02
  Speaker 4: percent of my facade could be any particular material. I see,
• 9:06
  Speaker 4: when you go to your builder, typically they'll have multiple
• 9:08
  Speaker 4: different facades that you can choose from. And so if
• 9:11
  Speaker 4: you go, okay, well, I know that I can only
• 9:13
  Speaker 4: have sixty percent of one particular material. I can't pick
• 9:16
  Speaker 4: the facade that is all render or that is all
• 9:19
  Speaker 4: wood or that is all glass, because those rules overlay
• 9:23
  Speaker 4: over the top. So this guy from this approval's place
• 9:27
  Speaker 4: was applying the incorrect stages guidelines, which I very politely
• 9:31
  Speaker 4: pointed out to him, and he did not really appreciate that.
• 9:34
  Speaker 4: So I just we got to a point where I
• 9:36
  Speaker 4: was digging my heels in. And I don't know if
• 9:39
  Speaker 4: you guys know this about me, but I am a
• 9:41
  Speaker 4: little bit stubborn, and so I was like, who is
• 9:45
  Speaker 4: this man tried to tell me what to do, Like,
• 9:47
  Speaker 4: what do you mean I'm paying a house? Absolutely, I
• 9:49
  Speaker 4: can't paint a gray and white like I've already made
• 9:51
  Speaker 4: a concession. I wanted to be all white. Fine, I'll
• 9:53
  Speaker 4: meet you halfway, Like, I'll paint it two colors, two
• 9:55
  Speaker 4: neutral colors that meet all of your standards, that fit
• 9:58
  Speaker 4: everything within my contract that you know, match all of
• 10:02
  Speaker 4: the houses. There are other houses that are like this,
• 10:04
  Speaker 4: And he just was being really rude, and so I
• 10:08
  Speaker 4: ultimately escalated it to like the government like building government thing,
• 10:14
  Speaker 4: and within like twenty four hours, some guy there was like, yeah,
• 10:16
  Speaker 4: absolutely can build a great white house approved.
• 10:18
  Speaker 2: Oh my god.
• 10:19
  Speaker 4: At that point where you kind of like I should
• 10:21
  Speaker 4: have tried for the white and white, I was, you know,
• 10:23
  Speaker 4: I'll take what I take what I short. But also
• 10:25
  Speaker 4: like so many people were saying to me like does
• 10:27
  Speaker 4: it matter, like just make it. Don't listen to them,
• 10:30
  Speaker 4: this is it like and I was kind of like, guys,
• 10:32
  Speaker 4: I'm too deep in it, Like I've yet my I've
• 10:34
  Speaker 4: been really like stubborn through to this point, like I
• 10:37
  Speaker 4: can't just roll over. And you know what, I'm glad
• 10:40
  Speaker 4: that I did. Yeah, spending so much money. I feel
• 10:42
  Speaker 4: like I'm entitled. Yes, it's not like I wanted to
• 10:45
  Speaker 4: paint a giant.
• 10:46
  Speaker 2: Clown on the front of my house. Totally. I wanted
• 10:49
  Speaker 2: it to be white and gray. This is your home. Yeah,
• 10:52
  Speaker 2: and you are like dotting your eyes, crossing your teas.
• 10:57
  Speaker 2: I would never second guess anything you say, because you
• 10:59
  Speaker 2: have read that somewhere and you've made sure you've read
• 11:01
  Speaker 2: the right version of the right thing. You know what
• 11:04
  Speaker 2: you're doing, and I've cross checked.
• 11:05
  Speaker 4: I've asked people for a fight. So anyway, I feel
• 11:07
  Speaker 4: like I've taken this on a whole by tension. I'm
• 11:09
  Speaker 4: so sorry, but what I will say is when I
• 11:11
  Speaker 4: spoke to a few of my friends who have also built,
• 11:13
  Speaker 4: they all said that they had had similar experiences at
• 11:16
  Speaker 4: different points in their build where like there had been
• 11:19
  Speaker 4: something they'd wanted and someone had just said no, you
• 11:21
  Speaker 4: can't have that, and they'd kind of gone.
• 11:22
  Speaker 2: Oh, okay, yeah.
• 11:24
  Speaker 4: And I would just encourage people to make sure that
• 11:26
  Speaker 4: you know what your entitlements are. Like if I had
• 11:30
  Speaker 4: signed a contract that said there needs to be x
• 11:33
  Speaker 4: amount of RGB difference in the color basis whatever it
• 11:36
  Speaker 4: was that, he said, absolutely, it is my responsibility to.
• 11:39
  Speaker 2: Adhere to that.
• 11:40
  Speaker 4: But sometimes people will just say things to you, and
• 11:42
  Speaker 4: I don't know if it's just I don't want to
• 11:44
  Speaker 4: bring gender into it, but sometimes, especially from the tone
• 11:47
  Speaker 4: of the way this man was talking to me, it
• 11:49
  Speaker 4: very much felt like he was kind of little girling me. Yeah,
• 11:52
  Speaker 4: and you can actually put your foot down and escalate
• 11:55
  Speaker 4: things and do your own dutilidance.
• 11:57
  Speaker 2: That's really cool. That is really cool. Thank you.
• 11:59
  Speaker 4: So that's pushed out three months, taken three months to
• 12:01
  Speaker 4: do that construction. Is you to start in the next
• 12:04
  Speaker 4: like two weeks? Okay, that's very exciting.
• 12:07
  Speaker 2: That is so exciting. I want to quickly ask, what
• 12:09
  Speaker 2: does if the land is titled? The hell is that?
• 12:14
  Speaker 1: So?
• 12:14
  Speaker 4: Titled land is when the land has officially been registered
• 12:18
  Speaker 4: with a certificate of title that proves someone legally can
• 12:22
  Speaker 4: own it, the boundaries of the land have been established
• 12:24
  Speaker 4: and all those sorts of things. So until land is titled,
• 12:27
  Speaker 4: it can't be sold on to somebody unofficially. So you
• 12:31
  Speaker 4: can put down your deposit, which is what if you
• 12:33
  Speaker 4: were to purchase untitled land, you would speak to the
• 12:36
  Speaker 4: developer or the salesperson or whoever you're dealing with, put
• 12:39
  Speaker 4: your deposit down. The balance of what you owe would
• 12:42
  Speaker 4: not be due until the land is titled because it
• 12:44
  Speaker 4: can't actually officially be yours until that's happened. So if
• 12:49
  Speaker 4: it's not titled and you don't own it, you also
• 12:51
  Speaker 4: obviously can't build on it. So a lot of people
• 12:54
  Speaker 4: will buy in New States untitled land, and it is
• 12:57
  Speaker 4: good because you have reserved it. If so, if I
• 13:01
  Speaker 4: had bought untitled land two years ago and it took
• 13:04
  Speaker 4: two years to title, I would have had two years
• 13:07
  Speaker 4: to keep saving. So it's really appealing I think for
• 13:10
  Speaker 4: especially first home buyers, because you can still take advantage
• 13:14
  Speaker 4: of all of your grants and schemes and things like that,
• 13:16
  Speaker 4: like I did, But you have time to save if
• 13:19
  Speaker 4: there's a long titling period.
• 13:20
  Speaker 2: Yes, understood.
• 13:21
  Speaker 4: Whereas the block that I bought was already titled, so
• 13:23
  Speaker 4: as soon as it transferred to me, I had a
• 13:26
  Speaker 4: mortgage amazing, So if it doesn't get titled, then you
• 13:28
  Speaker 4: just get your money back.
• 13:29
  Speaker 2: I assume, I would assume, so I don't think it's
• 13:31
  Speaker 2: very common for it.
• 13:33
  Speaker 4: It can delay, that's quite common. Like I've heard of
• 13:35
  Speaker 4: blocks of land titling pushing out, pushing out, pushing out,
• 13:38
  Speaker 4: which can be hard for people if they've got timelines,
• 13:41
  Speaker 4: you know, if their preconstruction is done, they're ready to go.
• 13:44
  Speaker 4: Maybe they're renting somewhere and they've tried to line it
• 13:46
  Speaker 4: all up. So if your titling pushes out, that can
• 13:49
  Speaker 4: be annoying. If your builder doesn't have fixed price costing
• 13:53
  Speaker 4: as well, that can be frustrating because like for me,
• 13:55
  Speaker 4: my prices are fixed, so great cost of materials and
• 13:58
  Speaker 4: stuff is likely going to go up with all of
• 14:02
  Speaker 4: the things happening with the world's oil supply, etc. And transport.
• 14:05
  Speaker 4: My costing won't change because my prices are fixed. But
• 14:08
  Speaker 4: if yours weren't, that would.
• 14:10
  Speaker 2: Be something that you would probably be concerned about as well.
• 14:13
  Speaker 2: When my partner Jess was buying an apartment, she put
• 14:16
  Speaker 2: a deposit down. And this is what I don't like
• 14:18
  Speaker 2: is that, like an am sends a reason for it,
• 14:19
  Speaker 2: someone comes and values it and if it is worth
• 14:23
  Speaker 2: in their eyes less, then the bank will only give
• 14:27
  Speaker 2: you what the valuer says it's worth. And so in
• 14:30
  Speaker 2: this case where there's nothing there, did you get a
• 14:33
  Speaker 2: bank loan? And how did they do that?
• 14:34
  Speaker 4: This actually happened to me when we were applying for
• 14:36
  Speaker 4: my loans. We changed the bank that my loan was
• 14:39
  Speaker 4: going to be through because the first bank projected the
• 14:44
  Speaker 4: valuation at lower than it would be.
• 14:46
  Speaker 2: And we're like, how is that possible?
• 14:49
  Speaker 4: Because you know what the construction is worth, because I've
• 14:52
  Speaker 4: just signed a contract to pay that cost for construction, Like,
• 14:55
  Speaker 4: that is the market value of that construction? Yeah, that
• 14:58
  Speaker 4: is the market value with land. From what Jack, who
• 15:01
  Speaker 4: was my broker, said, that's very rare, very very rare.
• 15:05
  Speaker 4: But they do also do evaluation at the end as well,
• 15:08
  Speaker 4: So they do evaluation at the start to go, oh, well,
• 15:12
  Speaker 4: we think it's going to be worth XYZ. Typically that
• 15:15
  Speaker 4: would be based on what you're spending. It's kind of
• 15:17
  Speaker 4: hard to argue against market value because as I said,
• 15:20
  Speaker 4: that's what I'm paying. It's not like I've gone to
• 15:21
  Speaker 4: auction and emotionally overspent, Like I am paying for this
• 15:25
  Speaker 4: to be built, and this is what I'm I've signed
• 15:27
  Speaker 4: on to pay. But then at the end they'll do
• 15:30
  Speaker 4: another valuation and if they find that it's not worth
• 15:34
  Speaker 4: what I paid or in their estimation doesn't line up,
• 15:37
  Speaker 4: I will be liable for the shortfall. So it's and like,
• 15:40
  Speaker 4: this is the thing is I don't think it's super common,
• 15:43
  Speaker 4: and if from what I've heard, it happened to a
• 15:45
  Speaker 4: friend of mine and it was only maybe four or
• 15:47
  Speaker 4: five thousand dollars, which in the scheme of things is
• 15:50
  Speaker 4: not the worst, but it can be, I think, especially
• 15:53
  Speaker 4: when you do larger, fancier homes and there's more room
• 15:57
  Speaker 4: for those types of things to happen. Like it is
• 16:00
  Speaker 4: a risk that if the valuation doesn't line up with
• 16:03
  Speaker 4: what you've spent, that you need to then make up.
• 16:05
  Speaker 2: That money immediately or like I'm honestly not entirely sure.
• 16:09
  Speaker 4: And I mean there would be like you would talk
• 16:11
  Speaker 4: to a broker, right, So like Jack from Zella did
• 16:12
  Speaker 4: my loan, and if that happened to me, we would
• 16:15
  Speaker 4: be saying, oh my god, like what can we do?
• 16:16
  Speaker 4: Can we get alone? Can we get a personal loan?
• 16:18
  Speaker 4: Can we increase the mortgage? You know with the loan
• 16:21
  Speaker 4: that I got for this build? She said, okay, great,
• 16:23
  Speaker 4: we'll just change banks and we'll get it valued by
• 16:25
  Speaker 4: another bank. And they valued it, you know, at the
• 16:28
  Speaker 4: correct amount, and it was all fine. So it is
• 16:30
  Speaker 4: also like subject to the valuer that you get, the
• 16:34
  Speaker 4: bank that you go through. Like there's so many things,
• 16:36
  Speaker 4: which I think is where going through a broker is
• 16:38
  Speaker 4: really helpful because like, if that does happen to.
• 16:41
  Speaker 2: Me, the first person I will be picking up the
• 16:42
  Speaker 2: phone too, is Jack Me, Like help. I do have
• 16:45
  Speaker 2: more questions in my brain, but I'm going to go
• 16:46
  Speaker 2: through these because maybe I'm doubling up. So let's start
• 16:48
  Speaker 2: with the community questions. A lot of people I wanted
• 16:51
  Speaker 2: to know the main pros and cons of building versus buying,
• 16:55
  Speaker 2: and how did you land on the decision to build.
• 16:57
  Speaker 2: So I was looking at buying at first, and I
• 16:59
  Speaker 2: just every kept selling for more than I could afford it.
• 17:01
  Speaker 2: Is the honest truth of it.
• 17:03
  Speaker 4: I think building has worked out really well for me
• 17:05
  Speaker 4: because one of the huge benefits was I got to
• 17:07
  Speaker 4: take advantage of a lot of grunts and schemes that
• 17:09
  Speaker 4: I would not have qualified for buying an established house.
• 17:12
  Speaker 4: The biggest one is the stamp duty exemption, which I've
• 17:14
  Speaker 4: spoken about before. I saved probably thirty thousand dollars in
• 17:17
  Speaker 4: stamp duty, which it's because stamp duty is calculated if
• 17:23
  Speaker 4: you're building on the land at the time that you
• 17:26
  Speaker 4: buy it, so they calculated it based on half of
• 17:29
  Speaker 4: my total cost, roughly just the cost of the land.
• 17:32
  Speaker 4: In Victoria at the time, it was capping out at
• 17:36
  Speaker 4: I think six hundred and fifty thousand dollars to feel
• 17:38
  Speaker 4: full exemption, up to seven hundred or seven hundred and
• 17:42
  Speaker 4: fifty to get a partial exemption, and houses were selling
• 17:46
  Speaker 4: for way more than that, so I would have had
• 17:48
  Speaker 4: to pay an additional thirty thousand dollars or more just
• 17:52
  Speaker 4: in stamp duty alone. I also got the first home biogrant,
• 17:56
  Speaker 4: which gave me ten thousand dollars in cash, which gets
• 17:58
  Speaker 4: put towards the property building as well, which is fantastic.
• 18:01
  Speaker 4: You can qualify that if you build a brand new house.
• 18:05
  Speaker 4: But I think a lot of the builds that are
• 18:06
  Speaker 4: selling these days are established homes that have already been occupied,
• 18:09
  Speaker 4: which wouldn't qualify. So like that's hugely beneficial from a
• 18:13
  Speaker 4: financial perspective, also just from like a control perspective, Like
• 18:17
  Speaker 4: I've picked everything that's going into that house, so totally,
• 18:20
  Speaker 4: the walls, the tiles, all sorts of things, Like I
• 18:23
  Speaker 4: have full control. And while I could have bought an
• 18:26
  Speaker 4: established house and renovated it, and I didn't mind the
• 18:28
  Speaker 4: idea of that at all, it is much easier to
• 18:31
  Speaker 4: move into something that is ready or mostly ready. There
• 18:34
  Speaker 4: will still be things that I want to do later
• 18:36
  Speaker 4: on just because of finances, but for the most part,
• 18:39
  Speaker 4: I'll move in.
• 18:40
  Speaker 2: It'll be exactly what I wanted it to be. That's incredible.
• 18:43
  Speaker 2: That is so fun. Oh my god, I can't wait
• 18:46
  Speaker 2: to have you over for dinner. I know, I'm so excited. Next,
• 18:50
  Speaker 2: we want to know where do you even start if
• 18:52
  Speaker 2: you want to build a house. This is this actually
• 18:53
  Speaker 2: was one of my questions. I'm kind of like, what's
• 18:55
  Speaker 2: the whole process from thinking about it to now where
• 19:00
  Speaker 2: you are?
• 19:00
  Speaker 4: I suppose so I started with finding my builder because
• 19:05
  Speaker 4: I knew exactly where I wanted to buy land. Yeah,
• 19:08
  Speaker 4: and it was a matter of waiting for that land
• 19:09
  Speaker 4: to become available. If you're buying in a brand new
• 19:12
  Speaker 4: estate like I was talking about earlier, and there's lots
• 19:14
  Speaker 4: of untitled blocks, you might start there. You might secure
• 19:16
  Speaker 4: your block first and then find somebody to build it on.
• 19:19
  Speaker 4: But it was also handy because I could then have
• 19:21
  Speaker 4: my builder take a look at that block. And there
• 19:24
  Speaker 4: was one block I did look at buying and the
• 19:26
  Speaker 4: builder said, oh, like, there's this big like electrical thing
• 19:29
  Speaker 4: that you can't remove, So there will be a section
• 19:32
  Speaker 4: of square meterage that you can't build on or around.
• 19:36
  Speaker 4: And so that would mean that you couldn't put a
• 19:38
  Speaker 4: regular floor plan on it because it would butt into
• 19:41
  Speaker 4: where that electrical box was, I see, which would have
• 19:44
  Speaker 4: been a nightmare. So I didn't buy that block. So
• 19:46
  Speaker 4: reverse engineering it that way worked really well for me.
• 19:49
  Speaker 4: I found my builder through recommendation, Like five of my
• 19:52
  Speaker 4: friends have built through the builder I'm going through, and
• 19:55
  Speaker 4: they will have great houses. They've had good experiences, you know.
• 19:58
  Speaker 4: Word of mouth, I think is one of the best options.
• 20:01
  Speaker 4: Otherwise speak to a lot of people. I did speak
• 20:03
  Speaker 4: to other builders. And one of the biggest things in
• 20:06
  Speaker 4: boutiques favor boutique who're building with everyone cares. One of
• 20:09
  Speaker 4: the biggest things that was in their favor was the
• 20:11
  Speaker 4: girl that I spoke to. I think they're called new
• 20:13
  Speaker 4: homes consultants. So if you go through a display home,
• 20:17
  Speaker 4: for example, I went through so many display homes from
• 20:19
  Speaker 4: so many builders, And when you go through a display home,
• 20:22
  Speaker 4: there'll be a consultant there, or if you inquire online,
• 20:24
  Speaker 4: you'll be connected with a consultant. And it was really
• 20:27
  Speaker 4: interesting observing the different ways that different people would treat
• 20:31
  Speaker 4: me because you guys know, I'm building this home all
• 20:33
  Speaker 4: by myself. My partner's not contributing. I don't have parental
• 20:36
  Speaker 4: or other support, like it's on me. And some people,
• 20:41
  Speaker 4: you know, if I went through places with my partner,
• 20:43
  Speaker 4: they would defer to my partner or really you know,
• 20:46
  Speaker 4: if I would talk about the fact that it was
• 20:48
  Speaker 4: my house and I wanted to do X y Z,
• 20:51
  Speaker 4: they would go, oh, you know, like and not talk
• 20:54
  Speaker 4: down to me.
• 20:55
  Speaker 3: But just.
• 20:57
  Speaker 2: The vibe was off. Do you mean, like I don't
• 20:59
  Speaker 2: want to throw an.
• 21:00
  Speaker 4: Under the bus or whatever. But some places the vibe
• 21:03
  Speaker 4: was not great. Whereas I think I am quite online.
• 21:06
  Speaker 4: I think I got connected with the girl I spoke
• 21:08
  Speaker 4: too via the internet first, and then she met me
• 21:10
  Speaker 4: to take me through some things, and she was absolutely brilliant.
• 21:14
  Speaker 4: I was kind of like, if my experience with her
• 21:17
  Speaker 4: is reflective of the experience I will have building, I'm
• 21:20
  Speaker 4: over the moon because she really went above and beyond.
• 21:23
  Speaker 4: She helped me render up changes I wanted to make
• 21:26
  Speaker 4: the floor plan she I spoke to her for almost
• 21:29
  Speaker 4: a year. I reckon because I was because you know,
• 21:31
  Speaker 4: I was going to buy a block and then the
• 21:32
  Speaker 4: block wasn't right, and then there was this, and then
• 21:34
  Speaker 4: there was that.
• 21:34
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 21:35
  Speaker 4: And I would not have blamed her at all if
• 21:36
  Speaker 4: she'd given up on me, because like, she's not making
• 21:38
  Speaker 4: if I haven't signed a contract, she's not making any money. Yeah,
• 21:41
  Speaker 4: off me anyway. But she was really really fantastic. And
• 21:46
  Speaker 4: so between my experience with her and my you know
• 21:50
  Speaker 4: the fact that I had had friends build with this
• 21:51
  Speaker 4: builder as well, I was like, that's a dune deal
• 21:54
  Speaker 4: for me. But if you're looking for yourself, I would
• 21:55
  Speaker 4: say Google, look at reviews. Take reviews with a grain
• 21:58
  Speaker 4: of salt, because I think, especially in construction people who
• 22:01
  Speaker 4: leave reviews of people who have had bad experiences, which
• 22:03
  Speaker 4: is kind of why I want to see this woman's praises.
• 22:05
  Speaker 2: Is like she was brilliant.
• 22:07
  Speaker 4: After I signed my initial contract, I've been handed Like
• 22:09
  Speaker 4: it goes to another stage. You get a new person.
• 22:12
  Speaker 4: That person has been brilliant. People can have bad days,
• 22:15
  Speaker 4: and I don't want to put it on the people
• 22:16
  Speaker 4: who are representing companies, like it's not the b or
• 22:18
  Speaker 4: end all, But I think that my initial conversation, my
• 22:22
  Speaker 4: initial vibe check. I guess with that girl has proven
• 22:25
  Speaker 4: to be really good so far, and everyone's to build
• 22:28
  Speaker 4: with I don't have, so I don't don't have anyone
• 22:30
  Speaker 4: out there is specifically considering building with boutique. But if
• 22:33
  Speaker 4: you are and you want someone, I would highly highly
• 22:36
  Speaker 4: recommend it.
• 22:36
  Speaker 2: Oh okay.
• 22:37
  Speaker 4: I don't want to put her email in the show
• 22:38
  Speaker 4: notes because I need to ask her if that's okay,
• 22:40
  Speaker 4: but maybe like, if you are, let me know and
• 22:42
  Speaker 4: I can message you to her or like connect to
• 22:44
  Speaker 4: you guys somehow, because she's she's brilliant, she made the
• 22:46
  Speaker 4: experience honestly so positive, and I just think people need
• 22:49
  Speaker 4: to be given their flowers, you.
• 22:50
  Speaker 2: Know, Yeah, that's really lovely. That's really lovely, and it's
• 22:52
  Speaker 2: really good to know. If you don't go with Boutique
• 22:55
  Speaker 2: or you are wanting to like have a look redd,
• 22:57
  Speaker 2: it's also a really good option.
• 22:58
  Speaker 4: Yeah, like one hundred percent of your life. Real people,
• 23:01
  Speaker 4: actual people forums talking about their experiences. There's often Facebook
• 23:04
  Speaker 4: groups too, like there's a transbook group for people who
• 23:06
  Speaker 4: are building with Britique where people talk about like what
• 23:08
  Speaker 4: they're doing. So look at whatever builder you're building with
• 23:11
  Speaker 4: and see if there's Facebook groups for them.
• 23:13
  Speaker 2: I did ask this before, but someone else wants to know.
• 23:15
  Speaker 2: This is why I should read this thing, so sorry.
• 23:18
  Speaker 2: When it comes to loan process, how is it different
• 23:20
  Speaker 2: to buying a house? So I have two separate loans,
• 23:23
  Speaker 2: so I have a loan for the land and a
• 23:24
  Speaker 2: loan for the build. As soon as my land settled,
• 23:27
  Speaker 2: I started paying the mortgage because it was already titled.
• 23:29
  Speaker 2: So I have an existing mortgage that I'm paying right now,
• 23:32
  Speaker 2: which is my full land mortgage. With construction, you pay
• 23:36
  Speaker 2: it in stages. I think it's three stages for my builder.
• 23:38
  Speaker 2: So when they pour the slab, I'll start paying a
• 23:41
  Speaker 2: portion and then I don't know what the next two
• 23:44
  Speaker 2: stages are but at two other points, so by the
• 23:46
  Speaker 2: end of construction, I'll be paying my full mortgage amount
• 23:49
  Speaker 2: across both, whereas if you just purchase a house, you
• 23:52
  Speaker 2: just have typically one loan. Once the property settles, you
• 23:56
  Speaker 2: start paying your full mortgage immediately, and that's kind of that.
• 23:59
  Speaker 2: Do you feel like the whole price of the whole
• 24:01
  Speaker 2: thing is roughly the same as buying a house or
• 24:04
  Speaker 2: is it becoming more expensive than that.
• 24:07
  Speaker 4: I think for me, it's probably been a little bit
• 24:09
  Speaker 4: more affordable. I got a really good price on the
• 24:11
  Speaker 4: land because I bought it directly from the developer, whereas
• 24:13
  Speaker 4: if you were to buy land in that area and
• 24:15
  Speaker 4: now through like a real estate agent. For example, a
• 24:18
  Speaker 4: block exactly the same size and shape as mine down
• 24:20
  Speaker 4: the street went up for sale a couple weeks after
• 24:23
  Speaker 4: I bought mine through a real estate agent, not through
• 24:25
  Speaker 4: the developer, and that was like thirty thousand dollars dearer
• 24:28
  Speaker 4: than what I paid you.
• 24:30
  Speaker 2: So I got really lucky with that. I think the
• 24:33
  Speaker 2: prices are probably comparable.
• 24:35
  Speaker 4: To what I was looking at spending, but I'm getting
• 24:38
  Speaker 4: more for that because I didn't pay that thirty thousand
• 24:41
  Speaker 4: plus dollars in stamp duty. Yes, and I spent a
• 24:44
  Speaker 4: lot of money transparently at my color appointment. So like
• 24:47
  Speaker 4: I made a whole YouTube dy about this. I spent
• 24:49
  Speaker 4: like almost forty thousand dollars on like upgrading various things
• 24:54
  Speaker 4: which obviously I didn't have to do and if you're building,
• 24:56
  Speaker 4: you absolutely don't have to do that. It was just
• 24:58
  Speaker 4: me going, oh, like, I'm building my you know, a
• 25:00
  Speaker 4: dream house, Like what can I do?
• 25:02
  Speaker 2: How can I make it mine?
• 25:03
  Speaker 4: So like I kind of went really in depth into
• 25:05
  Speaker 4: that in that video, so I won't repeat myself here,
• 25:06
  Speaker 4: but yes, I think that I paid because I had
• 25:10
  Speaker 4: a set budget too, right, So like with you know,
• 25:12
  Speaker 4: all of my upgrades and stuff, I could have done more,
• 25:15
  Speaker 4: but like you hit a point where you're like, well,
• 25:16
  Speaker 4: I've spent all of my budget, and so I would
• 25:19
  Speaker 4: have spent that amount whether it was on the build
• 25:21
  Speaker 4: or whether it was on an established house. Yes, but
• 25:23
  Speaker 4: I think the difference is I'm getting a lot more
• 25:25
  Speaker 4: for my money building. I guess maybe this is more
• 25:27
  Speaker 4: of a bank question, but like, is it possible at
• 25:30
  Speaker 4: all to be like approved for a loan for a
• 25:33
  Speaker 4: land and then the next like one two three stages
• 25:37
  Speaker 4: not be approved for those for the built for the build,
• 25:40
  Speaker 4: Like you know how you're saying, like, right now you're
• 25:42
  Speaker 4: paying a mortgage and then at the end you'll be
• 25:44
  Speaker 4: paying a full mortgage.
• 25:45
  Speaker 2: But do they all kind of link up? Is the
• 25:47
  Speaker 2: bank like kind of promising that they will give you
• 25:50
  Speaker 2: a loan for the rest.
• 25:51
  Speaker 4: Of So like I've been approved for my loan for
• 25:53
  Speaker 4: the build, they review all of your like contract, that's
• 25:56
  Speaker 4: when they do that valuation and they say, oh, well,
• 25:58
  Speaker 4: we think the house is going to be worth about
• 25:59
  Speaker 4: x y said based on that, they're willing to loan
• 26:02
  Speaker 4: you xyzed amount, so land as well for both the Yes,
• 26:06
  Speaker 4: it's separate. So like I have a mortgage on the land,
• 26:08
  Speaker 4: I am already paying my mortgage off. Yeah, for the
• 26:11
  Speaker 4: build itself. That loan is approved, signed off, they'll start
• 26:16
  Speaker 4: to release the funds at the appropriate stages throughout the build.
• 26:19
  Speaker 4: So I have the loan, yeah, but I'm not paying
• 26:22
  Speaker 4: any money on that mortgage yet because we haven't hit
• 26:25
  Speaker 4: the first stage of construction.
• 26:26
  Speaker 2: Okay, amazing. Have you learned anything about these types of
• 26:29
  Speaker 2: loans that might be a great tip to pass onto
• 26:31
  Speaker 2: the community.
• 26:33
  Speaker 4: I think the thing that I was mentioning earlier about
• 26:35
  Speaker 4: how it can be valued at less than what it is,
• 26:38
  Speaker 4: especially in the pre construction phase. Like I was so
• 26:42
  Speaker 4: taken aback when I was told that, because I said,
• 26:44
  Speaker 4: how can you argue that it's not worth that because
• 26:46
  Speaker 4: I am physically paying that, like that is what the
• 26:49
  Speaker 4: build costs, like I'm not.
• 26:51
  Speaker 2: It's not.
• 26:52
  Speaker 4: You know, as I was saying before, when you go
• 26:53
  Speaker 4: to auction, like things can sell, and that's what I
• 26:55
  Speaker 4: was seeing is I feel like there was a lot
• 26:57
  Speaker 4: of emotional buying. At the time that I was looking
• 26:59
  Speaker 4: to buy. It was a seller's market, and so things
• 27:02
  Speaker 4: were selling for much more than what I felt like
• 27:05
  Speaker 4: they were truly worth. Sure, but when you're building, like
• 27:09
  Speaker 4: this is what it's worth because that's what I'm paying
• 27:11
  Speaker 4: to do it, like tobally, you know, so that really
• 27:14
  Speaker 4: took me back. I think also being aware of the
• 27:16
  Speaker 4: fact that you may have a shortfall at the end
• 27:18
  Speaker 4: as well, have a buffer and have a buffer going
• 27:21
  Speaker 4: into it for just vary because there are so many
• 27:25
  Speaker 4: things that are not in that initial costing online. You know,
• 27:29
  Speaker 4: even your driveway is not included in your build price. True,
• 27:32
  Speaker 4: you can add it on, but it's more affordable at
• 27:35
  Speaker 4: least for me to do it have someone do it afterwards.
• 27:37
  Speaker 4: So like I'll still have to pay between ten and
• 27:39
  Speaker 4: twenty thousand to do like the driveway and the concreting
• 27:42
  Speaker 4: for the like you know, around the perimeter of the house,
• 27:46
  Speaker 4: you need to buy.
• 27:46
  Speaker 2: A letterbox, you know, things like that. Oh that's exciting.
• 27:50
  Speaker 4: Yeah, but the and it is fun, but you know
• 27:52
  Speaker 4: it's not just even you go through your color appointment,
• 27:56
  Speaker 4: you go, okay, well, I've added all these things on.
• 27:57
  Speaker 4: So like the house, let's say cost two hundred thousand,
• 27:59
  Speaker 4: now two hundred and fifty thousand, because I've added all
• 28:01
  Speaker 4: these things on. And then you go to your electrical appointment,
• 28:03
  Speaker 4: go okay, well now it's two hundred and sixty thousand,
• 28:06
  Speaker 4: and then you go, okay, two hundred and sixty thousand,
• 28:08
  Speaker 4: no worries, Like it's just at the end of my budget.
• 28:10
  Speaker 4: But I can make it work because then there are
• 28:13
  Speaker 4: additional fees that you have to pay for those other things.
• 28:15
  Speaker 4: Or I had to pay my first rates. I don't
• 28:17
  Speaker 4: live in the house yet, but I've had a rates notice.
• 28:19
  Speaker 1: Wow.
• 28:20
  Speaker 4: So it's like there are lots of little additional costs
• 28:22
  Speaker 4: that pop up and so I think when looking at everything,
• 28:26
  Speaker 4: do not spend to the very nth degree that you
• 28:29
  Speaker 4: can unless you are confident that you can make it up.
• 28:32
  Speaker 4: Because I have a short fall that I'm making up
• 28:33
  Speaker 4: and that's why I'm working a second job, which I'm
• 28:35
  Speaker 4: fine with, but I don't necessarily know that everyone's in
• 28:37
  Speaker 4: a position where they can do that totally, And I guess,
• 28:40
  Speaker 4: like also keeping in mind that possibly for years you'll
• 28:42
  Speaker 4: be paying two things because you don't have a house
• 28:45
  Speaker 4: that you're able to live in yet and you're maybe renting,
• 28:47
  Speaker 4: or you maybe like yeah, yeah, okay.
• 28:49
  Speaker 2: So I'm paying rent and a mortgage at the same time.
• 28:51
  Speaker 2: Totally yeah, crazy, Okay, let's jump to a really quick break.
• 28:54
  Speaker 2: Don't go anywhere, guys, because after the break, Jess is
• 28:56
  Speaker 2: going to get into the nitty gritty of building a else.
• 29:03
  Speaker 2: Welcome back, Jess. You're actually in the middle of this process.
• 29:07
  Speaker 2: What things about building a house genuinely have surprised you?
• 29:11
  Speaker 2: I think just the costs of everything. Yeah.
• 29:13
  Speaker 4: I spoke about this again in the video that I
• 29:16
  Speaker 4: filmed where I was talking about I did a view
• 29:18
  Speaker 4: for each appointment, my color am my electrical and there
• 29:21
  Speaker 4: are so many things that I just hadn't given a
• 29:25
  Speaker 4: single thought to so form my electrical appointment. For example,
• 29:28
  Speaker 4: I went in and my electrical appointment was second, so
• 29:30
  Speaker 4: I'd spent a lot of money at my color appointment.
• 29:33
  Speaker 4: I was like, okay, I need to spend the bare
• 29:35
  Speaker 4: minimum at this appointment. Sure, And so I went in
• 29:37
  Speaker 4: and they were like, okay, well you have to upgrade
• 29:39
  Speaker 4: your power phase thing to like a higher version, and
• 29:43
  Speaker 4: that's gonna cost you two thousand dollars. I was like,
• 29:45
  Speaker 4: is there a way around that? And they're like no,
• 29:47
  Speaker 4: and I was like, okay, cool. So like, guess we're
• 29:49
  Speaker 4: doing that totally. You pick everything right, and there are
• 29:52
  Speaker 4: so many You pick what hinges go in your house,
• 29:55
  Speaker 4: you pick where your lights go. And so we sat
• 29:58
  Speaker 4: down to do the lighting plan. She okay, how many
• 30:00
  Speaker 4: lights she went in the bedroom?
• 30:01
  Speaker 2: Two or four? And I was like ah, and she goes,
• 30:04
  Speaker 2: I think you could probably get away with two.
• 30:06
  Speaker 4: It just depends how much you want, and you're playing
• 30:08
  Speaker 4: per light keep in mind, right, Okay. So like for
• 30:11
  Speaker 4: me going into this appointment, I was budget conscious. I'm like,
• 30:14
  Speaker 4: we're doing as little as we have to do, right, Yeah,
• 30:17
  Speaker 4: And so I was like, oh, I think two would
• 30:18
  Speaker 4: be fine. I was trying to remember how many lights
• 30:20
  Speaker 4: are in my current bedroom. I couldn't tell you how
• 30:22
  Speaker 4: many times have I looked at the ceiling, no idea
• 30:25
  Speaker 4: how many lights. It turns out they were, in fact for.
• 30:27
  Speaker 2: Dim down lights or something, because like I'm thinking, like
• 30:28
  Speaker 2: there's one big one in a room, or there's yeah,
• 30:31
  Speaker 2: so we're doing down lights. Okay, so we'll have two, Okay,
• 30:34
  Speaker 2: And I.
• 30:35
  Speaker 4: Mean again, I guess, like, really, do you need more
• 30:38
  Speaker 4: than one light? Probably not, but well and that's and
• 30:42
  Speaker 4: these these are all the things, right, there's a standard plants.
• 30:45
  Speaker 4: Like the girl who ran my point was like, okay,
• 30:46
  Speaker 4: like we would normally recommend xmount lights throughout the house
• 30:49
  Speaker 4: and if you want to add more or move than
• 30:51
  Speaker 4: you can. But I'd never thought about where lights were.
• 30:54
  Speaker 2: Going or how many were in a room.
• 30:56
  Speaker 4: Yeah, like even that, you're like, you know what you're at,
• 30:59
  Speaker 4: Like one light probably would do the job, but you know,
• 31:01
  Speaker 4: there are all these things that you just don't think about.
• 31:03
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 31:04
  Speaker 4: I wish that I had been more prepared. My color
• 31:06
  Speaker 4: appointment was really overwhelming, and I had a really solid
• 31:10
  Speaker 4: plan going in. I thought i'd pretty much picked everything
• 31:13
  Speaker 4: and then I sat in that chair and just got
• 31:16
  Speaker 4: so overwhelmed. And I was by myself because my partner
• 31:19
  Speaker 4: had work, and so it was just a lot. And
• 31:22
  Speaker 4: I think as much as you can do to prepare
• 31:25
  Speaker 4: as much inspo as you can have inspo photos or
• 31:27
  Speaker 4: like going through you know, the display homes or whatever
• 31:31
  Speaker 4: for those appointments. Having all of that will be really
• 31:35
  Speaker 4: helpful to you, especially because you most people will probably
• 31:39
  Speaker 4: be like me, and you get to a point where going, okay, well,
• 31:41
  Speaker 4: I can't afford everything, obviously, so I have to figure
• 31:44
  Speaker 4: out what I'm prioritizing. Yeah, And so that then becomes
• 31:47
  Speaker 4: a big push and pull of like, well, what could
• 31:49
  Speaker 4: I do later? Do I you know, my father in
• 31:52
  Speaker 4: law's an electrician, so he can come and help me
• 31:54
  Speaker 4: out with that. Or one of my friends is a
• 31:56
  Speaker 4: tradee so he can probably help me do this. So like,
• 31:57
  Speaker 4: I can do that after the build, or to eventually
• 32:01
  Speaker 4: convert to fully electric if I can. But to do
• 32:04
  Speaker 4: that through the builder is really expensive, and somebody told
• 32:06
  Speaker 4: me that that would be a lot more affordable to
• 32:08
  Speaker 4: do myself down the tracks. Great, well that can wait.
• 32:11
  Speaker 4: But it's having an idea of what these things are
• 32:14
  Speaker 4: that you want and what is most important to you
• 32:15
  Speaker 4: and what they're going to cost. Bootyque have is portal.
• 32:18
  Speaker 4: It's called a bode and you can see every single
• 32:21
  Speaker 4: thing that you can pick from ahead of time, which
• 32:23
  Speaker 4: is amazing. That's great, and so that's what I'd gone
• 32:25
  Speaker 4: through to get my idea of what I wanted. But
• 32:28
  Speaker 4: a lot of things are calculated based on square meterage,
• 32:31
  Speaker 4: like your flaws, your tiles, your render, your paint. How
• 32:35
  Speaker 4: much that's going to cost is going to depend on
• 32:37
  Speaker 4: how much space you're covering, so you don't actually know
• 32:41
  Speaker 4: what that cost is going to be until you I mean,
• 32:44
  Speaker 4: maybe I could do the math, but I actually don't
• 32:45
  Speaker 4: think I had the dimensions to be able to work
• 32:47
  Speaker 4: it out.
• 32:49
  Speaker 2: So I sat down.
• 32:50
  Speaker 4: They're like, yeah, your floors will be fifteen thousand dollars correct.
• 32:53
  Speaker 4: So it's like those things, and like obviously I could
• 32:55
  Speaker 4: then choose what do I want to downgrade or what
• 32:57
  Speaker 4: do I want to do, but just go in with
• 33:01
  Speaker 4: as clear of a picture as you can of what
• 33:03
  Speaker 4: you want it to look like and what that's gonna
• 33:05
  Speaker 4: cost you. Because I sat there for hours, it was
• 33:08
  Speaker 4: a five hour appointment, and I armed, and I armed, and.
• 33:10
  Speaker 2: I was like, do I do it? Don't I do it?
• 33:12
  Speaker 2: How much money?
• 33:13
  Speaker 4: Like? And that's how I found myself in that like
• 33:15
  Speaker 4: that position where I was like, you know what, I know,
• 33:18
  Speaker 4: I have a short fall, and to me, it is
• 33:20
  Speaker 4: worth it to have what I want and to work
• 33:22
  Speaker 4: another job to make.
• 33:23
  Speaker 2: Up the difference. Also, five hours that normal for them
• 33:25
  Speaker 2: or that's for standard appointment time. Yeah? Really, because you're there,
• 33:29
  Speaker 2: they go every.
• 33:30
  Speaker 4: Everything in a house back, like every door handle, Yeah,
• 33:33
  Speaker 4: tile skirting, skirty ward, different types of skirting boards. Do
• 33:36
  Speaker 4: you want a regular corner or a square set corners? Like,
• 33:38
  Speaker 4: there are things that you wouldn't ever consider. There's hundreds
• 33:42
  Speaker 4: of line items that you sit with this person and
• 33:44
  Speaker 4: you pick every single one of them.
• 33:46
  Speaker 2: Wow, that's crazy. Yeah, even like the like the white
• 33:49
  Speaker 2: box around your light switch is yeah, oh my god.
• 33:54
  Speaker 2: Lights and the types of light swishes. Do you want
• 33:56
  Speaker 2: a flick button? Do you want a push button? Do
• 33:57
  Speaker 2: you want a dimmer? Oh god, guys, this is such
• 34:00
  Speaker 2: a long episode. I'm so sorry.
• 34:02
  Speaker 4: Thing you have to think about is every light, Like,
• 34:05
  Speaker 4: think about when you turn on a light switch.
• 34:07
  Speaker 2: And this is probably more applicable to.
• 34:09
  Speaker 4: Down lights than like a single light in a room
• 34:11
  Speaker 4: like what you were talking about before. Sure, if you
• 34:12
  Speaker 4: don't a light switch, how many lights turns on at once?
• 34:16
  Speaker 4: And where do those light switches go? So like, for me,
• 34:19
  Speaker 4: in my house that I live in right now, the
• 34:20
  Speaker 4: front hallway, there's a switch for that by the front door, yep.
• 34:23
  Speaker 4: And there's a switch for that by the kitchen yep.
• 34:26
  Speaker 4: And so you can turn it off and on at
• 34:27
  Speaker 4: either end. That's because somebody in their lighting plan has decided, well,
• 34:32
  Speaker 4: these lights will be wired to this switch. And yes,
• 34:36
  Speaker 4: you have to figure out where every light is wired to,
• 34:39
  Speaker 4: so you have to almost like grid your house and go, okay, well,
• 34:41
  Speaker 4: if I turn this switch on, I want all the
• 34:43
  Speaker 4: lound room lights turn on. And because my house, and
• 34:46
  Speaker 4: I think a lot of modern builds are open plan,
• 34:49
  Speaker 4: that's where it's more applicable. Right, you're okay, well, would
• 34:52
  Speaker 4: I want all of these lights to switch on? How
• 34:53
  Speaker 4: many of the lights would switch on to? I need
• 34:55
  Speaker 4: more than one location for that switch, Like, oh my god.
• 34:59
  Speaker 4: And that's what my brain really struggled with because I
• 35:01
  Speaker 4: felt like that's such a permanent decision I know, and
• 35:04
  Speaker 4: I don't live there, so I don't earen like it
• 35:06
  Speaker 4: might be that like my friends who have kids their
• 35:09
  Speaker 4: lounges split into two, or their old house, they lounge
• 35:11
  Speaker 4: just switched too, so that they could turn one set
• 35:13
  Speaker 4: of lights off and have it be like dim for
• 35:15
  Speaker 4: the baby while they're putting the baby down. But if
• 35:17
  Speaker 4: they were all all the switches went to one place,
• 35:19
  Speaker 4: that wouldn't.
• 35:20
  Speaker 2: Be an option totally.
• 35:21
  Speaker 4: I like a game, you could do lamps and whatever,
• 35:23
  Speaker 4: and that's the whole thing, but it's just sure again
• 35:25
  Speaker 4: like something else that I go, oh my god, I've
• 35:26
  Speaker 4: never given a thought to what switch turns on?
• 35:29
  Speaker 2: What light sounds really fun? But I imagine after like
• 35:33
  Speaker 2: five hours, you're like, I don't care. I don't care anymore.
• 35:38
  Speaker 2: How do you decide what to splurge on.
• 35:40
  Speaker 4: I tried to prioritize the things that would be hard
• 35:43
  Speaker 4: to change down the track. So from the very beginning,
• 35:45
  Speaker 4: I knew I wanted high ceilings, and you can raise
• 35:48
  Speaker 4: the ceiling, but it's very expensive to do it right.
• 35:50
  Speaker 4: So I was like, that's something I will pay for upfront.
• 35:52
  Speaker 4: A lot of my like tiling and stuff, I was like,
• 35:55
  Speaker 4: I'm gonna buy the nicer tile because I know that
• 35:58
  Speaker 4: that is hard if I have to uninstall and then
• 36:01
  Speaker 4: reinstall something down the track. I wired for a lot
• 36:03
  Speaker 4: of electrical points, but didn't put things in so like
• 36:05
  Speaker 4: for a security system, for example, my builder only offered
• 36:09
  Speaker 4: one system that you could have, and I didn't want
• 36:12
  Speaker 4: to be boxed into one. I wanted to be able
• 36:13
  Speaker 4: to choose whatever system I liked, and so I had
• 36:16
  Speaker 4: them wire all the points for the cameras. But I
• 36:18
  Speaker 4: will have probably my father in law come and wire
• 36:21
  Speaker 4: them in after Yeah, okay. The other thing that I
• 36:24
  Speaker 4: will splurge on I haven't yet is my appliances. So
• 36:29
  Speaker 4: everything that I own is secondhand. My fridge, i'm pretty sure,
• 36:32
  Speaker 4: is as old as I am. My washing machine. Have
• 36:34
  Speaker 4: you heard the TikTok I posted of the sound that
• 36:36
  Speaker 4: my washing machine made?
• 36:37
  Speaker 2: I don't think have. Oh my god, I'll play it
• 36:38
  Speaker 2: for you.
• 36:39
  Speaker 4: It's like my washing machine sounds like it's going to
• 36:41
  Speaker 4: take off to space, and I'm just hoping and praying
• 36:44
  Speaker 4: that it lasts until I move into the new house. Ye,
• 36:46
  Speaker 4: but I want to invest in appliances because I'm in
• 36:50
  Speaker 4: a permanent space and that's always been my thing. Is
• 36:52
  Speaker 4: like every piece of furniture that I own was secondhand,
• 36:55
  Speaker 4: Like my bedside tables I bought from Target when I
• 36:57
  Speaker 4: moved out of home a decade ago, I kind of
• 37:00
  Speaker 4: falling apart, but I haven't replaced them because I was like,
• 37:02
  Speaker 4: when you move from space to space, house to house,
• 37:06
  Speaker 4: you never know if the things you have are get
• 37:07
  Speaker 4: a fit or match or whatever. Whereas now that I'm
• 37:10
  Speaker 4: moving into this home, it's feeling like permanent. So I
• 37:13
  Speaker 4: want to invest in things and I want to buy
• 37:15
  Speaker 4: like nicer furniture. I want to buy a fridge that
• 37:18
  Speaker 4: dispenses water the peak of richness, like you know, things
• 37:22
  Speaker 4: like that, And so that's something I really want to do,
• 37:24
  Speaker 4: and I will invest in again, probably down the track
• 37:27
  Speaker 4: a little bit, because money is money, and you've got
• 37:29
  Speaker 4: to be a budget conscious. But I think the things
• 37:32
  Speaker 4: that are hard to change, or the things that you
• 37:34
  Speaker 4: will use a lot, like I use totally our washing
• 37:38
  Speaker 4: machine every like two or three days, So like to me,
• 37:41
  Speaker 4: it feels worth investing in something like that. I want
• 37:44
  Speaker 4: to upgrade our door handles, and I'll invest in something
• 37:46
  Speaker 4: good quality for that because how many times do you
• 37:48
  Speaker 4: touch door handle in a day? And I try to
• 37:50
  Speaker 4: save money by finding DIY options, like we haven't done
• 37:54
  Speaker 4: our laundry at all because I run out of money.
• 37:57
  Speaker 4: So we have a trough and a sink and that's it. Cupboards, no, nothing, Okay,
• 38:01
  Speaker 4: But I knew that so many places do really fantastic
• 38:04
  Speaker 4: like DIY options, like Bunnings has flat packs, like Kia
• 38:07
  Speaker 4: has flat packs.
• 38:08
  Speaker 2: Yes, Victoria did hers. I know that freedom do.
• 38:11
  Speaker 4: Like lots of places offer options for you to do
• 38:13
  Speaker 4: it yourself, and so my plan is to do it
• 38:17
  Speaker 4: myself a little bit down the track when I've got
• 38:19
  Speaker 4: a little bit more money. I want to fit out
• 38:21
  Speaker 4: our wardrobes. Our wardrobes are the most basic option.
• 38:23
  Speaker 2: That were available.
• 38:24
  Speaker 4: Yeah, I was like, there only need to be basic
• 38:26
  Speaker 4: for an hour and then I can self fit it
• 38:28
  Speaker 4: out later on. So I tried to look at what
• 38:30
  Speaker 4: was I capable of doing totally or what products are
• 38:33
  Speaker 4: out there that would assist me in creating what I
• 38:35
  Speaker 4: want at like a more accessible price point, and focused
• 38:39
  Speaker 4: on spending on the things that I couldn't do or
• 38:42
  Speaker 4: that it would be more costly for me to do
• 38:44
  Speaker 4: later on.
• 38:44
  Speaker 2: So with the laundry, is it like one of those
• 38:47
  Speaker 2: would you call it a European laundry? Is that why
• 38:49
  Speaker 2: you were able to like kind of get a flat pack,
• 38:50
  Speaker 2: Like is it like in the wall or is it
• 38:52
  Speaker 2: a room?
• 38:53
  Speaker 4: So it's like a walk in laundry room. Oh, be
• 38:56
  Speaker 4: like not very big like a meter or two wide
• 38:58
  Speaker 4: by a meter.
• 38:59
  Speaker 2: Or too long? What part of that are you doing yourself?
• 39:03
  Speaker 4: So I'll put all the cabinetry in. So right now
• 39:05
  Speaker 4: all that is going in is literally a strough, a stand, yeah,
• 39:09
  Speaker 4: a sink, and a tap and there's nothing really Yeah.
• 39:12
  Speaker 4: So like I want to have a bench top that
• 39:14
  Speaker 4: will run over where hopefully one day I will have
• 39:16
  Speaker 4: a washer and dryer. Yes, I would have cabinet tree
• 39:18
  Speaker 4: up the top, things like that, because you pay for
• 39:21
  Speaker 4: every single thing like that, like totally standard thing, totally
• 39:25
  Speaker 4: same in bathrooms, like I would love to put medicine
• 39:27
  Speaker 4: cabinets instead of just flat mirrors.
• 39:29
  Speaker 2: Yes, that's something that I'll do down the track. So
• 39:31
  Speaker 2: I wonder if someone is listening to this and thinking
• 39:33
  Speaker 2: about building their first home, what's the biggest thing you'd
• 39:35
  Speaker 2: want them to know before they start. That's such a
• 39:38
  Speaker 2: good question.
• 39:39
  Speaker 4: I think know that the price online is not even
• 39:42
  Speaker 4: remotely close to the cost your pad, because I remember
• 39:45
  Speaker 4: I would I would go, oh my god, it's only
• 39:47
  Speaker 4: one hundred and ninety thousand dollars to build a house.
• 39:49
  Speaker 4: And then I would plug that into a mortgage calculator
• 39:51
  Speaker 4: online and be like, huh, I could do that. I
• 39:53
  Speaker 4: could build two of those. I get so not even close,
• 39:56
  Speaker 4: So I think you need to add I would say
• 40:00
  Speaker 4: it was like forty percent onto whatever you're looking at between,
• 40:04
  Speaker 4: depending on you and like how likely you are to
• 40:08
  Speaker 4: want to upgrade things like some people want to make
• 40:09
  Speaker 4: their garage bigger, or some people you know, some people
• 40:12
  Speaker 4: are really happy with the bare minimum, and you absolutely
• 40:14
  Speaker 4: can do it really affordably, but then don't forget to
• 40:16
  Speaker 4: factor in your driveway. You're concreting your rights like all
• 40:19
  Speaker 4: those sorts of things. Add I would say probably at least, yeah,
• 40:24
  Speaker 4: thirty to forty percent better to have a buffer, I
• 40:26
  Speaker 4: totally meand to not that's not bad though, and then talk, Yeah,
• 40:30
  Speaker 4: talk to your broker about it. You know, what are
• 40:32
  Speaker 4: my options, what are my maximums, what does that look like? Like,
• 40:35
  Speaker 4: what things do need to be aware of? I think
• 40:37
  Speaker 4: having someone who can help you with that is so huge.
• 40:41
  Speaker 4: And yeah, just know that you probably, unless you're rich,
• 40:43
  Speaker 4: you're gonna have to make concessions. You're gonna have to
• 40:45
  Speaker 4: find you're gonna have to give up on things. You're
• 40:47
  Speaker 4: going to have to do them yourself, or do them
• 40:49
  Speaker 4: down the track, or they're not going to be exactly
• 40:51
  Speaker 4: what you want. And know that that is okay, especially
• 40:53
  Speaker 4: if it's your first home totally.
• 40:56
  Speaker 2: And as you're saying, like you can you can polish
• 40:58
  Speaker 2: a turd in this case, you can said like the appliances,
• 41:01
  Speaker 2: the furniture, the like lamps, like you really can like
• 41:05
  Speaker 2: have like a blank room with the barean amittment in it,
• 41:09
  Speaker 2: I assume and fill it with things that are homely
• 41:11
  Speaker 2: and cozy, and my.
• 41:12
  Speaker 4: Like thirty year old fridge is going to be in
• 41:14
  Speaker 4: my brand new house probably for at least six months
• 41:16
  Speaker 4: before I can afford, you know what I mean. And
• 41:18
  Speaker 4: that's fine, Like all my Facebook mark plays furniture, it's fine,
• 41:21
  Speaker 4: Like you know, there's.
• 41:22
  Speaker 2: To do things as well. Exactly, I don't really overextend yourself, No,
• 41:26
  Speaker 2: I'm truly confused. And you don't obviously don't have to
• 41:29
  Speaker 2: give away the price of anything, but would it be
• 41:31
  Speaker 2: reasonable to say if you do see a package like
• 41:34
  Speaker 2: this that's like house and land for a one hundred
• 41:36
  Speaker 2: ninety thousand dollars would it be reasonable to say that
• 41:39
  Speaker 2: could come to like six hundred thousand dollars.
• 41:42
  Speaker 4: I don't think you would see a house a land.
• 41:43
  Speaker 4: Oh okay, So when I use the example of one
• 41:45
  Speaker 4: hundred and ninety, that's for just to build or not
• 41:48
  Speaker 4: the land.
• 41:48
  Speaker 2: Yeah, okay, you got you. That's really cheap. And I
• 41:51
  Speaker 2: know that you're saying, like ad but even if it
• 41:52
  Speaker 2: came to five hundred thousand dollars and land is like
• 41:56
  Speaker 2: a couple hundred thousand, it's like it can be over
• 41:58
  Speaker 2: one thousand dollars per square meter. But it depends where
• 42:01
  Speaker 2: are you? Do you know?
• 42:02
  Speaker 1: A mean?
• 42:02
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I like it's so dependent on what location you're
• 42:05
  Speaker 2: looking in. Are you close to me? Each are you
• 42:07
  Speaker 2: close to a city? Are you? Like? It's really variable.
• 42:10
  Speaker 2: But I'm like, that sounds so much more affordable than
• 42:13
  Speaker 2: like one million dollar tiny house in Brunswick. I'm like,
• 42:16
  Speaker 2: you know, and it's just building in the suburbs. I'm
• 42:19
  Speaker 2: building in the suburbs, so my build will be actually,
• 42:23
  Speaker 2: don't final number.
• 42:24
  Speaker 4: I have a YouTube video coming. I need to do
• 42:26
  Speaker 4: the math, but it'll be less than eight hundred thousand
• 42:29
  Speaker 4: dollars for sure.
• 42:30
  Speaker 2: Wild That is really, really exciting, so I think it's
• 42:33
  Speaker 2: a really good place to leave it. Do you have
• 42:34
  Speaker 2: anything that you wanted to add at all? No, I
• 42:37
  Speaker 2: feel like I've rambled for agents. I'm so sorry. No,
• 42:40
  Speaker 2: my god, it's so interesting. I know that I do
• 42:43
  Speaker 2: have more questions to you, and if you guys do
• 42:44
  Speaker 2: as well, feel free to reach out to myself or Yess.
• 42:47
  Speaker 2: So thanks so much everyone for sending your questions in,
• 42:50
  Speaker 2: and thank you so much Jess for letting us put
• 42:51
  Speaker 2: you in the hot seat today. Sometimes the best way
• 42:53
  Speaker 2: to learn about things is asking the person who's going
• 42:56
  Speaker 2: through it currently.
• 42:57
  Speaker 4: Absolutely okay, you guys updated. I'm sure this is not
• 42:59
  Speaker 4: the last your healer of it. I'm sure I have
• 43:00
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