Latest / The Follio Property Podcast / Stop Overpaying in Perth! Buyers Agent Exposes What’s Really Driving Prices | ft. Rowen Powell

Transcript

Stop Overpaying in Perth! Buyers Agent Exposes What’s Really Driving Prices | ft. Rowen Powell · The Follio Property Podcast

• 0:00
  What's driving the Perth property boom in 2025? The minimum you're going to be paying for the basic level is $8,000 a square metre. It's crazy, isn't it? What about the first-time buyers you are seeing? Are they in that cap? That's not their forever home, but they have to use that as a stepping stone. What's the different fundamentals between buying an investment property and buying a home?
• 0:17
  If it's a three by one, they're going to make it work because they know the market's moving so much. What's the biggest reason someone would sell an off-market? I classify as a three Ds. So death, divorce and debt. Death, divorce and debt. That's how the first I've heard it. You don't have a floor pan, you're going in like this, it's pretty tight and you realise it's actually not a standard bedroom. There you go. There's some real knowledge there. That is local market knowledge.
• 0:42
  You're listening to the Folio Property Podcast. I'm Rhys Bettle and I'm here each week with my co-host, Lachlan Delahunty. Lachlan, did you know 85% of our audience isn't subscribed to the channel right now? It's disappointing, Rhys. It's very disappointing. We've just ticked over 4,000 subscribers across all platforms at the moment. Aim is to get to 5,000 by the end of the year. Do us a favor. Give us a follow. Do us a favor. Give us a follow. Rhys will reveal his barber if you give us a follow.
• 1:11
  And if you're listening on Spotify, which we have a regular audience on Spotify, give us a five-star rating as well. It really does help grow the channel and bring amazing guests like the man in front of us today, director of Verve Buyers Agency, the largest buyers agency here in Perth. He's also on the ground personally specializing in a luxury market in the Western suburbs. Anything else you've got to add to that, Lachlan? Ex West Coast Eagles player, I believe, many years ago.
• 1:39
  Didn't play any games, so I don't know if I can count that. No, it counts. Just drop it. Ron Powell, welcome to the Follow Property Podcast. Thanks, boys. It's been a pleasure. I've been watching from afar. I'm grateful to be on. So, Ron, what's driving the Perth property boom in 2025?
• 1:55
  Obviously the lack of stock is probably the biggest one. Confidence throughout the market, obviously, as you guys have alluded to in your podcast a lot, there's a lot of noise externally, but I think the biggest driving factor is just the fact that we haven't built enough. I think that's driving it. And even in the higher end as well, has that sort of echoed through? I know the lower end of the market, we've talked about the scarcity, there's no homes, but off air a couple of months ago, you said you really start to see that top end of the market turn.
• 2:24
  Yeah, especially for the established stock. A big driving factor is probably that land value play starting to go out the window just because of the cost of rebuilding a lot of properties. So you're starting to see people starting to move into the top end in the 10 to 12 to 13s, and maybe it's something that's built in 2016, 2013. Because there's better value in buying established, you know, when we say new in the last five to seven years, then buying landlocking something
• 2:53
  knocking down and building because the cost of building. Correct, yeah. And especially in that prestige market, like the minimum you're going to be paying for the basic level is $8,000 a square metre. It's crazy, isn't it? Because I know pre-COVID, a big strategy that you were out there in the market was lambaking, right? Getting assets where you can knock down because...
• 3:10
  The cost to buy land and build, you're probably going to be a million bucks in front on those sort of higher-end properties. We're seeing now that's switched where there's more value in the established market because of the replacement cost. Yeah, probably in the last six months. At the start of the year, I think everyone went the land value play. And then now everyone's starting to go, well, I think that's really dried up and the stock's not there and the cost's...
• 3:28
  too exorbitant so you're starting to see that that top end really move but i think it's also just transactions i think that just hasn't been enough like um i think the last two months in peppermint grove has been three to four above 10 mil whereas before that they're just it wasn't happening and the confidence wasn't there and it's a completely different market compared to maybe your like your your florida to their three to four type of price points as well
• 3:53
  Yeah. The top end of the market, and when we talk top end, it's sort of that five to 30 million markets. Is it predominantly driven by sentiment? Because we've seen super optimistic market conditions in Perth for the last two years, but we haven't seen the top end of the market move all that much. But obviously now the share market's booming and you've got really positive sentiment, gold prices, et cetera. Does that have a lot to do with it? Are you seeing just a lot of confidence across the board? Well, they've all got different vehicles of wealth. That's why they're at that price point.
• 4:23
  Yep. They're different to the day-to-day type of buyers. So everything needs to kind of align for them. And then once it does, you see a flurry of those transactions occur.
• 4:35
  So you see multiple offers in those high-profes. Yeah, multiple offers. There's been a couple in City Beach where they sold for nine. It was all on the same street. So it's just a confidence. One got listed asking eight, sold for nine, four offers on it. Then on the back of that, like four houses down, one came up for nine, sold straight away. And then on the back of that, the person that's bought it is selling their house around the corner because they're upgrading because they bought a land value play. Now that's going to sell for eight.
• 5:05
  seeing that the market's moving and they're probably more bullish than anyone else and they've seen it before so they're jumping all over it. What about on the lower end obviously you've got your finger on the pulse on the higher luxury side of things here in Perth but you know being a director of Verve you're well across
• 5:22
  I guess the rest of the space here in Perth, what's been the feedback on maybe that lower entry? I just like it, countless offers. I think a couple of the team members missed out on one for around that low ones and then sold for one four and there was 21 offers on it. And it was in like Leaderville, not the greatest part of it. And then you start to...
• 5:40
  And now like look through that and you go, well, that's pretty substantial. The villa market obviously has really picked up, but then it's anything that's more of that around that low ones. And you can almost say the low twos where there's a high competition, a big buyer pool. Is that upgraders as well? Is that people that have maximized on the market over the last three or four years and now starting to capitalize into that?
• 6:00
  Next echelon of suburb or? I'd almost say first home buyers. Yeah. Like that low one is first home buyer. Low twos is people that have bought something entry level, maybe like 2016, 2018. The market's gone up. They've got a bit of equity. And now they're starting to buy that 2.1, 2.2. That would be like the people that are buying their second home. And at the moment, the conversations around it, that's not their forever home. Like they have to use that as a stepping stone. It's almost three or four stepping stones until they get that final piece. Yeah.
• 6:28
  What about that first homeowner's cap increase? You know, the sediment was huge across the country. Probably it felt more East Coast that was driving a lot of the growth because Perth was already on a stellar run. But what about the, you know, the first time buyers you are seeing? Are they in that cap or are they in that 1.1 budget that you mentioned there, which is going to be above it?
• 6:47
  Probably around the cap. Like I think like for our website inquiries, we had like 38 in that week once it got released. So there's a lot of people trying to get access, but the problem was all the savvy investors were snapping them up like that type of product and it was pushing it. So instead of getting like a three by one in Jindana, you've been further out. So.
• 7:05
  I think it was almost too late to get to the party in that sense. But yeah, there's still the sentiment. But I'm seeing a lot more of parents having to help. That's the next part of the conversation. Thank you, Mum and Dad, stepping in to give them a leg up. Yeah, that's become more substantial, even in that low two type of price point because they know what the type of product difference between like a 1.5 and 2.1 is massive. Are Perth homebuyers being forced to compromise in 2025? Yeah.
• 7:32
  A hundred percent. Yep. The only thing that Perth home buyers are not compromising on, I think it's probably like location. People are still pretty savvy in the market, obviously like main roads, things that affect it long-term, but location like school zones, anything like that, they're just getting in. If it's a three by one, they're going to make it work because they know the market's moving so much. So their wish list is kind of going out the window and it's like, what are the non-negotiables? And it might only be one or two instead of having like five to six.
• 8:01
  Let's talk about the buy agency side. That's why we really wanted to get you in because, you know, we hear a lot of noise. We speak about this all the time as well, but it's really important from a home buying perspective. So myself and Lachlan are always actively talking about the investor side, but it is a very different process. What's, you know, at the moment, how are you finding the market here in Perth as opposed to 12, 18 months ago when there was a lot of East Coast activity in the market as well?
• 8:27
  I think it's more thorough, I feel. Obviously, the market's moving faster and it's aggressive in pricing, but it's also understanding like...
• 8:38
  What makes up a good property? Because certain suburbs, you feel like they can't go anymore and they almost get into that ceiling where it's like unaffordable. You're spending four mil in Florey, whereas probably 12, 18 months ago, there was three mil. So people are starting to tap out at certain points. So you've got to be really careful of what you're buying now to make sure, well, if the market, because obviously when you're buying homes, you're in it for 10, 20, 30 years. You're going to go through countless...
• 9:03
  growth phases. But fundamentally, if you have a flawed asset, it's not really going to help you long term. So you've got to be really careful with what you're buying. And during that FOMO phase, that's typically when people make really bad decisions, right? Because they've missed out on five or six. And then they somehow justify that buying on a busy road outside the school catchment that they desire is actually now suddenly a good idea just to get in. Are you seeing that and how are those conversations trying to, I guess, direct clients back to what
• 9:30
  what their brief was when they sort of originally caught up with you. You just got to be ruthless because if you've been through markets before, you know what sells and what doesn't. And you know what fundamentally a good property is. So it's just steering them away from that. And the biggest hurdle a lot of buyers face at the moment is a lack of transparency. So they're not sure something could sell for 3.2, right? But all the offers are at 2.9. Someone's just overpaid. Is market value 3.2? Is it where the buyer pool is at 2.9?
• 9:55
  And then so you really got to understand how would a buyer get access to that sort of information? They can't. That's the beauty of what we do. So if we're getting more information, and that's literally all this market's missing at the moment. We're moving so quickly that information kind of gets missed because they're forced to make a decision about something that's...
• 10:16
  like three mil or two mil, even if the first home buyer, you're making it in a few days and you don't have the access to the information to make a calculated decision. That's a really good point because we always say, you know, as a valuer, when I went to university, you learn the definition of market value and essentially it is over market conditions what someone's willing to pay, right? So under that scenario, if someone in that sense has paid $3.2 million, it's easy to say, well, that must have been market value.
• 10:42
  But what you're saying, and I completely agree with it, if there's 10 offers, nine of those offers between 2.8 and 2.9, that would suggest that's probably the indication of true market value. And there's an East Coast buyer, investor, buys it sight unseen for 3.2, an uneducated offer.
• 11:03
  Well, that's the outlier. But all of a sudden, 3.2 is the norm for market value, sets a new precedent, but having that knowledge is super powerful. Well, if you can keep them and go further with it, like if someone's at 3.2, for example, they might be hiding a sub-sale. So they're doing the longer settlement piece to get their offer accepted, knowing they have to sell something. So they might do 90 days, everyone's at 30 days. So like, okay, I've got to blow everyone out the water so I can get this accepted and then go sell my house.
• 11:30
  So there's so many variety of factors there. Saying that, just so that for the audience there, so if you've got a subject sale, you may have to pay an extra 3%, 4%, 5% in this market to secure an asset. Probably more. So then if, I guess, public information, that 3.2% was a subject to sale, they've had to pay more to get it. Having that information is super valuable because you know the next property that pops up, that that was an overflated sale. Makes sense.
• 11:54
  Well, and they might not put sub-sale on the offer as well. So that's another. Well, a buyer's not going to get access to that, right? Yeah. Okay. That's really interesting. So having that level of knowledge becomes super helpful because I guess we get asked all the time, how can we help clients? How do you know you're not overpaying? And I always, we've preached on the podcast, you know.
• 12:11
  knowledge is power. The more you know about the area you're buying in, that's why I always talk about area specialization is so important because the more you know about a particular market, the more you know about the information, the sales evidence gives you so much more knowledge when you go into a negotiation. Is that never been more true? Oh, 100%. Like, yeah.
• 12:33
  Obviously, if you're doing your job right, you're getting more access to information than sales agents do. Because if they're just following up things in their pipeline, they're missing the opportunities that another agent might have. They've gatekept. Something could be off market. You could understand where offers are off market. You could know that something could sell for 4.2 and there's four offers under 4.2.
• 12:54
  And then they'll appraise it at 3.5 and everyone's appraised at 3.5. So you know how quickly the market can move in a week. So then you take that information and you utilise it to your advantage.
• 13:04
  And then I guess if there is a big sale that happens in a local area and it doesn't matter if that's at $750K at $1 million or at $5 million, it takes typically 45 to 65 days to settle. If there is a big sale in the area, you've got 45 to 65 days to buy as much as you can under that price point because once that settles, it becomes public information, right?
• 13:26
  Yeah, and it doesn't matter what part of the market you're working with. I've seen it in the 7 mil mark, seen it in the million. Like as soon as things move and momentum is so strong in this market and it's so aggressive with price point, like that's all it takes. Like Peppermint Grove, for example, one sold for 6.6. I was looking up for a client. So I knew that sold for 6.6. I went and bought something for 7. Someone else did the same thing and went and bought something for 8. And then now everything's selling for 10 because off the back of it, there's momentum, there's buyers, activity. People are seeing it. It's moving.
• 13:55
  And then they're like, you know what, I can almost set the market myself. And they're being aggressive within means of understanding where market value is. Yeah. I had an auction a couple of years ago now. I was in Carinup and it sold for a bumper, right? Everyone was praising it, $1.25. And we're looking for a client at other properties in the area around that sort of price point. And ended up selling for $1.45, which at the time was ludicrous. Now that's a fantastic buy.
• 14:19
  It was a 200 above where we deemed market value. Obviously not everyone attended the auction so that information becomes really, really helpful because we went and bought a property literally the next day around the corner for 1.25 because we knew once that information come out about that auction result, it was going to send a new benchmark. That sort of period of time between a bumper sale and that information being released to the public becomes super helpful for buyers.
• 14:45
  What's the biggest reason someone would sell an off-market in the current market here in Perth at the moment? I classify as a three D, so death, divorce, and debt. Death, divorce, and debt. That's how the first I've heard it. Yeah, well, at the moment, there's a substantial amount of divorce. There's not too much debt getting around. You could probably classify that with a lot of people being...
• 15:06
  bridging loans or trying to find something or downsize and as everyone knows here that we probably haven't built enough downsize a product the uptake of buyers to move into apartments just isn't there so but people do sell off market right everyone says it's a sales pitch for buyers agents to lure in clients you know hey what like you said why would someone sell off market and b do they how many you know oh
• 15:30
  Yeah, there's substantial amount, depending on price point as well. So like in my market I work in, there hasn't been enough transactions to warrant where value is. So you kind of almost test the market to see where people are sitting because they're not too confident of your discrepancy between 10 to 13 mil is pretty large. You sometimes see price points of 10 to 15 and it's depending on where you see value.
• 15:53
  But a lot of that time off market, they might have bought somewhere and they need bridging loan to match up. They don't have the time, the time poor, don't want to get the house ready. Divorce, it's pretty like you don't want everyone coming through and understanding your circumstances and you don't want it to affect the sale of the property as well, especially if it's a pretty messy divorce and it's a well-known people, people, it's probably the only market you make money for a divorce at the moment, but you don't want it to have any impact on the future sale.
• 16:22
  And that's interesting because people, we get asked too, it's like, you've just nailed it on the head. Why does someone, why would someone sell off market? But if you're going through a divorce, you may not want the entire street to know because as soon as you sell a property, they'll be like, well, why are you selling? Something's happened, right? And if there are three days that you talked about, people want to keep that confidential. But it's also probably convenience as well. Sometimes speed's more important. If you say someone's under pressure with bridging loan scenario, speed is more important than a better price.
• 16:50
  Yeah. And it's also like understanding, you don't want tire kickers through your property. I think that's the biggest one. Obviously, I think properties are the tip of the tongue for most people when if you- At the higher end. Higher end. Yeah. You don't want like every neighbor to come through your property or anybody just to have a look. So it's really filtering through who the genuine buyers that can pay that price.
• 17:11
  And then further to that as well, like, yeah, time's critical. So they might have hidden a sub-sale, they might have bridging, they might have other circumstances, they've got to match things up. So for them, even getting the house ready, they might have three or four kids, other circumstances. There's a variety of reasons why people do it. The other ones, obviously, like I said, it's just not having transparency about what the resale might be. So if you're understanding of maybe there's a fluctuation for value
• 17:40
  you could sometimes, and like obviously just because it's off market doesn't mean, I think it's got off market has such a fancy title. It doesn't mean it's good buying. Yep. Well, some would argue you have to pay an off market premium. Correct. And it's understanding if you haven't done your research and you're not doing that market like,
• 17:55
  Every day, you're not inside it every day. Yeah. Well, you don't know what's good value and what's not. And sometimes people can get caught up on the hook of off market and overpay. And pay too much. Correct. Yeah. And we have seen that, right? You see a skewed sale hit the market and sometimes it's often it can be an out of area buyers agent, right? That sets a new market record because they actually don't know the local market.
• 18:14
  And that's the difference between being a generalist and a specialist. Like if you know your market inside and out, you should know every property that's coming up for sale. You should know the buyer pool you're up against. And that's something I know. Like I know the buyers I'm up against most of the time because if you're in compensation with them, you know budgets, you know what's working against you and for you. So you've really got to position yourself to the best chance of that secure the property.
• 18:36
  Rowan, Perth is at historic low listings. We've spoken about this on the podcast multiple times. Can a regular punter get into the Perth property market in 2025 without that inside knowledge like a buyer's agent or building the relationships with the local agents?
• 18:53
  Without regret, probably not. I think that's the biggest thing. There's a lot of FOMO and people probably making mistakes. It's just understanding how often you're transacting on property and how many properties you're seeing and understanding with value. So I think that's the...
• 19:09
  The average punter can get very lucky and a lot of conversations I've had with buyers over the years is that they think they're very astute property investors. They think they just got lucky they could have bought a main road so all these factors that contribute it and anyone could have made money. Whereas when you get to the pointy end and you're buying a home,
• 19:24
  it's a pretty substantial cost. It's like how often, like when you're doing like, you're going for surgery, right? And you're getting a specialist to do a full knee recon. You're not just getting the average joe. You're probably getting the best of the best. Someone's done it day in, day out. Why would you leave that to chance? That's the biggest thing I look at as well.
• 19:45
  Yeah, that's the number one thing I tell my mates when they put shit on me for not doing any of the renos myself. It's like, why would I do a poor job at that when there's experts out there that that's their living. That's what they do. It's their crust. Yeah. But yeah, good luck to the average punter at the moment, depending on price points. But with the way how quickly the market's moved, they're still...
• 20:10
  reviewing data that could be six to 12 months old whereas if you're on the ground and you're seeing things sell quickly within that week and as Lachlan always alludes to his videos they move by 0.7 per week and if you factor that out for the next four weeks like you can almost have four percent growth and on a price point of three mil adds up pretty quickly yeah
• 20:28
  And the buyer's agents in the lower end of the market, so let's say the entry point, I know lower to you earlier was 1.1, but I'm talking maybe more. Yeah, like $5.50. Yeah, maybe they're all $5.50, $6.50. And then, you know, all the way up to the price points you're dealing with, is there different offerings between the higher end of the market versus lower end in terms of like an advantage of using a buyer's agent?
• 20:50
  I think the more of the lower end at the moment is probably like that investment grade or the portfolio strategy. And then the more further up you move, probably in price point, it's executing market knowledge. I think that's the biggest one. And relationships. I think that's the biggest thing. So if I've been dealing...
• 21:09
  in the sector that I have for some time, you're utilising my 10 years of knowledge and relationships. So you're understanding the fundamentals of what the suburb, why would you buy in certain areas, the risks of development proposals. You've got a town planner in my team. So there's so many different factors that go towards it. Like,
• 21:26
  you can even go further and you go, well, especially some price points in City Beach, you've got to calculate how much is a view worth. And if you're not across that and you're maximizing your view or the potential to lose it, the price point's massive. So the more...
• 21:42
  I think the higher up you go, the more expertise you need in a different element of providing value to a buyer. The higher up you go, the buyers are more astute as well because they've probably bought and sold many properties in their lifetime as well. So you've got to add something that they wouldn't originally have. And that is market knowledge, that is access to properties, that is intel that's going to put them in front, but also just getting that last row of refusal and understanding where value is within the market.
• 22:10
  About area specifics, you've kind of touched on this. We've spoken about this. How important, especially in a home buying side of things, is it to have someone who's a local expert in that particular suburb?
• 22:20
  There's no point in hiring a buyer's agent if they don't know more than you. That's simple as it should be. If they don't know more than you do in that area and they don't know the agents, they don't know the market, they don't know the good pockets from the bad, you're better off doing it yourself. How would an average punter, because buyer's agents, it's a sales role, are very good at selling themselves. How would an average punter...
• 22:42
  I guess, a quiz, a BA to find out what they do or don't know in that scenario. How would I know? How would I come to you and know that I don't know more than you? Real off how many properties they've purchased in that area and which ones. Call up agents in the area to understand if they're actually active in the area and who they would recommend. That's a really good point. Who's more likely to reach out to them? Because the last thing you want is to hire a buyer's agent that doesn't do anything in the area and you're at a disadvantage.
• 23:07
  So if you call three local prominent agents in the area and say which buyers agents you'd recommend, that would be a great way to filter through. A hundred percent. I get it every now and then where you get buyers agents they've never been heard of and then they get referred to me in that regard if they're not active in the area because they might not be across to sale and therefore their commission comes into it and they're wanting to do a deal and then they don't put the client first.
• 23:33
  And then that's what hurts them because they just want to get the deal done because they know something comes up. They might jump all over it. They might get an off market, like I said before, and think it's a premium and it's how good is this because that's all they're trading. That's all they've got is off market access. Whereas they could get an overpriced listing and then pay for it.
• 23:51
  where they could have bought it for two or three hundred grand under market, if it had gone online. If they knew the market and if they knew what's occurring or if they knew what else is out there, they wouldn't buy it. But if you're not across everything, it's like the difference between a selling agent that specializes in that area and sells everywhere. It's not genuine. The connections aren't real. And the advice you're giving isn't accurate as well.
• 24:13
  Rowan, I guess I always talk investment sort of ingrained in me as investment property and data and analytics. Homebuying is very different. And obviously, you specialize in homebuying, particularly in the higher end. It's very emotional. What's the different fundamentals between buying an investment property and buying a home?
• 24:35
  The biggest one's functionality. So understanding what your family needs are versus probably investment needs. Obviously, a lot of people want to be close to amenities. It's very similar in some aspects. So school zones play a massive part of it, depending if they're sending to private or public as well. So you start to see that. But the biggest one's just functionality and livability. So making sure the floor plan, natural light.
• 24:58
  Isn't that frustrating though? Because I know when I did some home buying back many years ago, you'd find an absolute deal where you're buying at two or three hundred potentially under market value. But the wife hates the floor coverings and the curtains and doesn't like the kitchen. And I'm losing my mind going like, how are you not buying this? This is like a deal of the year. Does that come into play? Does it not frustrate the hell out of you?
• 25:19
  Yeah, it does, but you've got to provide more context. So those things can be changed. Like if the floor plan's not functional, you can't fix that. As you know, the perfect floor plan's clear entry to exit, nice open plan, living. If you don't have that, then you start questioning why you're buying it.
• 25:34
  But I wouldn't probably go through the property to start off with. So you've got to do your due diligence prior to make sure it's worth your while or else it's a pretty, you're playing the long game, extremely long. And so if you've done all your work prior, you know it's probably going to match their brief and that's the art of home buying. It's, well, I know what exactly it is they want and then you've got to find it before.
• 25:56
  they even know it is. And then you've got to communicate and educate them about why it is they should buy this. Even if it is under or if it's a good investment, if it ticks what they're after, then it's a non-negotiable in that sense. Maybe I was just a shitty buyer's agent, so I couldn't wrap my head around why they wouldn't buy the deal of the century, but it turns out they've got kids and they need more than one bedroom. So it's a great land bank. Rowan, which Perth suburbs are undervalued in 2025?
• 26:23
  Oh, if you asked me at the start of the year, I probably said like Delkeith, Peppermint Grove. I know that sounds a bit strange, that river precinct. Yeah, Delkeith's been asleep for like four or five years. Yeah. It's just woken up. It's just woken up. Same as Peppermint Grove. There's a lot of buyers moving from Cottesloe across to get a bigger landholding.
• 26:39
  Um, I still think like through pockets of Subiaco and Shenton Park, like they're still really highly desired, still close to a lot of amenities. A lot of doctors, right? It's just doctors flooding in from the East Coast and want to be close to the hospital.
• 26:54
  Wembley. Wembley is undervalued for a period of time, but thanks to Craig Gasper, I think they've changed a fair bit. That Bayswater-Maylands precinct, I still think that's got a bit of growth left, especially with the train line coming through. A lot of, obviously, infrastructure has been built around that, and you're getting your character homes on 650, 700 square metres for, what, 15, 16? Whereas you filter that out and you look at, like, Inglewood, Mount Lawley, there's a lot of, I think there's still substantial price growth through there as well.
• 27:21
  Any micro markets appearing within these suburbs? Suburbs, yeah. I would say yes, like depending on, I think it goes back to school zones. I think that's the biggest factor at the moment, driving iron bikes. You mentioned that a few times, right? Like the school zones and we talk about this when looking for investment properties and I think it's super relevant, super relevant because the best investments are those that are driven by own occupier activity. And from what I've heard today, school zones is it.
• 27:48
  Well, especially like Bayswater, Inglewood, like they're on the pocket of Mount Lawley Senior High School and you could be one straight out and you could be hundreds of thousands of dollars difference. Just for that sake. So like, yeah, there is like micro markets 100% and it's obviously like streetscape, little things like that, how close you are to amenities again. Like it's just back to basic fundamentals of buying a property. Like why would you want to live in it if you're nowhere near anything and you're in a terrible school zone? No one's going to buy it.
• 28:17
  What's the biggest mistake? We talk about the time investors make thousands of mistakes, including myself, but what's the biggest mistake you're seeing? You see owner-occupiers make when out there hunting for their dream home.
• 28:30
  They fall in love with the house, but not the fundamentals of the property itself. So maybe that might be like main roads, anything like that. What they discount, you know, maybe it's like a lipstick on the pig or it's been really well furnished. Oh, the old agents, you can say it's quiet at night and it's busy. But I think a lot of people probably, they talk themselves into things they probably shouldn't. Because it's so tight?
• 28:54
  Yeah, and also the market's moving so much and they don't think their money can buy what they want. And then they get stressed and it's highly emotional at the moment. And some people just get fed up and just buy something for the sake of buying it. And they move in and regret it. Yeah, 100%. And then you're stuck with an asset they won't perform. And it doesn't matter if it's your home or investment, like a shit asset, still a shit asset.
• 29:15
  And you made a very famous quote on various podcasts. The average person takes, what is it, 15 minutes to walk through a home? It's 13 minutes. Generally 13 minutes, yeah. The biggest financial decision arguably in their life, yet they spend 13 minutes to make that decision.
• 29:32
  Yeah, and it's getting harder. Like obviously a number of people in home opens, but I think it's also like I'm even starting to see agents aren't putting floor plans on things. So you're, imagine going through something, yeah, for 13 minutes and there's 55 people, but then you don't have any recollection of what you've gone through. You've got the photos, you've got no floor plan. And floor plan's so important. It cannot be underestimated, right? Anyone who lives in a home is like, I'm sure they'd want it a different way. Yeah, well, like for example, yeah,
• 29:59
  In Duncrag or the homes were built in 1970s. Yeah. And then in the 70s, we had a shortage of bricks. So if you go through all those properties, all the bedroom measurements are smaller than three metres by three metres. They're about 2.7 by 2.8. So like long term, like the functionality of a bedroom, it's not there. And if you don't have a floor plan, you're going in like this is pretty tight and you realise it's actually not a standard bedroom. Yeah.
• 30:22
  There you go. Some really good knowledge there. That is local market knowledge. 70s, they ran out of bricks. Yeah, 70s and 80s, and that's why you've got low ceilings and the built-ins are smaller, all these things. And there you can probably identify a fair few suburbs, like Cardinia's been up the same time as Duncrague, Padbury, all these areas. They get your measuring tape out because what would look like a large room could cause to be a problem if it's...
• 30:48
  Not accounted for. 100%. And it's just not functional. And imagine trying to put you, it's not a long-term play as well, especially if you're kids. You've got a growing family, right? You've got teenage kids. They're not going to sit in a 2x5. Coming home and you're 21-year-olds in a 2.7x2.7. Good luck to you. Rowan, we've got a famous segment that's probably not that famous. It's I Call Bullshit. Is there any benefit in using a buyer's agent?
• 31:12
  In fact, if it's the right one for that area and they specialize in that area. If not, yeah, I call bullshit on using a buyer's agent that doesn't know their stuff. So breaching, local specialization, area specialization. You spoke on the podcast before. Do your research. If they don't know more than you in that suburb, don't use them. Correct. They can't offer any value. There's no point of using them.
• 31:39
  Ron Power, thanks for joining the Folio Property Podcast. Thanks for having me, boys.