<\/p>\n
Ben Handler<\/strong>,\u00a0the director of Cohen Handler Buyers\u2019 Agents, joins the chorus of those who are sick of all the talk about un-affordable property in Australia. He also has some excellent suggestions about how first time buyers can get in the market and a warning about the dangers of rushing in because you are fed up with missing out.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Kevin:<\/b>\u00a0 We\u2019ve been talking today in the show about whinging and whining about how unaffordable property is, particularly in relation to first-home buyers. Joining the conversation now is one of the co-owners, the director of Cohen Handler Buyers\u2019 Agents, Ben Handler.<\/p>\n Ben, thanks for your time.<\/p>\n Ben:<\/b>\u00a0 Thank you.<\/p>\n Kevin;<\/b>\u00a0 We\u2019ve had some pretty strong views expressed already about whinging and whining and what people should be doing to get into the property industry. How unaffordable is it really, Ben?<\/p>\n Ben:<\/b>\u00a0 It really depends. I guess I agree in regards to people whinging that they\u2019re struggling to save money, that they\u2019re spending money on other things. However \u2013 we hear this a lot \u2013 while the market is competitive, it\u2019s also very exciting and dynamic and rewarding at the same time for those who buy well. First-home buyers need to put effort into planning, into researching, into saving, and this ultimately will be determined by how serious the buyer is to find their dream home.<\/p>\n Kevin:<\/b>\u00a0 Do you think we\u2019ve play too much the hope game?<\/p>\n Ben:<\/b>\u00a0 Absolutely. We define hope as really being reactive and not proactive. First-home buyers need to always be on the front foot and ready for change. The market is changing daily or even weekly, so they need to be ready to change their plan of attack. More importantly, they need to get really curious and start asking questions to the real estate agents, really being prepared, because there is a lot of uncertainty out there with what you can get.<\/p>\n Kevin:<\/b>\u00a0 Help me with some of the questions they should be asking agents to get to the bottom of this.<\/p>\n Ben:<\/b>\u00a0 For example, if a real estate agent has a property that\u2019s scheduled for auction, a lot of first-home buyers forget to ask the question \u201cIs there an opportunity to buy this prior?\u201d Rather than waiting for that campaign to get to auction where the price, in most cases, goes up due to more interest, there\u2019s always an opportunity to buy pre-auction. That\u2019s also a good example.<\/p>\n Kevin:<\/b>\u00a0 I guess one of the riders with that, too \u2013 and it\u2019s not a condition, but it certainly should be something that every first home buyer should do \u2013 is make sure they do their homework so that they have a clear picture of the price before they start making pre-auction offers, Ben.<\/p>\n Ben:<\/b>\u00a0 Yes, correct.\u00a0 That also comes down to just planning and understanding \u201cIs this property achievable for my budget?\u201d In most cases for a lot of first-home buyers, it\u2019s not. They spend money on due diligence with their solicitor or their accountant or financial planner, and in fact the property is actually not in their budget at all.<\/p>\n Kevin:<\/b>\u00a0 I heard a suggestion the other day from one of your colleagues actually \u2013 not necessarily in your company but he was a buyers\u2019 agent \u2013 who was saying that first-home buyers should just totally ignore auctions because auction is a very dangerous way to buy property. I arced up at that because I think that\u2019s some of the worst advice I\u2019ve heard in a long time. You miss out on so many properties if you just ignore auctions.<\/p>\n Ben:<\/b>\u00a0 Yes, it\u2019s an interesting one. I guess sometimes it is good to take a property to auction to condition the vendor, especially in this market where vendors\u2019 expectations of price is so high now as you can imagine, so sometimes it is good to bring it to auction to actually get the transparency of who are the buyers and what\u2019s really going on. The real estate agents will tell you there are all these people interested, etc. Is it true? Who knows? An auction is a really good representation to understand what\u2019s going on.<\/p>\n However, there is sometimes great opportunity to execute prior to auction \u2013 and that just comes down to asking the agent questions and really just getting curious as to what can be achieved.<\/p>\n Kevin<\/b>:\u00a0 Do you think sometimes that first-home buyers risk buying the wrong type of house or even paying too much because they don\u2019t do their homework?<\/p>\n Ben:<\/b>\u00a0 It is very common. We see a lot of first-home buyers, really due to frustration, they start to settle for something that\u2019s not really even part of their original brief. They get beaten down from missing out on properties, missing out at auction, from just spending too much time on the weekends and not finding the right property, and they begin to settle for what they really don\u2019t want. We see that a lot.<\/p>\n Kevin:<\/b>\u00a0 I wonder sometimes \u2013 and we touched on this earlier in the show, too, Ben \u2013 whether this is just a generational thing where first-home buyers or young people are genuinely looking for something more than what they can actually afford. In other words, their requirements are outstripping their capabilities.<\/p>\n Ben:<\/b>\u00a0 Yes, this is very common, and as I mentioned earlier, at the very beginning, they get it wrong. [4:40 inaudible] <\/b>for a property that\u2019s actually not within their budget, and that\u2019s where they get it wrong. Or they might see a sale that happened in that suburb six months ago for their budget but the market is moving so quickly that now it\u2019s unrealistic. So yes, we see that a lot.<\/p>\n Kevin:<\/b>\u00a0 Just in closing in the minute or two we have, could you just give us the best pieces of advice you have for first-home buyers to get into the market?<\/p>\n Ben:<\/b>\u00a0 There are three critical things. One is prepare and have a plan that is actually realistic from the beginning. That is critical. Number two, they need to take full control and full ownership of the process, and that comes down to really educating themselves, getting good at asking questions of the real estate agent, etc. The third we see is resilience. You need to prepare yourself to miss out. It\u2019s going to happen, and we see a lot of first-home buyers get broken as a result. They\u2019re the three things.<\/p>\n Kevin:<\/b>\u00a0 That third point you make there leads a lot of people to make fairly big decisions rather rapidly that could lead them down the path of making the wrong one \u2013 in other words, \u201cI\u2019m just fed up with this. I have to buy something,\u201d and they\u2019ll go out and maybe spend too much.<\/p>\n If I can just take you back to the first point, which was you said about making a plan. Who should be involved in that? Tell me the sorts of people we should be talking to to help get that plan together.<\/p>\n Ben:<\/b>\u00a0 Here at Cohen Handler, we have a designated program to help first-home buyers, and that\u2019s really about formulating this plan to actually understand \u201cAre your expectations realistic?\u201d And that\u2019s mission-critical, number one. Can you actually afford to be in this area? And if not, let\u2019s pivot and change, and make it realistic.<\/p>\n Kevin:<\/b>\u00a0 Ben, it\u2019s been great talking to you. Thank you very much.<\/p>\n The bottom line, I guess, is to do your homework, do your research, be prepared to maybe go down a few dry gullies, but stop whinging. Is that the message?<\/p>\n Ben:<\/b>\u00a0 Absolutely. Stop whinging and put effort into preparing.<\/p>\n Kevin:<\/b>\u00a0 Good on you. Ben Handler, CEO of Cohen Handler Buyers\u2019 Agents. Thanks for your time, Ben. Nice talking to you, mate.<\/p>\n Ben:<\/b>\u00a0 Thank you very much.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Ben Handler,\u00a0the director of Cohen Handler Buyers\u2019 Agents, joins the chorus of those who are sick of all the talk about un-affordable property in Australia. He also has some excellent suggestions about how first time buyers can get in the market and a warning…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":176692473,"featured_media":8717,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[32,34,10,11,13,17,22,25,27],"tags":[101],"class_list":["post-25293","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-buying-a-property-topic","category-finance-topic","category-kevin-turner-sponsored-channels","category-kevin-update","category-latest-story","category-property-investment","category-research-topic","category-sponsored-channels","category-trends-topic","tag-podcast"],"yoast_head":"\nTranscript:<\/strong><\/h4>\n