A property that ticks every box. A sunlit living room that opens onto a leafy backyard. A quiet street that’s somehow still walking distance to the best cafés and the train station. For many Australians, that’s the dream first home—the one that feels like it was made just for you.

But here’s the truth: relying on luck to find "the one" could be the reason you end up with a property that hamstrings your future.

In this episode, Veronica and Meighan pull back the curtain on their own first property purchases. They get vulnerable about the cringeworthy "rookie mistakes" they made—from buying with emotional blinkers on to getting lucky in a rising market without having a real strategy. They explain why your first home is the foundation of your entire journey and why one misstep today can cost you a decade of progress tomorrow.

You’ll learn how to tell a "smart" buy from a "lucky" one (hint: luck isn't a strategy you can repeat), why generic advice from ChatGPT or well-meaning family can lead you down the garden path, and how to identify the opportunity cost of a bad first purchase.

From the dangers of buying in the wrong market cycle to the power of the PACE mindset, this episode will give you the 20/20 hindsight we had to earn the hard way—and give you the clarity to move from a "hope and pray" buyer to a confident, strategic homeowner.

Episode Highlights

00:00 — Introduction: The Excitement and Pitfalls of Buying Your First Home

01:56 — The Importance of Process and the PACE System

04:30 — Exposing the Worst Advice First Buyers Get

11:08 – Understanding Property Value and Pricing

13:15 — Renovation Realities and Regrets

15:55 — The Role of Real Estate Agents

17:33 — Financing and Hidden Costs

22:13 — Long-Term vs. Short-Term Planning

25:40 — The Impact of Your First Property on Future Purchases

27:56 — Conclusion: Luck is Not a Strategy

Course Details:

1. THE First Home Buyer Course is our Step-By-Step, No BS Guide to Every Stage of The Home Buying Process – It’s the next best thing to having your own buyer’s agent. With our expert guidance, you’ll know what to do at every step along the way. Become a home owner faster and easier. Click here: https://homebuyeracademy.com.au/YFHBG

If you enjoyed today’s podcast, don’t forget to subscribe, rate, and share the show! There’s more to come, so we hope to have you along with us on this journey!

1. Subscribe on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@TheFirstHomeBuyerCourse
2. Subscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/ph/podcast/your-first-home-buyer-guide-podcast/id1544701825

Subscribe on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/7GyrfXoqvDxjqNRv40NVQs?si=7c8bc4362fab421f

HBA266 - What We Wish We Knew Before Buying Our First Property

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Multiple audio: In this episode, we are pulling back the curtain on the things we wish we'd known before we bought our first properties, because some of those missteps. Cost us time, money and opportunities, and maybe even a few gray hairs. Maybe if you are relying on luck friendly agents or well-meaning advice from people who've only ever bought one, you are setting yourself up for the same regrets that we have had.

Multiple audio: Sometimes when we've looked back on our first purchases, we are giving you the hindsight that we had to earn the hard way so that you can shortcut the pain and make confident strategic decisions from day one. And yes, these lessons could literally change the trajectory. Your property journey. Listen to the full episode and grab the course to avoid rookie mistakes,

Meighan: ~Down, ~

Speaker 2: Our mission to cut through the Bs, keep it real, and make sure you are buying smarter, not stressing harder. Quick heads up. We've created the First Home Buyer course, our step-by-step program to help you buy your first place with confidence and without the costly mistakes. The links in the show notes, but stick with us first.

Speaker: You'll wanna hear this episode. I.

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Multiple audio: There are small parts of nearly Harry's step in the PACE system covered in this episode. Keep listening as we reveal the things that we would have done differently with the benefit of hindsight, and we're sharing our own personal lessons today so that you can avoid making the very same mistakes we ourselves made before we knew better.

Multiple audio: One thing that is common to both of our first home buyer stories, 'cause we've got very different stories, which will keep drip feeding you through this episode. If you haven't heard before, neither of us understood what happened after we made an offer. Right. We waited for agents to guide us. Here's a rookie era.

Multiple audio: Uh, we second guess ourselves. we just assumed somebody would magically tell us the next step. Right Now, many people ask what do they do once they've got finance approved, or what do we do if we're gonna go to auction or make an offer? These are the sorts of things that we just didn't have a good appreciation for.

Multiple audio: You know what? If you don't understand the buying process, you are relying entirely on luck. I think we've just explained that, right? This is exactly why the first home buyer course starts with the pay system. As I explained earlier, the order of decisions is really what saves you from heartache.

Multiple audio: It was a regular shaped block. It was a character sort of cottage, but it needed so much work and, and I really underestimated, really had no idea how much work was involved or how much it was gonna cost me. But let's get onto the second mistake that you and I. The second thing we really wish that we'd known when we were buying our first time, and that's most people giving you advice really shouldn't be.

Multiple audio: and I kind of touched on this a little bit, but it's parents, colleagues, agents, developers, brokers with free guides, which probably are really valuable, but they're free guides that are really valuable about the money side of things, not necessarily the process of buying and the asset selection side of things.

Multiple audio: You know, play it really safe. and my first property was a studio apartment, and I could have afforded something that I didn't outgrow in less than 12 months. You know, I mean, that's just insane. We took about having a, you know, thinking about future you, I didn't even think about. Next week is me really.

Multiple audio: And I was having a chat with one of our students in Campfire last week. Uh, no, it was actually the week before. And she was talking about how she didn't want to, she knew that she was about $20,000 behind the market, but. She really didn't want to stretch herself that extra $20,000. So I said, look, let's get really practical about this.

Multiple audio: What's the interest rate? How much of the repayments over a year? What does that look like? And it, it came down about an extra $20 a month or something like that. Like it was really quite a small amount. When she stopped thinking about, oh my God, that's so much money. And said, okay, well can I afford that each month?

Multiple audio: That's huge, right? ~Mm-hmm. ~None of this. Crossed our minds at the time, you know, certainly I chased affordable. You chased a cute renovator. Yep. ~Um, ~I also chased new and shiny. Oh my God, yes. You know, mentioned it's not shiny. No. Oh, there's a lot of cigarette smoke, tar sort of coming down the wall. Sticky stuff.

Multiple audio: Mo was new and shiny and tiny, you know, like we did get lucky,~ um,~ as I mentioned earlier, but it absolutely was. Luck. Yeah, it was absolutely luck. I mean, I see people that buy something similar to what I bought now, and they could still be. Holding it a year later or 10 years later. I, I spoke to somebody who bought a property 10 years ago that was actually bigger than my first property.

Multiple audio: ~Um, ~that's now considered in a city, but what I didn't know was when I, when I went up to the property, it was elevated and it had quite a nice outlook from the front. But it was a western facing rear. And having never lived in a house in Queensland that had a western facing rear, I had no idea what I was in for when that sun beat down on the back of that property where, you know, the outdoor living was.

Multiple audio: Where the board, let me, let's just say, well, it wasn't, it wasn't that it wasn't existing on the, on the property. When I bought it, it wasn't, you know, and my, and many properties don't have a termite barrier. What I did in my mistakes. 'cause I didn't know, and I didn't know who to consult, was when I raised the property to put a concrete slab down underneath and build underneath it.

Multiple audio: That was all part of the renovation strategy. ~Um, ~that I had not costed correctly at the time. I was kind of. Managing it myself instead of having a builder manage the process. And I didn't put the, the, the actual,~ um,~ physical termite barrier within the slab and around the penetrations as I should have done.

Multiple audio: So when I went to sell that property, I was like, yeah, it's raised, it's got a slab, it's ready to build under. And the question was, okay, can you show us the term. Barrier. the certificate and the warranty that goes with that. I was like, oh, no. What Now? That's a house sold three times before someone finally went, oh, I've gotta pull up the slab and do it all again.

Multiple audio: But it's not just that, that's like capital growth. Who cares? I just wanna get 'em. The property letter, what you should care about is it? Your first home is not gonna be a forever home. It certainly wasn't ours. And if you don't get that right, you limit your options for the next upgrade. You know, and this is something that we really do wish we had both known, both of us would've had a better upgrade had we, had we done it differently for the first time.

Multiple audio: Yeah. Because it certainly, the market had moved in the two years that I owned my property. ~Uh, ~and by the time I was trying to get back in, uh, just because. It wasn't an A grade asset. It wasn't, wasn't a bad B grade asset, but it certainly wasn't an A grade asset. And I could have bought a little bit better,~ um,~ and done better in the renovation.

Multiple audio: It is not guesswork and it is not throwing a data to dartboard or just throwing your, all your budget at it because you, you've giving up 'cause you keep missing out. Now we anchored to asking prices, right? My property was advertised for $141,000. That was the ask. No, hang on. $145,000. That was the asking price.

Multiple audio: ~Um, ~Veronica, yours had an asking price. Did it? In, in, well, mine was off the plan. So it was actually finished, but still off the plan, like the building hadn't been, um. Sort of signed off. And so, but you know, and I said to him, oh, you know, well I, I'd like to negotiate. And, and he, the agent just said to me, that's, the price.

Multiple audio: But how did I work out what it was worth? I didn't. So you didn't simply, I just went, oh, okay. That's what I have to pay. And, and dad said to me, oh, that's just the asking price. Just o offer a little bit less. So I offered 141,000 and they took it. Now, who could have, who knows what else I could have offered?

Multiple audio: Oh no. With no concept of comparable sales. No concept of market context or how underquoting might work or, and, and you know what? Most buyers today still don't, and not just first time buyers either. Buyers, I come across at all stages. They really don't really get it the way our students do. Yeah.

Multiple audio: And if you can't value a property, you are walking into negotiations absolutely blind. ~Mm-hmm. ~Uh, because you're negotiating against a person who can value a property, and they will argue those sales. ~Mm-hmm. ~Yep. So, and this is exactly why we built into our first home buyer course. We've actually got a little mini course within it about how to price a property like a professional.

Multiple audio: Yeah it is. Now, number five, Veronica is a renovation. Potential is not a personality trait. But I guess this applies more to me than you because I was dead set. I wanted to renovate one of these cute character Queenslanders and put my mark on it and you know, all those sorts of things. But you know what I assumed was, yep.

Multiple audio: Okay. Just get into it. You can renovate it later. ~Um, ~it wasn't the worst house in the best street. It was. A nice house with a good floor plan. I didn't really know what that was at the time. It turned out lucky that it was a good floor plan. ~Um, ~but you know, the other thing that I kind of thought was, you know, how can it, could this be, I'll do a lot of the work myself?

Multiple audio: I mean, I, I have renovated three times now twice for a home to live in, and the first time was,~ uh,~ investment property. So a few years after, obviously I bought my first home and. You know, I've got regrets around the way that I, I approach that as well. I, you know, I, I really thought, I really thought that I could do it in two stages, but actually I bought something, a really narrow block that there's no way I could do it in two stages.

Multiple audio: I had to do the whole renovation at one point. So, you know, there's always assumptions that came out of ignorance and came out of, you know, really. Just believing my own version of what I thought to be true rather than really what was true. So I think understanding what can't be renovated or what shouldn't be renovated is just as important about dreaming what can be renovated.

Multiple audio: So, although there was four of them, they were too small. There was one really large one, and the rest of them were single at best. And the market slapped me around. Van, you? Yep, absolutely. Yep. So you gotta understand what can't be renovated that is just as important as dreaming about what can Oh, absolutely.

Multiple audio: Full stop. Right? Not sometimes. Not only if they're dodgy, always. And even the helpful agents. Friendly agents. Charming agents, you know, they, they're there to do a job, right? They're there to work with buyers, they'll be helpful. They'll, you know, but the end of the day, they, they legally represent the owner.

Multiple audio: They pay to get the highest price for them. From you, for them. Right. That's their job. Right. And helping you and being helpful to you just facilitates that. absolutely. And for us, Veronica, I know for both of us, that blind spot actually cost us quite a bit of money. Mm-hmm. It cost us some mistakes, but it also cost us time.

Multiple audio: So had we had time in a better quality property, the capital growth, remember one of our home buyer Academy of Principles is capital growth matters. Even if it's a home that you are, you're buying to live in, it matters. So the time that we weren't in a a high quality asset. That actually cost us capital growth.

Multiple audio: You've gotta work with them so that they want to help you. So it's a fine line. You wanna help agent,~ um,~ but you've also gotta understand good questions, how to interpret the answers, and, and how to make your own mind up about things. Yeah. And if you're working well with an agent, they're gonna wanna work with you over someone who is absolutely driving them batty.

Multiple audio: These are things we wish we knew. I wish I had a good broker back then. Um, I wish the bank person I spoke to, we thought I was such a good customer for the bank, knew any of this because I had no idea until it was too late, you know? And then I want the property that I bought. That the bank loved me so much for by the time I wanted to upgrade and it was paying for itself, it was actually positive cash flow, right?

Multiple audio: So I had rent. A tenant in there cost me absolutely nothing to own, but because it was less than 50 square meters, the bank would no longer lend me enough money to keep it I mean, look, and I don't regret, I don't regret. Selling it, but I was forced to sell it at a time that I was probably not advantageous.

Multiple audio: And that can be a real trap. So what that means is where you might own a property, say you've got your, your first property, and as you said there, you were looking at buying another property and you wanted to use the equity that you had built out of that first property. ~Um, ~and, and banks might say, all right, we're going to, we want, we want.

Multiple audio: A security over both of these property, we're gonna bring them in together so that we can lend you more money. Now, what that can do to you is, and, and this is where you need a really good broker and really good advice, but what you need to be aware of is if you wanna sell one of those, you've gotta unwrap everything.

Multiple audio: Borrowing strategy and talk around, you know, the future. You know, we always think about future you as well, right? And so we weren't thinking about investing when we bought our first properties, you know, and our food on the ladder. Great. Just getting our food on the ladder. But you, you're thinking of future.

Multiple audio: You, you know, I would've thought very differently about how I structured my loans because otherwise, you know, I had limited future options as a result of that. And good brokers won't just get you a loan. They do future proof your borrowing. Capacity. So if you are planning on buying more than one property in your lifetime, it's critical.

Multiple audio: Yep. There's legal fees, council rate, there's ~um, ~there's adjustments too, like when you buy a property mm-hmm. That is owned by somebody else and then you settle, you've gotta. Refund them for a proportion of their council rates that they've already prepaid, right? So there's things like that can take people by surprise.

Multiple audio: and there's loan product fees. There's building and pest inspections. We've talked about strata reports, moving cost, insurance, timing, every payments, all these sorts of things. But, you know, some of those hidden costs on settlements are a bit of a rude shock. And it was like, oh, you need more money.

Multiple audio: I still remember going and having to pay the stamp duty. And I am sure you had a solicitor, a convey answer, but you probably just didn't know that the questions to ask and Well, maybe there, well, conveyor told me about stamp duty, but I'm just saying that I actually, that was after I'd signed. Right? So, and now how are you gonna pay the stamp duty was like the next question after I'd exchanged contracts or something.

Multiple audio: I can tell you that the ninth thing that we wish we knew, uh, that would've reduced a lot of stress is thinking too long term. Can backfire. Yeah. Planning for kids, you don't have yet. I mean, it's good to think about it, but if you haven't even got a partner, then that might be a little bit too far down the track. Pets you don't own yet or a lifestyle that may never happen often lead to buying the wrong property for the wrong stage in life. Okay? You are an absolute case in point with you partnered up not long after you bought your studio apart. Well, that's the next thing that we wish we learned.

Multiple audio: You know, when I, when I bought my, I think it's third property was the first one that I bought with my. Ex-husband and we looked at that property and said, right, well, you know, we're gonna have children and we wanna have a pool and we, we've got a dog and we had all these things. Um, we, we wanna, wanna be able to raise it and renovate it and do all these things.

Multiple audio: We did not do a single thing to that property,~ um,~ and moved out two years later, turn it into an investment property. We probably would've made a slightly different decision if we hadn't been thinking about it as our home for the next 10 years. Yeah, it wasn't a bad property. Mind, mind you, it was a, it's actually quite a good property.

Multiple audio: And it did. My studio story says it all. I've outgrew it practically instantly. ~Um, ~you know, I literally lived in it for a year, then I rented out for a bit and then, then I got married and we decided to buy a house together. ~Um, ~I mentioned before that it was. The banks changed their lending,~ um,~ criteria, which actually meant it was quite difficult to find a buyer for it because no other first home buyer could buy it.

Multiple audio: It had to go to an investor. So there was lending restrictions and ultimately I was forced to sell it, even though, as I said earlier, it actually paid its way. It didn't actually cost me anything. I was really annoyed about that at the time. Uh, look, it tied up some of your, your,~ um,~ borrowing capacity.

Multiple audio: So we were lucky. We sort of had, had some sub. Port there, but it was extraordinarily stressful for a period of time. So, and that was because I was thinking far too short term. Far too short term. And the goal is really to buy at and make me comfortable. Well, yeah. And so the goal is to buy something that works for your next station life, you know?

Multiple audio: Not, not too far out. Yeah. But like, you know, you've got a bit of room to grow, not just this moment. You just can't think about just now, which is what I did. Yeah. Now number 11 is the first property determines the next one. Now what the hell does that mean? ~Uh, ~this is the thread running through every mistake we both made.

Multiple audio: ~Um, ~effectively I made the deposit on a house, right? So that's a long time ago. ~Um, ~but that's what I did. And so that's great. Over, over a five year period, though it wasn't like instantaneous. ~Um. ~But it could have gone horribly wrong. It could have gone horribly wrong. And we, and I see people that do something similar to what I did.

Multiple audio: Trapped. And so we do not want that for you. And I can, and I tell you, I many, many times I look back and I'm like, whoa, my God. It was so, so lucky,~ um,~ that it didn't do that. So, so many first home buyers just underestimate how important the type of asset and the structure, the debt. All those sorts of things determine their ability to buy again.

Multiple audio: The market turned against me, and by the time I got that property on the market, remember this is the four bedroom house with three tiny bedrooms. Mm-hmm. The market really, really punished me. So you can lose money. Uh, and, and whilst I've learned a lot from there and made some much better decisions since then, you can avoid these things by knowing these things from people who have made the mistakes in the past.

Multiple audio: That's it. So your first property is so, so, so important,~ um,~ because we know that nearly all of you, your first home is not gonna be forever home. So therefore it has to set you up as best as possible. So we know that now professionally, we see that play out time and time again. ~Um, ~definitely wish I'd known that earlier.

Multiple audio: But looking back, you and I probably both admit that we wrote on instinct. ~Um, ~bit of naivety. Uh, a lot of optimism. A lot of optimism. We have both people who believe in ourselves and are prepared to back ourselves and take risks. ~Um, ~but it was, we relied on those things far more than we relied on expertise or experience.

Multiple audio: And to a great degree. We, we got lucky. And when we say we got lucky, we got lucky because. It could have been worse. And look, we both cost ourselves because we didn't make better decisions. So we say we're lucky. We're lucky we didn't lose money on those fir that first property. Um, we are lucky we didn't get trapped on the first rung of the ladder.

Multiple audio: And we also both got into property professionally and so we started to learn professionally through also observing other people's mistakes and then realizing how lucky we were, you know, but it could have turned out very different for us. And we don't want you to rely on luck. Absolutely. Do not rely on that.

Multiple audio: Don't need to. And also don't rely on chat GPT because I have put in what are the steps to buying a house. And it is not gonna help you. It honestly, you'll, you'll go in the wrong direction, making the wrong decisions with the wrong information. ~Um, ~you need to take it seriously. You need to put together a plan and you need to learn the process, the steps in the right order.

Multiple audio: ~ um, um, ~

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Speaker 4: Thanks for joining us. If you've enjoyed this podcast, we encourage you to join our Facebook group. It's called Your First Home Buyer Guide Australia, and it's your opportunity to connect with us and ask us your questions, which we will answer, meaning you can make sure that you are not getting led down the garden path.

Speaker 4: We hope to see you there soon.