Some property rules sound responsible. Sensible, even. Never buy at auction. Never stretch your budget. Always buy the worst house on the best street. But when first home buyers follow these rules without understanding the context, they can quietly limit their options—or worse, lock themselves into the wrong decision.

In part two of our two-part series, we unpack the quieter property rules that don’t get questioned enough. These are the ones buyers follow to avoid mistakes, judgement, or risk—but often at the cost of opportunity. We explain why fear-based advice creates analysis paralysis, and why real confidence doesn’t come from copying rules, but from understanding how decisions actually fit together.

We break down common advice like avoiding auctions, steering clear of strata, never stretching your budget, and buying anything just to “get on the ladder.” You’ll learn when these rules make sense, when they don’t, and which ones should never be broken. We also share real buyer examples that show how small, informed shifts in thinking can lead to much better outcomes.

If you’re feeling stuck between “playing it safe” and moving forward, this episode will help you see property advice through a clearer lens. Because smart buying isn’t about following rules blindly—it’s about knowing why you’re doing what you’re doing.

Episode Highlights

00:00 — Introduction to Sensible Property Rules

00:13 — Unpacking Fear-Based Advice

02:06 — Rule 6: Worst House on the Best Street

03:42 — Rule 7: Avoiding Body Corporate or Strata

05:27 — Rule 8: The Auction Dilemma

09:05 — Rule 9: Budget Stretching Myths

13:50 — Rule 10: The Ladder Fallacy

16:12 — Conclusion and Final Thoughts

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!

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Meighan: In part two of our two part series, we unpack the rules, our rules that sound sensible, but. Still trip up first time buyers. We talk about why fear-based advice limits your options and how confidence comes from having a framework, not just following opinions. Now, if you've already listened to part one, then this episode will complete the picture.

Meighan: ~Down, ~

Speaker: Welcome to your first home buyer. Guide the podcast for first home buyers who want to feel confident, smart, and totally in control of their property journey. I'm Veronica, and that was Megan. And yes, we are probably old enough to be your mom's, which is a good thing because between us, we've got decades of experience and we've got your back every step of the way.

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

​

Veronica: in last week's episode, that's episode one of the rules. Uh,~ Uh, ~we covered the five really loud rules. You know, this episode is about the quieter ones. These are the rules that sound mature and responsible, and because of that, they're really questioned. Buyers follow them because they don't wanna make mistakes or appear reckless or silly, but even sensible advice needs context.

Veronica: And these ones have probably got more exceptions than last week's ones, to be honest. So our rule number six, that's our first rule of this episode, is always buy the worst house in the best street.

Meighan: this rule kind of assumes that you have the time, money, and the emotional capability and bandwidth to renovate. For some first time buyers, that simply is not realistic. Renovations can cost a lot more and take a lot longer than expected, especially in those first years of ownership where you, possibly stretched yourself financially to with a small buffer.

Meighan: Hopefully you've got that buffer because we always talk about having a buffer. ~Um, ~hopefully you've, able to do that, but you probably don't have any spare cash to do a renovation.

Veronica: The houses are all exactly the same, on exactly the same size blocks that you know that they're all set back from the street exactly the same way. You know, even great streaks can have the house that you shouldn't buy no matter what. Like it could be the house that you know that it could be a street that's, that it, the bottom of a dip in, in front of the speed hump or the, you know, which gets flooded or, you

Meighan: with the,~ um,~ what are they called? ~Uh, ~power box in front of it.

Veronica: I know a fantastic street that, that literally has a power box in it. And it's like, you know, the, the three houses on either side, the one's opposite, you wouldn't buy, right? Every other street. Beautiful. Every other house, I should say. Beautiful. So there's that, you know, that assumption that every best street, every single house is a great one.

Veronica: So they absolutely gotta check that one out.

Meighan: yeah. Rule number seven, never buy in body, corporate or strata. How often do people say this? Don't buy a unit you'll have body corporate fees.

Veronica: All right. wanna avoid strata levies. But what they're not realizing is that strata levies are actually budgeting for the maintenance and insurance and ongoing costs of running a building. And if you own a house, you are gonna have to pay for that stuff yourself. You know? Now poorly run building, that's totally different.

Veronica: But certainly you know the idea that you're not gonna have to pay for things if you buy a house, but you do if you buy strata. That's just naive.

Meighan: And it's a portion that you pay when you're a part of a, a, a group of owners as opposed to a single owner. But avoiding all,~ um,~ strata or body corporate type units that are on on some sort of community title can actually push you into a worse location or a poorer quality property if you are. Only looking at Torrin's title.

Meighan: So if you're not willing to compromise on the property type,~ um,~ then you are going to have to compromise on the position and buying in a worse position could actually be far more detrimental to you in the long run and not actually help you achieve your, your goals.

Meighan: You know, the real rule probably should be never buy into something you don't understand.

Veronica: Yeah, that's a much better rule. Alright, rule eight is never buy at auction. I mean, we hear this not just first home buyers, you know, say this. I've heard buyers at all. You know, ends of the spectrum saying this, what a, this is a ridiculous rule

Meighan: couldn't agree more actually. You wrote the book on how to bid at auction and, buy at auction and, and there's some absolute gold in that book. And, we had campfire today One of our students bought ad auction on Saturday, and she said she was so calm, she was so in control.

Meighan: Auctions are often described as being too risky or emotional for first time buyers, but auctions themselves actually aren't the issue. It's the lack of preparation and understanding. In many markets, some of the best properties are selling under the hammer. They are going to auction, and Sydney and Melbourne, certainly that is the most common way to buy.

Veronica: Oh my God. You know, in the area in which my buyer's agency is,~ um,~ if you say I'm not gonna buy at auction, you are gonna be left with the rats and mice. You are left. There's very few properties that don't go to auction in the first place. ~Um, ~your risk is that you, if you go and look at properties being offered for sale by auction, that you overpay by making an offer prior.

Veronica: I guess auction is becoming increasingly used in Brisbane and also in Adelaide, not so much in the other states. Right. And definitely in Melbourne, Melbourne's the auction capital, right? And, but if you, even if you're in a suburb, this is a little bit in the periphery where there's not as many auctions or in, you're in a city where there's not as many, when the market heats up.

Veronica: Agents start recommending it as a method of sale because it is a way to get picked buyers competing. Now I know why you don't want to do it, because you don't want to compete, and it's also very public and it's very sort of very daunting,~ um,~ environment. You feel like you're gonna be made to pay too much.

Veronica: confidence at auction comes from understanding value and also understanding the process and what's actually happening. it comes from having clear limits, knowing your strategy, doing all of your research beforehand, and knowing what to expect, and. To go in there with a plan. And so that's what our student did.

Veronica: You know, last week I spoke to her at Campfire the week before she went to auction. I'm so stoked for her. She was thoroughly prepared and that is wonderful news,~ um,~ um, that she did get that property. you know, I can only imagine 'cause I see this all the time and you will too, I'm sure Megan, you see what buyers do when they go to auction when they are not prepared.

Veronica: But also you can overpay by not gonna auction.

Meighan: I couldn't agree more. Now, rule number nine is never stretch your budget. Okay? So remember, some of these are just those,~ um,~ casual ones that you hear around the place, and some of these are our absolutely. You must apply this rule, never stretch. Your budget is an interesting one, Veronica.

Veronica: Look, this rule sounds so sensible. And of course you can't take financial advice from buyer's agents either. ~Um, ~but we will. Routinely in our business send clients back to talk to their brokers about their real limit and their real budget because they've come to us with what they'd like to spend, not with what they need to spend and can afford to spend actually in order to buy the property that they actually need for a longer term.

Veronica: But it's quite manageable. I know myself, my first property, I could have taken on more debt. I just took on what I thought felt safe. I didn't stretch myself at all. I should have stretched myself. You know, it cost me more money in the long run because I didn't stretch myself.

Meighan: Yeah. In that circumstance is understanding what you can borrow and then setting your limit for yourself based on your knowledge that you've gained about what your money will buy you in the areas that you wanna buy and the property type you wanna buy. So it's having all of those things together. It's no you saying, right.

Meighan: In increased repayments, and when she looked at that number, rather than it looking like a big number of $10,000, when she looked at, what does that cost me extra a month, went back to have a look at her cashflow, went back to her mortgage broker to have another discussion. She went, this is completely manageable.

Meighan: I'm, I'm fine with this new number. It just felt uncomfortable to me until I really broke it down and had a look at it.

Veronica: The problem is, of course, if you don't stretch yourself and you could afford a bigger, better property, that will suit you for longer the cost of changing over and the cost from having to move in a shorter period of time. Can be huge, can be tens of thousands of dollars. You know, it costs money to sell and buy real estate, as you all know.

Veronica: You're saving to try to buy, then you go to sell. There are selling costs, and then you have to incur a whole bunch of new buying costs. So the transaction costs when you're upgrading. Because you haven't bought big enough or in the right area or, or something that you could have potentially afforded more, that transaction costs will come and bite you in the bum.

Veronica: So there's a number of ways in which this never stretch yourself can turn out to be a really seriously false economy. Now you've gotta do it safely within guardrails is one of the things that we help you ~ uh,~ in the course, you know, the first time by course is because. By buying the right asset that's gonna serve you longer also as a better, you know, quality of asset.

Veronica: You know, that is an amazing investment in your future. Whereas sort of scrimping and staying small and buying something that is, you know, you are gonna outgrow very quickly. that's a very short term solution, is going to give you a short relief to your pain, but long term is gonna cause more pain.

Meighan: As you said earlier, Veronica, the wrong asset can limit your ability to move. It can limit your ability to upgrade, and can really limit your ability to invest later if that's part of your plan.

Veronica: You, you know, you hear all the time. I was talking to a first time buyer last week who was telling me, yeah, you know, my dad or uncle or whoever it was. Just buy anything, get on the ladder. He, he wants to buy in Sydney. Right? Just, just get on the ladder. Just get on the ladder. and there's a lot of that,~ ~

Meighan: ~um, ~

Veronica: ~uh,~ you know, you, there's a lot of negativity out there in the press about affordability and all the rest of it.

Veronica: So everyone feels like it's a runaway train and you've just gotta jump on board, jump on board. And certainly, and that's in Sydney only because Sydney is so expensive. It hasn't had the ramping price es escalation that some of our other capitals have had. Brisbane, Adelaide, Perth, you know, you guys have really been,~ um,~ experiencing some.

Veronica: But I'll tell you what, apartment prices haven't started to move. Not in Melbourne. They haven't. So if you just went, oh, it's gonna get anything, get on the ladder. Oh no, I'll buy a shitty little apartment somewhere. You know, be very, very careful because Melbourne is still, you know, struggling under the weight of an oversupply of apartment.

Veronica: It's gonna be a long time before you start to see some real, you know, significant movement in apartment prices. Not to say it never will happen, but to lock yourself in just by jumping on anything is, is really scary. So getting on the ladder really only works if that first rung is. Solid. You know, if it's full of wood rot and termites, it's gonna collapse under the weight of you and it's never gonna get you to the next front.

Meighan: Alright, so just to wrap up, and we've done two episodes now on the rules and depends part of the rules and, and always we say Yep, but clearly there are some rules that can't and shouldn't be broken.

Meighan: Rules themselves, don't buy good property, right? But understanding them can help you to make really good decisions. So buyers who feel confident aren't the ones that are memorizing advice from other people. They're the ones who understand how decisions fit together for their own personal circumstances.

Veronica: And really, I live and breathe this stuff and I be, I'd be considered a subject matter expert, I think, but I still get people giving me advice on what rules to follow. And it makes me,~ uh,~ usually if I'm in a good humor, I'll laugh. Sometimes I'm like, oh God, I mighty, I just wanna tell this person. Shut up and don't tell anybody else this bullshit.

Veronica: 'cause they're wrong. You know? So what we teach you inside the first time buyer course is the stuff that is right and the stuff that is right for you. We don't give you rules to follow. We give you a framework so that you can make decisions that actually work for your life and your future. And they are informed by these rules.

Veronica: But as we've told you, you know, taken you through these last two ~um, ~episodes. There are some times when you can break those rules, not often, and you gotta understand when you can safely break them and when not to.

​

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.