Ep 10. 10 Hacks in 10 Minutes
This episode takes you through 10 property inspection hacks in 10 minutes to help you find a property even during the lockdown. Michelle breaks down the most important things to look out for when inspecting a property, touching on areas such as lighting, storage, air-conditioning, parking, and many more.
Here’s what you’ll learn from today’s episode:
Keeping an objective frame of mind during an inspection
How to inspect a property under a time constraint
What to bring when inspecting a property
How to check a property’s suitability online
Speakers in today’s episode:
Michelle May - Michelle May Buyers Agents
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Please note that any views or opinions presented in this podcast are solely those of the speakers, and do not necessarily represent those of any business. These views and opinions are general in nature, and do not take account of your personal objectives, financial situation and needs. Please consider whether it applies in your circumstances and seek professional advice wherever appropriate.
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VIEW TRANSCRIPT
Hi, and welcome to Buy Your Side, the property buying podcast to help you make better property buying decisions. My name is Michelle May, the principal of Michelle May Buyers Agents here in Sydney, Australia. And today, I want to talk about property inspections. Now that most of Australia is in lockdown and you have very limited time to go through a property, what should you be looking out for? I'm going to give you 10 hacks for 10 minutes. Here we go!
Before we get started, I think there's a few things that I recommend you bring along to your inspections, ensuring that you walk away leaving no stone unturned. First of all, of course, bring your phone and get ready to take lots and lots of pictures and video, both inside and outside. But always be sure to ask the agent's permission. We don't want to upset any of the vendors and tenants, potentially. So do always make sure you get the agent's permission. Now, also, download the Compass app onto your phone, it's free. There's different versions, check the one that you like the most, and check for the aspect of the rear garden or the balcony. Now, here we like to have North or East, an aspect that ensures that you have the best light internally for most of the day. West and South can be quite dark in winter, and also in summer it can be overwhelmingly hot. So check the aspect. And also bring a tape measure because there's some things you might want to measure.
So let's get going with 10 in 10. Now these work for most apartments and houses, so just obviously work with what you're looking at. But my first tip would be to check the internal light, the natural internal light by switching off all the lights of the rooms you go into. Is it acceptable or is it really quite a dark cave? Now with houses, there may potentially be a way to fix this by adding skylights and opening up the windows that are there to make them bigger. But with apartments, you're stuck with what you've got. So be really critical about this because internal light has a big effect on your enjoyment of living there, and, you really need to have some time of the day where you get direct sun into your property.
Hack #2, how big are the bedrooms? Most properties nowadays are styled to within an inch of their lives. I always recommend measuring the size of the bed on display, because to make a property look bigger, stylists tend to go for double or queen sized beds. Obviously, the room will look much grander when the bed is smaller. So check the size of the bed and afterwards you can check, is that smaller than yours? Because if you've got a king size or a super king size, you need to take account for that, and of course also the bed base. A lot of the styled properties tend to not actually have a very big frame, so check that afterwards. But once you've got the size of the bed, you can then check that at home.
Third point I would want to make is the water pressure. How is it? Is it adequate when you turn on the taps in the bathroom, the laundry and also the kitchen, are you going to get a trickle? Are you going to be catching the drops when you're standing under the shower, or is it good? So that would be the next thing I would be checking.
Then we move on to the cooking. Is it gas or electric? My preference is always to cook on gas, you may have a different preference, but just check it. So you put that in your mind moving forward, because if it's electric and you prefer gas, then your next steps after your inspections would be to check out if there is gas to the street or to the building. I know that if there is gas in the street here in Sydney, for example, it costs about $2,500 to get it connected to your house. But if there is no gas in the street, it may be a lot costlier.
Now then comes heating and cooling. Do you see any AC on the walls? Are there any gas points that you can connect a gas heater in winter time? Again, that comes down to having gas at all to the property. So again, you can go back afterwards and check that online. It's very easy, most websites that are gas providers, you just put in the address of the property and it will tell you straight away.
Now, hack #6. Is the laundry located conveniently and is there room for a dryer? Now, not everybody needs a dryer or wants a dryer, but it might be worth checking out if you do. Is the washing machine in the kitchen? They call it a European Laundry. Is that where you want it to be? If it's not, is there space for it to be placed elsewhere? So check for that.
Now, next comes (and this is something maybe you can do after your inspection, because we are talking about measuring the width of the car space), will your car actually fit? Now for most garages, we recommend that you look for a garage that is at least three and a half metres wide. It allows you to open your doors comfortably, get in and out. You don't have to get out, through your sunroof like the Dukes of Hazard, I don't know if you're as old as I am, but they typically used to exit and get into the car through the sunroof. Obviously highly inconvenient if you've got to do that with your shopping and your kids, so 3.5m is ideal. It can be less if it's a car space. So if you have a car garage for multiple cars, in say, an apartment building, something like 2.7m is quite adequate. So therefore, you need your tape measure.
Now, then we look at overlooking, being overlooked in privacy. So check, when you're in the house, are you looking directly into the neighbor's windows? When you go into the garden or out on the balcony, do you have any privacy at all? That's important, because if you feel like you're constantly being watched, whether it's real or not, you are far less likely to use that space and it is something that you will be paying for. So just ensure that you're comfortable with the surrounding area. Privacy, I think, should be a top consideration.
And then when you're out there, either the front or back of the house, also look at the neighboring properties in the street. Do they look well maintained? Are you potentially buying next to a hoarder? That's a big issue as far as I'm concerned. Do the curtains hang neatly or have they seen better days? It's important to not just look at the property that you're looking to buy, but also your neighbors, because obviously, you're buying into the surrounding area as much as you're buying into the property.
Now, we've already come to point #10, that's gone quick. Storage - Now, storage is always very high on the list of my clients who write in their briefs when we get ready to start looking at properties for them. And for me, I mean, I can never have enough storage to be honest, and I don't think that I've come across many properties that have actually ever had adequate storage. But it's also quite easy to fix. A quick trip to IKEA or even Bunnings, or if you want to go fancy and have it custom made, and voila, you've got plenty of storage. But of course, you've got to first check out is there enough currently? Open those doors and check out what's inside, is it just hanging only? Where are you going to put your underwear and your socks? But also, is there potential to add more? Sometimes the floorplan of a particular bedroom doesn't actually allow you to add another cupboard. So bear that in mind and really think critically about "how much stuff do I actually have that I want to put away neatly and tidily?", and then work backwards from there.
I think these top 10 hacks are really important to start with, because what they'll do is they'll allow you not just to view the property with rose tinted glasses, and you can always run through that list after you've inspected the property and look back through your photos and the videos that you've made. So you don't actually have to do it whilst you're there, but then it's super important that you do take the time to take plenty of photos, plenty of videos. Just to remind yourself, particularly if you're looking with a partner that potentially may allow you only five minutes each. So maybe double up, take your phone each and take different videos, you'd be surprised how much detail you'll see in there that you never even thought about. Now, once you've done that and the property still stacks up, I always recommend that you go and have another inspection, because then you can potentially, again, take another video and photo and go through that list and double check the things that you have missed. Because, also this top 10 is, for me, the most critical things to look for, the basics. But there are maybe some things that are not that high on the list for you. You may be not that bothered about having electric cooking, for example, but at least you know what's there.
I hope this list has helped you. We have actually added this hack list onto the website, so go to www.buyyourside.com.au. You can download the list. And we've actually made a bonus list for you too. So extra points for you to really deep dive into the property in those 10 minutes that you've got. I hope it's been helpful, as always, to get in touch. I'd love to hear from you. If you've got any questions, if you want me to talk to any particular property specialist, like a building and pest inspector, a property solicitor, or anyone else for that matter, do drop me a line at hello@buyyourside.com.au. Thank you for listening, and until next time!