| Episode: | E165 |
| Show Title: | Tips on Buying Property in Another State |
| Cast: | Aaron Horne, Patrick Berry, & John McGregor |
| Show Length: | 24 minutes 46 seconds |
Looking to relocate and or invest in another part of our beautiful country? It can seem like quite a daunting task to go house-hunting out of your local area or in another state; This week on the Podcast, the team answered a few questions on what to do when looking for property in another state.
EPISODE TRANSCRIPT
Aaron Horne
There’s heaps of reasons why you might be buying in other states. I thought we could look into why you’d be looking to buy another state and then kind of how you go about doing it. Yeah. Yeah. If you’re from elsewhere, looking to buy here on our beautiful island, or if you’re looking to leave our beautiful island and move somewhere else.
[intro music]
Aaron Horne
All right, guys, welcome back to The Property Pod, your weekly engagement into real estate here in the marketplace. I’m your king of podcast entries, Aaron Horne. Getting that right every week has been letting the world know. So here I am with Patrick Berry, John McGregor, Real Estate agents are full and will probably go in if I keep talking and don’t leave a gap.
Aaron Horne
They won’t get to talk for the whole podcast. This will be just a show where it’s all about me, yet I run out of steam, so I’m going to have to throw to one of the guys.
Patrick Berry
I was really hoping to hit that cricket noise is John if that’s not. Yeah.
John McGregor
Well, I just want it to be that we could be the joker in the face at this point.
Aaron Horne
Because you’ll have to explain that reference to me with.
John McGregor
The what’s the band that the Joker ran the Thief into.
Patrick Berry
Wolfmother.
Aaron Horne
Wolfmother. Yeah, it how does that fit.
John McGregor
Into the case. Because it, the key is.
John McGregor
How well I could be the dance and you know.
Aaron Horne
You’re drawing a really long bar but neither of us jumped on board the arrow to the fleeing.
John McGregor
And I was going to use another roll reference, but then that song started playing a major role with.
Patrick Berry
It. I get it now. He’s basically signed the head lead singer Wolfmother, the Kenny Talent.
Aaron Horne
Yeah, exactly. So no problem. You’d actually had a pharaoh like the lead singer of Wolfmother. All previous.
John McGregor
Lot wasn’t. Well, I was. It was long enough that I could chew on it.
Aaron Horne
Yeah, that is disgusting. Yeah. Yeah.
John McGregor
Like it was just. There’s this, you know, that.
Patrick Berry
Language started strong.
John McGregor
Yeah.
John McGregor
If I had the capacity to be able to, like, have straight hair, I would have 100% and all the things that make me.
Aaron Horne
But nobody gets to choose.
John McGregor
The no.
Aaron Horne
Cut of their hair. Yeah.
John McGregor
Yeah, but this problem was it all me was in the wrong era. Like curly hair wasn’t popular when we were sort of, you know, you know, 20.
Aaron Horne
Okay.
John McGregor
Hairy chest, you know.
Aaron Horne
Well, I remember that. Born out of it.
John McGregor
Yeah. If it was seventies, you know, forget it.
John McGregor
But it was just.
John McGregor
Like a prime was the wrong era. That’s it. That’s all the things. All the things. Anyway.
Patrick Berry
Hairy chest is my name or in high school, but it didn’t work for anyone.
Aaron Horne
And you would be mad. Scott Scarves You know, this is the first episode of the podcast. If you just thought someone recommended this property podcast, yeah.
Patrick Berry
Pilots go back to 170, but I’m.
Aaron Horne
Just going to start at this one. Someone told me it was good for Wolfmother. It made a huge mistake. Go back now. Go back to what you’re listening to. This is not the podcast. Again.
John McGregor
All right, let’s move this forward, heading forward.
Aaron Horne
With real estate talk. What’s happening out there in the world of Hobart, real estate currently hit me with a market update.
Patrick Berry
Oh well, it’s actually been pretty good the last week and a half more showings. I feel like that spring bug has almost bitten. Yeah, maybe he’s just crawled out and he’s found some rabbit. He hasn’t quite latched on just yet.
Aaron Horne
Yeah, yeah. But it feels like people are coming out of the woodwork. The sun’s out, guns out. Get into the market.
Patrick Berry
Martin had multiple offers on a property on Saturday. Last Monday, he was working through that. Matt’s just sort of want it like 10:00 last night where she had multiple losses.
John McGregor
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Patrick Berry
Well, so it’s been a long six, 12 months since we’ve seen sort of multiple offers. And I’m not saying that, you know, we’re.
Aaron Horne
Going to it’s a sign of the times and yeah, jump back straight into it.
Patrick Berry
But it just does feel like over the last week that maybe we’ve just hit the lucky spot and had a couple of properties that ticked boxes. I don’t know.
John McGregor
But it could be. Yeah, but we’ve had a historically though, it’s always September, October, November.
Patrick Berry
Always busy.
John McGregor
February, March, April. So they’re always the busiest months anyway. So in what we’ve had is the slowest market in a long time. But we’re in it’s still in a slow market, but compared to where we were, if.
Patrick Berry
We’re 10% more.
John McGregor
Before.
Aaron Horne
Yeah, yeah.
John McGregor
Like with that said, there’s a bunch of factors to that too. You know, the interest rates have been put on hold several times at this point.
Patrick Berry
So there’s licence being down what that means. But apparently it’s important.
John McGregor
It sounds like we know. Yeah.
Patrick Berry
I’m just looking out for that one guy that thinks we importance to start it today for the first time. Yeah.
Aaron Horne
First time listener. Yeah, I think.
John McGregor
I was chatting with a friend last night and he was they’re developers and he recanted that land sales are still very slow compared to what they were. And, you know, they’ve had large amounts of discounting across different, different sites in order to be able to encourage that activity.
Aaron Horne
So could that be based on that, the cost of building?
Patrick Berry
That’s exactly very much so. I’ve met multiple people over the last couple of weeks and I’m one of them where they’ve got as far as everything’s approved, ready to start construction. Yep. The second guessing themselves. Yeah. Do we build? Do we not build? Do we just buy something finished and sell the block at a loss? Like that’s what a lot of people are thinking at them.
John McGregor
And I think that’s still a lot of uncertainty on a day to day basis for people to consider what they want to do so that a lot of people are still delaying. And there are a lot of people still that are stuck in the situation of meeting to sell before they buy. So I think it’s that it’s really easy to get a couple of really active, you know, active weeks and go, Oh my God, things have changed.
John McGregor
And look, like we said, probably 10% they have. Yes, but the fundamentals across the board in terms of living expenses, etc., and the uncertainty around the just the actual cost of holding property at the moment hasn’t changed. Yes. So so what we do say, though, is no matter what market, there are always people that have that aspiration of owning a home or or those that have to move.
John McGregor
So that activity is always there. But it would seem to us that it’s still going to be some time before it would reconvert into a seller’s market and will stay there. Buyers are a balance for, you know.
Aaron Horne
Yeah, I guess it’s an interesting kind of question just to pose I guess right at the start of a uptrend or perhaps an uptrend is yeah. Do we see it going further and back towards where we were or is it just going to stay kind of balanced? And yet you’re in a mild state of flux. You just had the right properties with because the ones I know that have got offers over the last five, five days, stunning properties.
John McGregor
Exactly.
Aaron Horne
Really, really nice. It’s just like. Yeah, hot chicken offering on them if that was in a position to do so.
John McGregor
Absolutely.
Aaron Horne
So is it just that or. Yeah. Is is there something in the air?
Patrick Berry
I think the key to that is well-presented homes always attracted attention one.
Aaron Horne
Hundred percent.
Patrick Berry
Again. So if you’re thinking about selling, you’ve got to, like John always says, remove the buts. And you’re right, the two that have had really good interest by Martin’s was a very old original home, sort of 70 style, but it was very nice.
Aaron Horne
As a button. It was like.
Patrick Berry
Polished to an inch of its lot, fairly.
John McGregor
Priced for its size as well. Yeah.
Patrick Berry
So there’s I can see people looking at that thinking this is a good place to get into and I can make something of this. Yeah, modernise it, do what I want to do with it. It was in a great area so I can see why that one went off.
Aaron Horne
And then on the other side of the coin, Marilyn’s one. It might be I don’t know if this is a two that doesn’t affect the property. The owner cared so much about how it was presented that she’d gone to Bunnings and found some spray paint and just a few of the patches in the grass panel just so they’d look better.
John McGregor
That’s excellent.
Aaron Horne
What I’m trying to find. As I said, I need a vendor. I said, What’s going on? It is just I didn’t want the grass to look bad.
Patrick Berry
And you were like, I could have just.
Aaron Horne
Couldn’t fix that imposed. I could have just fixed it up and and made it. But she thought about every little factor of presenting the property perfectly clearly. Work, I think was on the market for like four days. So we applied where I thought we could jump from there was I’ve actually got some a question from my partner who sent it to me a few weeks ago.
Aaron Horne
So I’m actually planning on releasing this episode, putting it out into the world. She’s been asking me constantly.
Patrick Berry
Longtime listener of the show.
Aaron Horne
Yeah, yes, right. Listens all the time.
John McGregor
It’s like Abby. Yeah, actually, Kathy falls asleep when she listens to us.
Patrick Berry
Well, I’ve got two friends that used.
John McGregor
To go to sleep at night.
John McGregor
So.
Aaron Horne
When I say mob, I know she sent me this question. It was in like one of her mum chat groups that she’s got on Facebook sort of thing and it was kind of someone reached out asking, I’ll pull it up and I’ll get it right. But she asked me to tell it on the podcast and I said, Oh, honey, I got you covered.
Aaron Horne
Like I’ll talk about it this week.
John McGregor
We just will put a time stamp to let them know where they need.
Aaron Horne
To do any of the other rubbish. Yeah. Listen from now. But basically yeah it was in they talked about Mummy’s group and it was someone asking about buying a house in another state and the question really was is it doable? Like how would you go about it? I’m assuming so. But how? How does one’s anxiety cope? Do real estate agents do Zoom style inspections and has a process of buying in and out of state?
Aaron Horne
And we’ve kind of talked about it in the past and we’ve talked about some presently with people investing in other areas. But I guess there’s heaps of reasons why you might be buying in other states. I thought we could look into why you’d be looking to buy another state and then kind of how you go about doing it.
Aaron Horne
Yeah, yeah. If you’re from elsewhere, looking to buy here on our beautiful island or if you’re looking to leave our beautiful island and and move somewhere else.
John McGregor
Well, I think the first part to that is to consider who is it that’s representing your interests. So if you are doing it by yourself and you’re trying to lean on the selling agent of any particular property, bear in mind that you might end up dealing with 10 to 15 different real estate agents, all representing their own individual properties for their own individual clients.
John McGregor
So the degree of the service and what they’re going to provide for every house is going to be vastly different. You might end up finding a selling agent that actually works with you very, very well that is helpful in answering its questions or, you know, all your specific questions. And then you might find be very comfortable with the the experience you’ve had.
John McGregor
They’ve had Zoom meetings. They’ve put you in contact with local conveyancers or local building inspectors, and you could feel very, very trusting in that transaction with that said, they’re like those friends of ours that had bought interstate previously when they first moved to South Australia and they know they went in grade, they’re from Tassie and the agent at the time didn’t described them to actually pest inspections.
John McGregor
So in that case they bought a house and they found that 6 to 12 months later the damn thing was riddled with termites.
Aaron Horne
Okay, you have.
John McGregor
A small fortune to fix it and test it here. So on the on the other side, then if you engage a buyer’s agent, for example, it’s a completely different kettle of fish. Yes. It’s going that you’re going to have to pay for this service. But in that instance then is that they are 100% in the defence of your, you know, your interests.
John McGregor
So they will do the inspections for you, they will identify things of concern, they will be able to point out things that you need to consider in line with your what you were hoping to achieve. So if you are looking to purchase interstate, you really need to consider how much time you have to invest and how confident you are in making those decisions confidently without with potentially no one who’s acting on in your best interests.
Aaron Horne
Bombshell. So sorry, I tried to jump.
John McGregor
Off on that. Yeah, that’s fine. So.
Patrick Berry
Yeah, perfect. That’s a great way of looking at it because you are you’ve got to make the decision. Is that investment in money worthwhile to have the buyer’s agent or yes. Am I prepared to run the risk? A little bit of money along the way? Yes. Yeah. That to me is very important. The first question you have to answer and what purpose are you buying for?
Patrick Berry
Are you buying to live in yourself or are you buying a business purpose?
Aaron Horne
Yeah, I guess I thought before we go further down the road, what if we just defined like some of the reasons you might be looking to to buy interstate? So kind of the ones that jumped out to me and hit me if I’m wrong or if there’s any other ones, but I was thinking, yeah, you’re either chasing an investment opportunity, you’re looking to diversify your investments and other places all over the place.
Aaron Horne
You really like hunting for a job, look for a lifestyle change or Yeah, there’s kind of family considerations. Like you’re thinking about moving further or closer to family. You might be trying to escape, escaping, might be trying to get closer to them. I know the place that Marilyn sold just the other day, the vendor there is looking to move to Queensland.
Aaron Horne
They’re actually away this past period looking into buying interstate. So it’s a really good jumping off point for them into.
Patrick Berry
And I think that’s where almost if you’ve got the means, it’s a great way to start. If there’s no I think you want to move, go spend a week there and get to know it a little bit better. But you know, people that moved or want to move to Tasmania, they don’t know the difference between Bridgewater and Rosetta or Sandy Bay like.
Patrick Berry
So you need to get in there and literally go and drive around those suburbs and get a feel for what they offer if you’ve got that flexibility to do it, yeah.
Aaron Horne
I think in in the conversation that was had on this Facebook group where this question came from, someone had said, know, just be really careful. I purchased a place in Dover before coming and visiting Tasmania. I ended up thinking that the drive from Dover was similar to the drive from where I lived in inner city Sydney.
Patrick Berry
And that’s a good example. Sydney people who travel for an hour and a half drive. Exactly. And so you look at somewhere like Dover, Oatlands offered places like that. So that’s not too far from Hobart. I can commute each day, but it’s a different type of road. Yeah, they’re driving a highway for an hour and a half and at a very slow pace.
Aaron Horne
It’s a completely different thing.
Patrick Berry
I mean, 110 kilometres through a winding road every single.
John McGregor
Day and often to where your home is and those like, you know, the regional centres, is it they still have all their essentials that they need it very, very close by on a day to day basis. Yeah. But they’re travelling for work, whereas if you buy in regional like an hour and a half here you might not have anything that you need and so everything then becomes travel.
John McGregor
So that’s so I guess, you know we that I know when we’ve had people buy from interstate from here will find that they will you know come in for weeks like right I’m going to look at 15 to 20 properties this weekend. I was like, bang, bang, bang. Can I, you know, identify a few that you have? Can you help me on those and those journey through.
John McGregor
Yeah. And get a feel for that area which in my mind, like if you’re intending to, you know, if you’re training to live there, that has to be, you know, it’s almost like you have to do it if you can, you know.
Patrick Berry
Then flipside, if you’re looking at an investment purpose, then it’s more data driven exercise. Yeah. So online research, figuring out which ones have better rent returns, it might be worthwhile reaching out to a local real estate agency and asking to talk to the medium. Like what you have here. Joe Yep. She might be able to give you insights as to which areas are better to buy in versus others.
John McGregor
Yeah.
Patrick Berry
So when you buy an investment, you don’t necessarily want to talk to the sales agent, you want to talk to someone in the rental department area to find out. And the agent saying this will rent for 500 per week. Yeah. And maybe not even talking to a rental person from that same agency talk to an independent one. Just a.
Aaron Horne
Yeah. So, so the next kind of point I put down for this was, yeah, you research the area, if you can get there, go and check it out. Look at the schools, the amenities, all the things that are around there. Even whether you’re investing or not, you might want to find out whether it’s a up and coming suburb or if it’s one that’s kind of plateaued.
Aaron Horne
The next one was yet find your local real estate agent and maybe don’t just hit up the first one you find. Yeah, that’s what you want out. You know, if you gel with this person, you might find that someone is a snake oil salesman has just. Oh yes, it’s Dave from Tassie. They’ve got two heads in there. I’ve got them sorted with.
Aaron Horne
Oh they might be like oh that’s a live in Tasmania. I used to live just three streets over from your grandma and yeah I know everything about, I know exactly what you’re chasing.
Patrick Berry
It’s like when people tell us they’re from Sydney.
John McGregor
CHUCKLING Oh, I.
Patrick Berry
See this way, people.
John McGregor
I swear at this point it’s more of our clients that say that, Look, if we just found someone from Sydney or Melbourne, they’ll just pay it, they’ll just wait out. That’s not worked.
Aaron Horne
Yes. So search out your local real estate agent and then. Yeah, one I hadn’t considered in my research phase was your buyer’s agent. So yeah, that’s kind of someone else that you can engage with that would get do some of the legwork that we’re discussing.
Patrick Berry
The buyer’s agent. It’s a great option if your ever option, if you’re looking to live in the home or buying it, is investment. You can put their different hat on and really drill into what it is you’re trying to find in your property. You have a duty to buyers, agencies that they have a lot of strong relationships with agents, and they might find something that’s not officially for sale, especially in this market, when people are too nervous to go to market unless they can get what they want for the home.
Patrick Berry
Yep. So there’s some deals that are happening off books because you know, I’d sell if I could get 500,000 for it, but I don’t want to go on the internet just in case. Yeah, yeah. A buyer’s agent might have the perfect buyer for it and connect the two together. And that’s it.
John McGregor
A cost benefit ratio. If you’re if you have to do multiple trips to interstate before you’ve found it has the like cause you’re trying to and then you’re missing appointments because it’s sold and etc. things like, Oh, but I just want to pay, let’s just say ten grand for the services. Well, they’re on the ground and they’re doing that work for you every day of the week, as opposed to you only having 48 hours to fly.
John McGregor
They just smash out 20 properties back to back and hoping you get a phone and you know, a needle in the haystack. And then, okay, well, you know, I’ve done this. Many trips are better by something, otherwise I’m wasting my time. Yeah, yeah. Probably spend more time and more money just by attempting to do that. Work yourself in order to think that you’re saving money, you know?
John McGregor
So again, it really depends, I suppose, on what it is you’re trying to get out of it. And I think even if you’re looking for a house to move into, I still feel and you are using a buyer’s agent. I still think it’s important to visit the suburb in which you’re intending to buy so you can get a very good feel of it.
John McGregor
Yeah, but after that they will be doing, you know, lengthy video tours and descriptions and conversations with you to try and ensure that you are buying a house that you love if you want to, you know, move into it.
Aaron Horne
Yeah, yeah. The video tours is a great jumping off point for the next bit was yeah in that question in the group was it do real estate agents do zoom tours or. Yeah, yeah.
John McGregor
Oh yeah, yeah.
Aaron Horne
Easy answer. Yes.
Patrick Berry
And I’d had a few properties where we haven’t had phone reception, so I’ve had a video chat with them before. Yep. And they’ve said well I want to know this, this and this. And then I’ve gone and filmed the video. Yep. Based on what they were asking so that through to them. So you know there are ways to, to definitely get more information to people easily these days.
Aaron Horne
Yeah. And then on like my side of the marketing fence of trying to create this beautiful kind of video that that happens and you show all the beautiful things in the property, but you don’t want to just know the beautiful things. And I’m not going to be going and filming. Oh, let’s not.
John McGregor
Paint.
John McGregor
Exactly how many of the covered and closing the pantry doors. Yeah.
Aaron Horne
Whereas a zoom one way you can be like look tap’s work.
Patrick Berry
Yes. Doors work. It is. Yeah.
Aaron Horne
Is there are there any broken windows. Are there any of these kind of things that I need to know about? This is a way that you can kind of get across that. Yeah.
John McGregor
And if you’re working with a still a gelling agent that likes that is prepared to put in the work, they will go, they will do that for you. Some may not. But then I guess that’s the thing where like you said that and they just never speak with one speak with multiple. Yeah. Generally speaking, that’s not an option because not one agent has all the properties in the market for sale.
John McGregor
Yeah. Yeah. So but it is just the luck of the draw sometimes depending upon the level of service that you’re going to get.
Aaron Horne
And just before we sign off the last one, I thought about where you brought up the termites as well. So that’s something that we don’t really deal with here in now on our beautiful island, which I mentioned before.
Patrick Berry
Yeah. Are very lucky on that front.
Aaron Horne
So that’s something that you’ve got to consider on the mainland is it has controls or things that are happening in other states. Yeah. Can you run me through what you guys know about kind of what you should be doing if you’re purchasing on the mainland?
John McGregor
Well, each each state has different, um, you know, legislative requirements. So a few of them will have that a building inspection must be building and pest inspection must be prepared at the time of listing and has to be made available for the purchasers to view. Yes, we’re in Tassie. It’s still very much buyer beware with no disclosures have to be made and most of the research is put on to the purchaser to make sure that what they’re buying, they’re confident in.
John McGregor
So each state has different rules in that sense. I guess on a very simple, simple way to look at it, you have to consider understanding the conditions of a property will go through is your your building and structural electrical and plumbing after that, of course, then there is the addition interstate, which is your pest inspection. So termites and Tasmania is unique in that sense way.
John McGregor
We’re the only state where that’s not required. Yeah, but if you’re buying anywhere else in Australia, the building in pest is an absolute essential. So I think by another important thing if you are buying interstate is you don’t have the relationships that you can lean on for advice or you know, recommendations like you would have friends have bought previously.
John McGregor
So even if you are then speaking with an estate agent and they might say, look, I’ll recommend you use this guy or this girl, just go, well, just maybe get someone else to get a second opinion about who someone else might use as well for both legal representation. And, you know, maintenance on that respect as well, because they’re just like it.
John McGregor
Just like every industry, there are different price points and different different quality of service that you may not get on your first recommendation.
Aaron Horne
And this might be a silly question. I don’t know if it is. Can you use a Tasmanian conveyancer?
John McGregor
No, no, no. The reason why I recommend use is because every, every state has its local laws. Yeah. And so you just want to use someone in that state that obviously.
Aaron Horne
The ins and outs.
Patrick Berry
Of it specialises in that.
Aaron Horne
Area. Yeah. Yeah. Now just as you ask us again if.
John McGregor
This is the theory, so I mean, I was.
Patrick Berry
Just going to say but some lawyers have affiliations with other lawyers in other states. Yeah. So maybe you’ve using that. The MacIntyre and Bartlett here in Hobart. You want to buy a property in Melbourne, they might have a law firm in Melbourne that they do a lot of work with. Yes. You can talk to your local lawyer and he may be able to recommend someone in whatever state you’re going to.
John McGregor
Be working with a national law firm who has their pockets. And, you know, look, there are, I think in theory it can be done, but it’s not a good at all.
Aaron Horne
Yeah. And what you’re describing is, you know the local market and be all over that you don’t want Joe Blow from down here being like Tim and that’s what a termites I’ve never heard of those things don’t worry about it it’s well I think it’s moot.
John McGregor
I think people forget the purpose of the engaging a legal representation is it’s not for when things go right, but it’s when things go wrong. So if you’ve if you’ve got someone who’s unfamiliar with the local laws and they’re trying to defend your case, well, they’re just going to be way less effective than someone who knows it in sort now.
Aaron Horne
Yeah. Know that’s awesome. So answer is this is how you can go about.
John McGregor
It can be.
Aaron Horne
Done. It can be.
John McGregor
Done. It can be it’s doable.
Aaron Horne
And it might be something that does provide you with anxiety, but there are ways that you can mitigate those.
John McGregor
Yeah, yeah.
Aaron Horne
Reach out to local agents, find out more about the area.
Patrick Berry
And as agents or as agents.
Aaron Horne
Yes, that’s what I hadn’t thought of. Yes.
Patrick Berry
Utilise them. If you think it’s going to work for you, get rid of some of that anxiety.
Aaron Horne
Yes, well I love it. Hobart Mum, sorry about the start of this episode.
John McGregor
Just skip straight to my. Maybe we could put like just could chop that and put that at the end. It’s probably not a bad idea.
Aaron Horne
Actually my little. I can put his hair in his mouth. Yeah. Yeah. Goodness gracious.
John McGregor
If that doesn’t get the Hobart excised leave.
Aaron Horne
All right, guys. Well, thank you for another fun episode of the Probably thought we’ll be back next week with even more like share subscribe. Even if you don’t like the start of the show the middle bit there was something you don’t say something. It is. All right, guys, bye!
[extro & disclaimer]
