Nicole Haddow

different property developments seminars and things like that so how can young people avoid these traps I think doing an extensive amount of research is key I know that in my case I was lucky to have my dad who's obviously a trusted person to get financial advice from and

If you don't have those kind of key financial people in your life, I encourage you to talk broadly to people in your network, people who've already entered the property market.

Getting advice from someone who's already been recommended by someone else is a really good start.

In terms of property developers, the off the plan thing is really tempting often and not all developers are the same.

They're not all shoddy.

But what you essentially want to be doing is making sure you're buying in an area that makes financial sense for you and is also a good investment.

It's harder to know how that's going to play out when you're buying off the plan.

I don't want to say don't do it, but I do say to everyone who asks you really need to do your research, talk to a lot of people.

When I was looking, I talked to all sorts of people, people who'd bought off the plan, people who'd bought existing properties, people who'd bought regionally.

Those conversations were really valuable in helping me work out what my decision should be.

Mortgage brokers, buyers, agents, a lot of these people will give you a one-off consultation.

The more conversations you have and the broader your knowledge base, the better you are.

That's exactly it.

I mean, I never intended to buy in Mordialloc and when I was starting to look, Mordialloc wasn't even on my radar.

I wanted to buy in Richmond and that just wasn't feasible for me from a growth perspective and from a cost perspective.

So then I had to cast my net a little bit wider and

And that was a result of talking to people in the industry, finding out which suburbs are on the up and where was a wise place to invest and take the emotion out of it and work out what was the best for me long term.

Absolutely.

I think don't underestimate your network of family and friends who have bought property because they have lived experience and they'll tell you things that may not even have occurred to you purely as a result of the experience that they've had.

I certainly hadn't prepared for all of those extra expenses.