Nicole Haddow

I don't live there anymore.

It's pretty basic.

But I loved it.

you still need to work out whether you can pay the mortgage, whether you can pay the rates, whether you can pay the body corporate.

There are a lot of challenges that came for me with that first year of home ownership.

So doing all the numbers, not just the mortgage, the bills, your food,

your social life if you plan to have one.

You need to factor all of those things in because it's really, really difficult in that first year.

You can look at that mortgage number and go, oh, I can afford a two-bedroom apartment.

Can you afford to eat after you've paid your mortgage?

That's the question.

Buying in the right location is really, really important.

So part of my resetting expectations was about looking in a high-growth area.

So I bought in a suburb called Mordialloc.

about 25 kilometres out of the CBD, not far from the beach.

70s block, it's not that cool.

There's only six of them, but very unusual property type in that street.

It's the only block of units in the street.

Mordialloc was flying under the radar at that time.

The average property price in Mordialloc for a two-bedroom apartment, which is what I've got, is now circa $450 up to $500, depending on the quality of your property.