Rich Harvey

So you've got to write down the location.

Where are your preferred suburbs?

I mean, the first thing you should have done is gone to your finance broker and got a pre-approval and an estimate of what you can borrow and know your budget.

I mean, that's the very, very first thing you have to do.

So you don't go shopping without money or a credit card.

So don't go shopping for property unless you know how much you can afford.

And then write down, as I say, the suburbs, the number of beds, bathrooms, and all the features of the home that you're looking for.

And then start to think about, is it really essential to have that third bathroom?

You know, do I really need a pool?

What is super important to me and what can I live without?

And by writing down those things, you'll then have a much clearer target for what you can actually achieve when you actually start the searching process.

Well, the obvious thing is you can't compromise on location unless you just don't have the budget.

So the first thing you've got to look at is what's your journey to work?

Where is your social network?

Where's your friends located?

Where are your recreational activities?

And look at what I call the travel vectors that you have from where you want to live.

So you can try to optimise your lifestyle by choosing the position because once you choose where to live and you've bought that piece of real estate, you can't pick up the block of dirt and move it.

But what you can do is when you've bought that property, you can modify it, you can renovate it, you can bring it up to speed.

So the things you shouldn't compromise is if you can afford it, don't compromise on the location.