Sally Tindall

You've got to go and sit down and work out how much you as a combined force can borrow from the bank.

And that's really important.

But it's also really important...

not just to accept what the bank says you can borrow, but to really map out your finances and have a buffer in there to plan for uncertainties.

Like if you're buying with someone that's a friend, you've got to work out who's paying for what when the roof breaks, when the roof leaks, sorry, or the hot water system blows up or strata decide to put up the levees.

You know, there are all sorts of costs that come with a house.

It's not just the mortgage.

It's funny.

It's interesting.

A lot of people want to live where their parents lived and they're looking to buy in a very specific area and they're hoping potentially to buy by themselves.

And the reality is property prices have changed so dramatically across the nation that you might not be able to afford the same area where your parents grew up or where you grew up.

And that's okay.

It's important to, you know, if you want to get a foot onto the property ladder, it's important to, you know, explore all options, understand what's available to you.

It could be that you need to look at something a lot smaller than you had envisaged.

You don't need to buy your dream home straight away or potentially looking in a completely different area potentially.

moving further away from where you work and commuting in or potentially becoming a rent investor and where you buy a property in a different location, you rent it out to someone else and you rent where you want to live.

It's all about thinking outside the square if you've got that dream of getting a foot onto the property ladder.

And this is where we come back to it's so important to work out all the different variables and have a plan, have a strategy in place.

It's never really going to unfold the way you think it might, but at least if you've war-gamed certain strategies and certain scenarios, then you can adapt it to whatever comes your way.

So sitting down and getting legal advice is an incredibly good idea.