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When it comes to real estate in Beenleigh and Eagleby, there’s one name you need to know: Benjamin Waite. As a trusted expert with deep local knowledge, proven results, and a passion for helping clients succeed, Benjamin is the go-to agent for sellers, buyers, and investors in the region. Worth the Waite is more than just a podcast—it’s your insider guide to Beenleigh's property markey, offering valuable insights and strategies designed to position you for success in the property market.
From understanding local trends to maximising your property’s value, each episode equips you with the tools and knowledge you need to make confident Real Estate decisions. With a friendly yet professional approach, Benjamin shares real-world advice, stories, and tips, making complex real estate topics accessible and actionable. Whether you’re planning your next move or simply want to stay informed, tune in weekly and discover why working with Benjamin is always Worth the Waite!
This podcast is brought to you by Podpro Australia. Many buyers assume body corporate just means paying fees, but there's a lot more to it from shared responsibilities to potential restrictions, understanding how body corporate works can save you a lot of headaches. Today on worth the weight. I'll break down exactly what you need to know before buying into a body corporate property.
Looking to stay ahead in the Beenleigh and Eagleby property market? Want to get local insights from someone who knows his community inside and out? Then you've come to the right place. I'm Benjamin Waite and welcome to Worth the Waite, Beenleigh and Eagleby's local property podcast, where we'll be diving into everything you need to know about real estate right here in our beautiful region.
So what is body corporate? Well, in a unit site, You have your own areas that everybody owns, obviously their houses, and then you've got the common areas. Like driveways, gardens, pools, gates, all that kind of stuff. Not everybody's gonna look after their own little pasture driveway, so they've gotta kind of get everybody together, go, all right, we'll appoint somebody to be able to manage all this stuff for you.
And obviously you're gonna have to pay them for that. You're also gonna have to pay the gardener, you're gonna have to pay the cook pool guy, et cetera. So a body corporate is created and essentially all a body corporate is a represent representation of all of the owners. So, if there's three or six, then you can probably kind of work it out yourselves, really.
But if there's 50, or 100, or 200, or an apartment building, or multiple apartment buildings, then it's going to be very hard for everybody to talk together and agree with stuff. So, you end up voting into a committee. And the committee will obviously represent all the owners. So, we then employ a body corporate manager.
So they're an outsourced company, much like a property manager who would maybe manage a rental, but on a different scale. They'll look after all of the financials, the budgeting, controlling the money, taking all the money from everybody, making sure that it's kind of around and kept safely, and then kind of pay the trades as they come to do the cleaning and so on.
A lot of that stuff is done through two specific funds, or accounts if you will. So the Strata Manager We'll collect your fees and we'll charge you fees, obviously, and then collect them and hold them into an admin fund or a sinking fund. The admin fund is for routine weekly, monthly, yearly expenses.
Think, you know, The gardener comes twice a week or the pool gets cleaned once a month or like, you know, it has to be done every seven days or tested or you might have an annual pay for your building insurance or you might get the, the gate serviced on an annual basis, whatever that might be, pest on any basis.
So they're your fixed costs that happen routinely. And then you've got your sinking fund, which is good to, good way to look at it as a, as a savings account. So these are once off capital expenses or unforeseens that might pop up. The pool filter breaks down, you've got a little bit of money to fix that, left over for that.
Sometimes what will happen, or most of the time what will happen is you'll get a quantity surveyor, it's another, you know, another service provider out there, that will come in and assess the complex and go, look, In five years time, I think that the roofs will need to be painted and this is roughly what it will cost.
The fencing might need to be replaced in eight years. So then you kind of, your body corporate manager will then kind of work out what all that will cost and then that's how they work out the budgets. And that will get put away in the sinking fund. So what your, where your money goes is admin. your strata manager fees as well as all those, you know, fixed costs or routine costs, and then you've got your savings account, which is your sinking fund.
Sometimes there are things that pop up that will be outside of the foreseeable scope of, of, you know, maintenance. So there might be a tree that falls down on a roof, or there might be, there might be a building issue, a lot of the time maybe, that might be out of the builder's warranty. I've got one instance where we're looking at the moment where there was a ventilation issue with a lot of these floors, and the floors need to be That, you know, there was moisture trapped, condensation was trapped for kind of 15 odd years and then the wood started to rot.
There had to be a special loan to get taken out. This, in this particular instance, it was like 1. 6 million dollars to, to tear up about 20 units floors in their kitchens and everything. The sinking fund didn't have that. You, you wouldn't, you wouldn't have foreseen that to happen. So in that instance, there might be a loan that needs to get taken out through, through a bank and every owner needs to then pay back that loan.
You would obviously vote on all of this. The body corporate manager would go and get some, some loan, um, options. Get you to vote on those options. Uh, and then you vote on a payment plan. Um, so that cost to pay that off would be outside of your admin and sinking fund. So that's what's called a special levy.
Every owner will have to do it and it's by definition it's special. So it's added on. That's another, another thing to be aware of. They're rare, but they definitely happen. Some other things that you want to know about is, and a lot of questions I get, is pets. Can I have my pet in a body corporate complex?
Absolutely. Again, body corporate needs to approve it. There'll be a form that your strata manager will have. Get a nice cute, cute photo of your pooch. Fill out the form that takes it to the committee. The committee votes on it. Other questions I really commonly get are air conditioners. Can I put an air conditioner on?
Can I put solar panels on? So anything that will change or alter the facade or the outside of the building where some owners or neighbours will see and that might impact their view on, on their property and also your property, that's typically a good rule of thumb that you'd need to get Body Corporate to approve that, you know, via the committee that you've all voted in.
In apartment buildings, you know, if you want to do internal renovations, because there's someone living below you, sometimes you need to have your flooring approved because it might be too loud for the guys underneath. So But you kind of get the idea. There are some really good savings or benefits around being in a body corporate.
One is obviously you got a smaller low maintenance area, other people are looking after it for you. It's usually cheaper to buy into an area, so that's obviously a win too. You usually have shared facilities like a pool and barbecue and sometimes gyms and that kind of stuff. But also there's cost savings.
Typically, depending on the body corporate, then you might not need to pay insurance, or building insurance, because that would be part of your administrative fund. Pest maintenance, so by law, body corporates need to do an annual pest check, so that's one less thing you need to do. You've got, really, all you need is the contents insurance, because what's inside is yours, and you want to obviously insure that, but anything kind of externally, body corporate looks after that.
So, it can be A little bit cheaper in that respect. And also it can be, you know, a really great option to just lock and leave. So downsizes are loving moving into, you know, apartments and body and. townhouses because it allows them the ability to lock up and then leave and know that their garden's not going to be overgrown because you've got the garden to look after it.
Some other things to look out for when you're assessing a property in a body corporate. You want to have a look at the sinking fund. Is there enough in the sinking fund that you're happy with? If there's not stuff in the sinking fund right now, have they done some capital works that has kind of used some of the money from the sinking fund?
And that's okay if they've done it because they've planned for it. So that's a well run body corporate. I think red flags are if the body corporate is too cheap. It sounds good on paper, but you're probably not saving enough for the rainy day. So that's probably a red flag that I'd have a look at. Also, parking is always a bugger in body corporates.
So, have a look at that. Have a look at that and how people park. Bin storage is always, always a nightmare too. There will be bylaws and there'll be laws for each body corporate on where you can store these things and what you can do and what you can't do. So be aware of that too. There's a lot of laws coming in now around body corporate searches that weren't around.
You can't start to look at some of this stuff. Your solicitor or your conveyance will be able to help you with all this. So, ultimately Body corporates don't need to be as scary or as intimidating as what you first thought. They definitely add value, they have their place in the market, and they can save you some time and energy.
Just do your homework. Buying into a body corporate property can be a great move, but only if you understand what exactly you're signing up for. If you're thinking about purchasing a townhouse or unit in Beenleigh Eagleby, Let's review the body corporate reports together and the bylaws to ensure that you're making an informed decision.
Get in touch with me at LJ Hooker Beenleigh lee or benjaminwaite. com. au And thanks again for tuning in to Worth the Wait. And remember, when it comes to real estate, It's always worth the wait.
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